"We are putting out fire after fire," one anaesthetist said. "Patients' complications [which] should have been [handled calmly] are managed in crisis." Loading Anaesthetists who have authored emails identifying problems within the hospital have been warned they risked losing their hospital accreditation, the Herald understands. The staffing and supply shortages at the hospital were characterised as "hiccups" and "teething problems" by Health Minister Brad Hazzard, Premier Gladys Berejiklian and the chair of NBH’s medical advisory board Dr Stuart Pincott after the ribbon-cutting on Monday. Doctors who spoke with the Herald rejected in the strongest terms Dr Pincott’s assurances that patient care had not been compromised.

"We are talking about high-dependency care. If anything goes wrong of course the patient is under immediate threat," one anaesthetist said. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video The specialists also rejected the claim by Healthscope and Dr Pincott that only eight elective surgeries had been cancelled since the hospital started treating patients over two weeks ago. "That is absolute garbage," one anaesthetist said. Multiple surgeries are cancelled or rescheduled almost every day because there wasn’t enough theatre staff or theatre equipment to safely perform them, several staff members told the Herald.

Loading "We've had to postpone or cancel eight surgeries on one day," one doctor said. Anaesthetists have called Healthscope’s operating systems "woefully inadequate," one clinician said. "If we need blood in a hurry who do we ring? If there is an emergency 'code blue' on the ward, who goes? Who's in charge of bringing the equipment?" "Our junior doctors are particularly distressed by the situation," one anaesthetist said. Several staff have told the Herald they have witnessed colleagues bursting into tears in exasperation.

"A hospital is such a complex organisation, maybe even more so than aviation. Every little thing needs an efficient system or we have crisis after crisis." An internal email sent to obstetrics and gynaecology staff warned them the number listed on their contact sheet for the 24 hour OBGYN point of contact was incorrect. "The holder of the telephone number has told me she’s a 22-year-old chemical engineering student from Western Australia and has had multiple phone calls asking for [gynaecology] advice, and could we please stop ringing her." Doctors said they made repeated offers to the hospital’s executive to help inform and implement workable systems for both public and private patients, but they were rebuffed. "We said we would come in on our days off, on our weekends to make sure the systems were ready to hit the ground running when the hospital opened but the response was disdain," one doctor said.

Healthscope conceded the volume of patients in the first three weeks of operations far exceeded their estimations. Inside the new Northern Beaches Hospital. Credit:Brook Mitchell But doctors said they had told the hospital operator to expect double the number of patients treated at Mona Vale and Manly hospitals collectively. Several clinicians said they resented being dismissed as ideological oppositions to the private-public partnership (PPP) model. "I financially benefit from the PPP. I want this hospital to be a great success; ample opportunities for teaching, a self-sustaining model," one doctor told the Herald.

Loading "Our concerns are for the safety of patients and for staff. We want to do good work. For private and public patients," said another. On Tuesday, with the backing of Mr Hazzard, NSW Health met with Healthscope senior executive and the AMA to ensure all necessary steps are taken to respond to clinicians’ concerns, a spokesperson for the Northern Sydney Local Health District said in a statement. "Healthscope has assured NSW Health that they are taking immediate action to address all issues," the statement read. "Patient care is front and centre for NSW Health and we are ensuring that clinicians’ concerns are addressed."