'Undignified': family speaks out about 'disgraceful' care after relocation of Tamworth hospital's Nioka palliative care unit

The 77-year-old Tamworth local checked into Tamworth hospital's palliative care unit on Saturday. By Tuesday, he was dead.

In the days between, his family struggled to get final, private moments with their dad and grandfather, with little more than a screen for privacy from other patients, in what they described as an over-full hospital ward.

"It's undignified," his daughter, Lisa Thomas said.

"For someone like dad - he's really private - it was heartbreaking and traumatic. It's undignified to throw him into part of the hospital that's older than I am."

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In just the latest in a series of shocking stories from patients and staff of the institution, Mr Thomas' family has spoken out about conditions at the hospital, calling for change.

For the second time this year, Tamworth's palliative care unit has been shifted out of the Nioka unit, which now serves as a COVID-19 ward.

After being taken to the emergency department by ambulance, Mr Thomas was taken up to an ancient part of the hospital, Surgical 3 Ward.

"We walked in there and it's the old four-bedrooms, the old [style] four beds to a ward, that's where palliative care is now," son David Thomas said.

"There's only one TV left, because it's all been stripped out.

"There was a bloke put in the corner, he had a broken wrist. He was listening to people pass away. We had no privacy whatsoever."

The man with the broken wrist was moved after another patient died, but the next day he'd been replaced by another man, shifted from a surgical ward due to overcrowding.

The worst insult of all: a doctor asked his register to get a wooden tongue depressor. They didn't have any, so the aide came back with three plastic coffee stirrers and a stainless steel spoon.

The doctor used the spoon.

When he finally passed away on Tuesday morning, there was someone in the room with them.

The family was quick to praise nurses and doctors, but slammed the health system that wasn't providing them the materials or conditions - or staff - to do the job.

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"You've been jammed into a room that shouldn't be used, it's just a decommissioned room - literally decommissioned ... there's nothing there," Mr Thomas said.

"One of the nurses said, David, you think this is bad, down the hallway they've cleaned out a storage cupboard and they've got a bloke pushed into the storage cupboard.

"The nurse said that week they had four in that room, and they were all dying together."

Tamworth hospital general manager Yvonne Patricks denied any patient had been put in a storeroom or cupboard, and said the ward is "well-stocked" and claimed "staff always use appropriate equipment during their encounters with patients".

"I acknowledge this is a very difficult time for the Thomas family, and we offer them our sincere condolences for the passing of their beloved father," she said.

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Friends of Nioka vice-president Bryan Singh said the charity and lobby group raises about $40,000 a year for the hospital's palliative system. He said the current conditions were "not satisfactory".

He said Nioka had specially-designed very large rooms with special chairs that can lie flat to serve as a bed, rooms and bathrooms at the maximum possible size, and total privacy.

"I would have thought that, given two years, they would have come up with a plan to manage infection control without relocating patients," he said.

NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association New England organiser Nola Scilinato said palliative care patients should be managed in a quiet environment. She said staffing at Tamworth hospital is at breaking point.

"They've got big vacancies," she said.

"I think that people are getting the care that they're getting on the goodwill of nurses and midwives. They work really, really hard to make sure that everyone is looked after, but their greatest fear is that, with the staff provided, that it's not going to be enough. And they worry that they will miss something."

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Hospital general manager Yvonne Patricks said palliative care services had been moved "to ensure the safety and comfort of patients at the end of their life and their families".

"By moving palliative care services further from the COVID-19 isolation ward, we can better protect our terminally-ill patients from potential exposure to COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses. This is especially important as we enter the winter season," she said.

"Our temporary palliative care unit has a mix of single and shared rooms, and we endeavour to ensure each patient is provided with a private room to share their final moments with their loved ones."

Mr and Mrs Thomas said their dad deserved better.

"He was a great family man, loved his son and his grandchildren and great grandchildren," she said. "He just enjoyed being with family."

The couple said they were speaking out on behalf of staff, and to warn new patients.

They want the unit to be put back into the specially-built Nioka ward.

"It's just deadset wrong," Mr Thomas said.

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