Latest news with #WestmeadHospital
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Sydney M4 crash: Major traffic delays after motorcyclist is struck by a police car
A motorbike rider has died in a horror crash on the M4 Motorway after he was struck by two cars including a police vehicle. The motorcyclist was travelling east along the M4 near Church Street at Parramatta, in Sydney 's west, when he collided with a white sedan at about 2am on Wednesday. He rider was thrown from his bike and onto the road when a marked police vehicle, from Cumberland Police Area Command, then struck into him. Police immediately started CPR until paramedics arrived at the scene. The man, who was yet to be identified, was rushed to Westmead Hospital but could not be revived. The driver of the sedan and a male Senior Constable were also taken to Westmead Hospital for mandatory testing. 'The police vehicle was not on urgent duty and did not have lights or sirens activated at the time,' NSW Police said. 'There had been no interaction with and no pursuit of the motorcyclist or any other vehicle. 'Initial information is the officers were returning to the station when the incident occurred.' Police have established a crime scene and a critical incident team, including officers from Auburn Police and the Crash Investigation Unit, are investigating the incident. The investigation will be subject of an independent review by the Professional Standards Command and oversight by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission. A report will be prepared for the Coroner. Investigators are at the scene and have closed all eastbound lanes between Cumberland Highway and Burnett Street in Merrylands. There is no forecast of when the road will reopen, with motorists being urged to avoid the area. Heavier vehicles should use the Cumberland Highway, Great Western Highway, Church St, Parramatta Rd, and James Ruse Dr to return to the motorway. According to Live Traffic, congestion is banked up to Huntingwood.
News.com.au
5 hours ago
- News.com.au
Motorcyclist dead, traffic chaos after horror crash on M4 in Sydney
A man has died after being thrown from his motorcycle and then struck by a police car on Sydney's M4. The horror collision has sparked traffic chaos on the motorway on Wednesday morning. Police say the motorcycle collided with a white sedan on the M4 near Church St at Parramatta shortly before 2am, with the impact throwing the rider to the road. The man was then struck by a marked police vehicle. Police officers performed CPR before paramedics arrived on the scene, with the man rushed to Westmead Hospital. He could not be revived and is yet to be formally identified. The driver of sedan – a man whose age is yet to be identified – and a male senior constable were taken to the same hospital for mandatory testing.
Daily Mail
18 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Aussie woman's horror 25 hours in an emergency department waiting room exposes the huge problem with our healthcare system
A young woman has documented the 25 hours she spent by her ailing mother's side as she desperately waited for a bed in a Sydney emergency department. Ella Jae, 22, shared a video of her time in the waiting room of Westmead Hospital, in Sydney's west, to social media last week. She said her mother, who was suffering health problems after having an abscess removed, and elderly patients were forced to endure an entire day and 'freezing' night in the hospital before being given a bed. She started filming about four hours into her wait, at 10pm. 'The amount of people in this waiting room is absolutely crazy,' she said while sitting outside the hospital, rugged up in a hoodie and tracksuit pants. 'I feel terrible for all of them because there are people that have been waiting for 12 hours.' It would be another 21 hours before her mother was given somewhere to lie down, after an entire night and day of agony. 'I've never had an experience like this before,' Ms Jae said at the 22-hour mark. 'Pretty devastated at the Australian government right now.' Ms Jae shared various updates throughout the night, such as at the 1.30am mark where she had to renew her parking, and said her mum was given some pain relief. She provided another update at 2.30am and one at 4.30am, wrapped in blankets, where she said her mother was finally seen by a doctor but had to return to the waiting room. More hourly updates were given until her mother was finally taken in, more than a day later. The video casts doubt over efforts to tackle the state's overstretched public hospital system, including a recent $900million redevelopment of Westmead. Half the emergency patients at Westmead waited at least 6.5 hours in July to September last year, the longest in the state, according to hospital data. The problem is even more pronounced in mental health emergency care, with one schizoaffective patient reportedly waiting 93 hours for a bed at the hospital in April. He was forced to wait alongside two other men - one with paranoid ideation and another with schizophrenia - who reportedly waited 88 hours and 86 hours for beds. Their stories were the subject of a June expose by the ABC's Four Corners program. It comes after distressing images emerged of elderly patients lying on the floor of Blacktown Hospital, some waiting hours while in pain. Among them was Raymond, a 70-year-old man, who presented to the western Sydney hospital's waiting room on Saturday with severe diarrhoea and life-threatening haemoglobin levels. Despite his condition, he spent more than 24 hours waiting for a bed - much of it trying to sleep on the cold, hard vinyl floor of the waiting room in excruciating pain. His daughter Hayley took a photo of him during the agonising wait and shared it with 2GB Breakfast host Ben Fordham. She also shared a photo of another elderly man, 80, sleeping on the floor, wrapped in a blanket. The man had already been waiting for a bed for at least 12 hours. 'No one wants to see the elderly suffer in pain like this,' she said. The images indicate little has been done in the ten months since Premier Chris Minns singled out Blacktown as he vowed to improve the state's public health system. 'We'll have to look at Blacktown in particular - there's major stress on our public hospitals,' Minns said last September. 'We want to do better when it comes to health outcomes.'
ABC News
a day ago
- ABC News
Stabbing death of Prabha Arun Kumar in 2015 ruled a 'targeted killing' by coroner
A coroner has found the death of a 41-year-old mother in Western Sydney a decade ago was the result of homicide committed by an unknown person, insisting police continue their investigation into her "targeted killing". Indian national Prabha Arun Kumar died after being stabbed multiple times in the neck by a person dressed in black while walking home alone through Parramatta on the night of March 7, 2015. Ms Kumar was then taken to Westmead Hospital but died the following day. The inquest heard that at the time of the attack Ms Kumar was on the phone with her husband, Arun Kumar, who was in India. The coroner was previously told the husband had been having an affair, had just renewed his wife's life insurance, and changed the PIN on her bank account only an hour before her stabbing. The court heard that police were still investigating whether Mr Kumar may have organised the hit on his wife. Mr Kumar has never been charged in relation to his wife's death, and the person who carried out the attack has never been identified. The mother-of-one was seen on multiple security camera's catching two trains and walking through Parramatta in the lead-up to the attack. CCTV footage released by the court shows an unidentifiable figure dressed in black captured on a resident's security cameras near where the attack took place on the same night. Handing down his findings on Tuesday, Deputy State Coroner David O'Neil said that police considered the most likely explanation for Ms Kumar's death was a "targeted killing". Mr O'Neil referred the case to the NSW Police unresolved homicide squad to continue their investigation.
ABC News
5 days ago
- Health
- ABC News
Patient who waited over 200 days for surgery disappointed with no response from health minister
A patient who waited over 200 days for surgery at Sydney's largest hospital says he is disheartened that he has not received any follow-up from NSW Health Minister Ryan Park since his story was made public. Joshua Maxwell was booked in for an elective open-heart surgery at Westmead Hospital in May 2024, after his body started rejecting medication needed to keep him stroke-free. His surgeon classified him as a category two patient, meaning his surgery should have taken place within 90 days. His surgeon assured him it should not take longer than 45 days. As he waited for his surgery date, Mr Maxwell left his job, drafted a will, and even planned a funeral in case he died while waiting for the life-saving operation. It was not until after he contacted his local state MP, David Harris, that he underwent surgery in late January 2025 — 210 days after he was first added to the list. Mr Park apologised to Mr Maxwell through the media earlier this month, saying the 32-year-old's wait time was "not acceptable". "We let Joshua down," Mr Park said in sit-down interview with the ABC. "It's too long. It's not acceptable, and I apologise to him and his family." But Mr Maxwell said in the two weeks since his story was made public, he has received no follow-up from the minister or hospital management. Mr Maxwell has written a letter to Mr Park, stating he is not "ready to accept any apologies offered". "It's disheartening … I think an apology needs to be made in person or in writing, not via the media," he said. A spokesperson from the health minister's office said Mr Park "will respond to Josh's correspondence in due course". "Minister Park receives a large volume of correspondence and attempts to respond to them as quickly as possible," they said. Earlier this month, Mr Park said wait times in the state's public hospital system were keeping him up at night, and that he was serious about tackling the issue. He pointed to a decrease in surgery list wait times in May, with the number of patients decreasing from 8,587 to 5,400 in May. This year's state budget also allocated $23 million to tackle overdue surgeries, helping to fund extra staffing required to keep operating theatres open. But Mr Maxwell said the lack of contact from the minister made him question the sincerity of Mr Park's commitment. "It's clearly a massive statewide issue and taking it seriously needs to be more than just making a few statements in the press and going back to your office and going, 'here, staffer number two, you deal with it now'," Mr Maxwell said. In his letter to Mr Park, he called for clearer prioritisation of surgeons' wait time preferences and a statewide patient care team for patients on longer public wait lists, doing weekly or monthly checks with patients. "I would happily meet with you, your team, the department, or the hospital to discuss these matters — especially to better understand what went wrong in my case and why no one has addressed it with me personally," Mr Maxwell wrote.
