Hospitals in NSW accused of 'cooking the books'

Some hospitals in New South Wales have been accused of 'cooking the books'.

According to the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine some public hospitals change their records to make emergency patient treatment times seem faster.

As a result of allegations that triage times had been altered to meet department targets, Gosford Hospital, on the central coast, and Ryde Hospital, in Sydney's north-west have both been audited by the Health Department.

The audit has revealed and confirmed one case of altered records at Gosford Hospital and the case has subsequently been referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

College vice-president Dr. Sally McCarthy says managers are being pressured into altering hospital records and the audits have not been released to staff who first raised the issue.

Dr. McCarthy says in some instances people are virtually bullied on a daily basis into reporting figures which reflect what is expected rather than the true situation.

Dr. McCarthy says the practice makes it impossible to determine how stretched emergency departments really are and she blames a culture produced by NSW Health which encourages managers within the hospital system to submit falsified, massaged or inaccurate figures.

McCarthy says there is an awareness of widespread negative and inappropriately intense pressure to produce what looks good which appears to be easier than confronting NSW Health with the true state of performance in the emergency departments.

NSW Health Department has denied any 'cooking of the books' and says their internal and independent external audits confirm that the practice is not widespread across the system.

NSW Health says the College of Emergency Medicine guidelines are used as the yardstick of how well the system's performing, and it shows performance is currently better than ever.