Pressure has been mounting on health authorities this week after reports some patients had died alone in hospital due to strict visitation rules which force NSW families to apply for exemptions to see their dying relatives. Brad Hazzard said on Wednesday that “revised guidelines” for hospital visits amid the pandemic were being finalised. In a heated exchange with 2GB’s Ben Fordham, who accused the minister of “trotting out statistics” instead of providing an answer, Mr Hazzard declared it was a “very difficult situation” but conceded “care and compassion” needed to be factored in despite the risk of Covid transmission. “You can raise your voice and yell at me … there are many people who come into the hospital system and what I was about to say, if you will let me do it, is that they also need to be kept safe,” Mr Hazzard said.“I am working with New South Wales Health and with the doctors and the nurses to develop a set of guidelines which hopefully strike the balance between keeping the patients safe, and making sure that there‘s compassion and care.”Mr Hazzard said the new guidelines would be announced shortly but further consultation with affected families was being done first.“What I’ve said to health is, surely, surely compassion, concern and common sense should be at the centre of what’s happening. And so they are developing those guidelines as we speak, revised guidelines,” he said “I was hopeful the guidelines, the recreated guidelines would be actually finished yesterday, but when I saw them, I asked for them to go back to talk to families and consumer groups.”“I‘m hoping now that I might have it by the end of the day or early tomorrow. If I do, we’ll obviously make those public.”It comes as members of the public have voiced their heartbreaking stories of loved ones dying alone in hospital during the pandemic in recent days, raising questions as to whether the guidelines could be amended.Mr Hazzard was forced to apologise at the weekend to a woman who was prevented from seeing her dying mother while exemption paperwork was processed.This is despite case numbers falling to their lowest level since Christmas and Covid-19 ICU admissions declining by the day contrary to earlier predictions the health system would be overwhelmed by the Omicron wave.Joanna La Macchia, 43, was denied the right to visit her dying father Antonio Coluccio, 71, after he was admitted to Royal Prince Alfred with Covid-19 in early January.She begged to see him but was not allowed to despite being fully vaccinated.“I was crying hysterically because I wasn’t able to see him,” she said.Kay Martin missed her sister Judith Dally’s last moments at the Wolper Jewish Hospital in Woollahra on January 23, 2022, because she was only allowed to visit for one hour a day, despite being fully vaccinated and testing negative to Covid.“I would love to have been with her when she passed,” she said.NED-5192-DT-App-Banner
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