Telstra restored the hospital’s landline yesterday.

Doctors and clinicians had been forced to use mobile phones with poor reception inside the hospital to keep in touch with the outside world. 

“[Telstra’s effort] is too little, too late,” hospital CEO Brett Dennett said.

The service restoration ends what Mr Dennett described as a farcical period for the hospital.

In one instance a doctor had to leave his patient inside the hospital while he went to the car park for mobile phone reception to call John Hunter Hospital to arrange a transfer.

Normally a doctor could make this call in the theatre or in the ward beside the patient’s bed.

To handle calls that normally came through the main switch the hospital bought 11 new mobile phones for the various wards and surgical theatres.

All calls to the hospital had to be diverted to one mobile phone kept in the front foyer.

Callers were then asked to call one of 11 mobiles, depending on which section of the hospital they needed.

“We’ve got one mobile phone acting as the switch for the entire hospital,” Mr Dennett told the Mercury on Monday.

“[But] if someone rings up the hospital they have to be told to hang up and call back a certain number.”

Mr Dennett said his doctors had doubted hospital management because the delays and Telstra’s advice seemed outrageous.

Telstra first told Mr Dennett the technicians did not have permission to access the broken cable and three days later told him the break was under flood water. 

Then Telstra told Mr Dennett it would not have the right cable in stock to mend the break until this week.

“I just hope the damage [to our reputation] isn’t irreparable,” Mr Dennett said.

“We’ve even had patients and their family abuse staff.”

Telstra Country Wide area manager Chris Cusack said up to 200 additional technicians had been drafted to assist in the region but had faced major challenges.

“These repairs are often complicated and can take time to complete,” he said.

“In some cases we require traffic management approval in place, given the proximity to the highway, in others we have to wait for flood water to subside so that our staff can safely access the cables that require repair.”