That "panacea" of socialized medicine in Australia: Australian news media reports "rough week" as meltdown in governement hospitals continues as manifested by thousands of patients at risk due to insufficient staff to review Xrays in Sydn ey area

Group: talk.politics.misc
From: PJ O'Donovan
Date: Saturday, October 06, 2007 9:05 AM
Subject: That "panacea" of socialized medicine in Australia: Australian news media reports "rough week" as meltdown in governement hospitals continues as manifested by thousands of patients at risk due to insufficient staff to review Xrays in Sydn ey area

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/news/national/patients-at-risk/2007/10/05/

Excerpt:
X-ray backlog: patients at risk
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Anna Patty
October 6, 2007

Excerpt:

"..Thousands of X-rays and other medical scans are not being
interpreted by radiologists in Sydney hospitals because of outdated
technology and a national shortage of radiologists. In some cases
films and scans have been lost. Liverpool Hospital has confirmed it
has a backlog of 4500 images that have not been reported on by a
radiologist. But a radiologist from the hospital, who did not want to
be named, said the number of X-rays, CAT scans and MRI scans not being
diagnosed by a radiologist was twice that..."