NSW Health Minister accused of ‘weaponising cancer patients’

The NSW Health Minister, Ryan Park, has been accused of exploiting cancer patients to wage a political attack against public hospital doctors, after it was revealed the Minister’s team fabricated claims that chemotherapy treatments were cancelled during the recent three-day strike.

In a move described as “deliberate and malicious”, Minister Park’s media advisers falsely briefed journalists that 486 cancer patients had missed out on life-saving chemotherapy as a result of the industrial action. The story, now proven false and admitted as such by the Minister’s office, sparked distress across the medical community and among vulnerable patients.

“These claims…aimed at destroying their credibility and undermining the legitimacy of the doctors’ strike,” said Andrew Holland, Executive Director of the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation (ASMOF). “In attempting to do so, the false claims caused significant and ongoing distress to cancer patients… and to doctors, who dedicate their lives to protecting the health of their patients.”

Thoracic medical oncologist and clinician researcher at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse and Royal North Shore, Dr Malinda Itchins, said the false reporting caused “considerable distress” to clinicians, healthcare teams and patients.

“To falsely publicise on a national scale that we have jeopardised the health and safety of the people we work so hard to support… is devastating,” Dr Itchins stated. “To weaponise them during the doctor industrial action and threaten their treatments may be taken away from them is incredibly unacceptable.”

Medical staff across the state were left scrambling to reassure patients that their treatments had not been affected. ASMOF representatives contacted every major cancer treatment centre across NSW and confirmed that no chemotherapy sessions were cancelled due to the strike.

“We note that the Minister’s office has since attempted to recast the dissemination of these fake cancelled chemotherapy figures to journalists as ‘an error’. This is a cynical attempt to conceal their original actions’ deliberate and malicious intent,” Holland emphasised.

ASMOF is now calling for a formal public apology – not only to NSW doctors, but to the cancer patients who were caught in the crossfire of a political smear campaign.

“Exploiting cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy… to score political points and generate hateful animosity against the very doctors fighting to save their lives is an egregious and reprehensible act,” said Holland. “The NSW Health Minister and NSW Government must be held accountable.”

While ASMOF has agreed to suspend further strike action until July 1 following orders from the Industrial Relations Commission, tensions between the state’s frontline doctors and the government continue to escalate.

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