Hospital wheelchairs or public art?

You can’t tell if people are sick by just glancing at them. The hyperactive kid may have been on asthma medication – that will send some kids crazy like that. Old people with a sniffle may also have a serious heart problem. I dont’ think anyone goes to casualty with a sniffle – why would you – noo0ne in their right mind wants to wait 5 hours for treatment. You can see the chemist for a sniffle.

One problem is people only go to emergency when they feel they are in a serious situation, so then being told to wait 6 hours seems ridiculous.

I went to Canberra Hospital Emergency on Wednesday too!

The staff were all very good. The wait time of 4 hours was undesirable, but expected.

Rangi said :

Just so I understand your point. You are saying you think we should be happy with crappy medical services because they are better than some countries, but we should be worried about humanitarian aid…..unless we instead can spend the money on art but only if you personally deem it good (being that what people class as good art varys person to person)

Hi Rangi, thanks for asking, I don’t think you understood my point. I didn’t say we should be spending our health money in Haiti (we do that already through charities and AusAID) or our public art money in Haiti. I said we should thank our lucky stars that we have a well-functioning medical system. Yeah, if you cut the top of your finger off you’ll bleed lots – and it’s better to bleed into a bowl than go through masses of bandages. Bleeding hard but not in a life-threatening way doesn’t put you ahead of trauma cases, sorry! Nothing wrong with the bleed-bowl solution. The staff can keep an eye on the blood flow that way. Yep, no doubt the “sick child” wasn’t at the top of the queue.
There probably are enough wheelchairs – it’s just that one was on another floor. It would be a bit rough to expect a nurse to leave Emergency and chase after a wheelchair when there’s one right there that can be vacated. “Enough wheelchairs” isn’t “so many wheelchairs that there is never a moment when an empty wheelchair isn’t nearby” (that would be wasteful).

I’ve been to ED at Canberra hospital twice. Both times I was in a lot of distress and was seen within about 10 minutes each time. On neither occasion would I have been able to wait very long, but the point is that I didn’t have to – the conditions that I presented with were clearly a priority (compound bone fracture and a spider bite that was creating breathing difficulties that was initially assessed as looking like a heart attack). I’d never dream of going to ED unless I was in huge amounts of pain or in fear of my life and I think that’s basically what ED is for.

You don’t say why your dad was there, but the fact that you waited for five and a half hours suggests that it was neither life threatening nor severely painful. Yes, its unpleasant to be ill, but triage is all about doing the best you can for patients in the time and resources you have.

I-filed you said “good public art is worth spending the money on” don’t you realise 800 people have died in Haiti due to a lack of water that’s fit to drink. A further 100,000 risk being infected. Oh hang on you do.

Just so I understand your point. You are saying you think we should be happy with crappy medical services because they are better than some countries, but we should be worried about humanitarian aid…..unless we instead can spend the money on art but only if you personally deem it good (being that what people class as good art varys person to person)

BTW I don’t think it is a scandal that people had to wait for ages or that an old bloke was asked to get out of his wheelchair, and I don’t think the OP did either, I read it more that they thought it wasn’t good enough and I agree in a wealthy country like this we should have enough wheelchairs and/or staff to go get them.

People who really need to be there should not have to wait for hours, like the guy I saw there bleeding so heavily they gave him a bowl to drip into (b4 you ask I was there looking after a bloke from work who had cut the top of his finger off) meanwhile there is a mother there with a ‘sick’young child who was screaming around the room climbing and jumping off chairs like a chimp on speed.

It’s triage, so in theory you will be seen quickly if your symptoms suggest something bad. It might be frustrating but you have to assume that the people who jump you are worse off… which is a good thing.

I opted to pay for my consulation rather than waiting at the Canberra Hospital and it cost me $70 for what was a 2 minute consultation with a suggestion I gargle salt water for a nasty flu/cough.

I can appreciate that people don’t have the money to pay for that, however the Hospital should only be seen as a place people go to treat serious/life threatening injuries or surgery.

There are many other practices where x-rays can be done for broken bones and assessments for minor things etc.

In regards to the wait times:

At first nurses might expect you to be seen in 10 minutes, however when people are brought in by ambulance or patients conditions already undercare deteriorate, that 10 minutes can stretch out significantly. Unfortuantly they don’t have one on one staff to let you know your treatment has been delayed.

dvaey said :

Punter said :

Realitycheck, you were right to have sympathy for the staff at the hospital. You’ll find triage staff are just as frustrated as you by minor ailments presenting to accident and emergency when they should be attending their GPs.

While I have all the sympathy for the staff, they need to understand the patients situation too. The biggest problem I have when attending ED, is being told theres a given wait-time, but that being nowhere near accurate. If theres going to be a 3hr wait, at least be up-front about it. Maybe that might stop the people turning up with a cough, being told theres a 15min wait and waiting half the day.

Sure, they might be times when they get a sudden influx of emergency patients, but its not like we’ve got brand new departments in Canberra, with no data on waiting times, or ability to estimate waiting times.

If you went to a restaurant and waited an hour after being told you’d be served in 10 minutes, youd feel the same. If youre told upfront theres an hour wait, chances are youll accept it (or go elsewhere) and not go ranting to the media about their service.

The thing about a triage system is you may be 2nd in line for treatment but if something more urgent comes in, you’ll be pushed back, and this includes those brought in by ambulance which you may not be aware of. The staff can only do so much for those waiting with the beds and resources available to them at the time. I appreciate the waiting is frustrating (I’ve spent time up there myself waiting with my kids) but expecting the staff to be able to predict what emergency cases come in during the time you’re waiting is asking a bit too much. The decision makers who are able to find a solution to this problem are at a higher level than those across the triage desk. Be kind to them, they are just as keen to get you the help you need as you are.

So many things can be cut to give the hospitals more funding. How about cutting the amount of golden hand shakes for the politicians retiring. The funding of the offices and staff for former prime ministers? Our health system is in very bad condition. The mental health situation is in an even worse condition. Time to cut the money from the politicians and direct it towards our health system.

A nurse asks someone to vacate a wheelchair because it’s needed, and that’s a scandal?

A five-hour wait for a non-emergency, and that’s a scandal?

Reality check, folks. 800 people have died in Haiti due to a lack of water that’s fit to drink. A further 100,000 risk being infected.

Thank your lucky stars that you’re in safe hands and the worst we have is that people with sniffles are turning up in Casualty instead of going to a GP, and they can be triaged to the back of the queue.

The issue of bad public art is separate: good public art is worth spending the money on.

Battlecat said :

Maybe doctors don’t want to come here because everyone says Canberra has no soul, due to a lack of public artwork? At least we’ve got a quarter of an AFL team now.

Probably more to do with the fact that ACT Health’s reputation as an employer is quite widely known, so the department is now reaping what it has sowed. 😉

Punter said :

Realitycheck, you were right to have sympathy for the staff at the hospital. You’ll find triage staff are just as frustrated as you by minor ailments presenting to accident and emergency when they should be attending their GPs.

While I have all the sympathy for the staff, they need to understand the patients situation too. The biggest problem I have when attending ED, is being told theres a given wait-time, but that being nowhere near accurate. If theres going to be a 3hr wait, at least be up-front about it. Maybe that might stop the people turning up with a cough, being told theres a 15min wait and waiting half the day.

Sure, they might be times when they get a sudden influx of emergency patients, but its not like we’ve got brand new departments in Canberra, with no data on waiting times, or ability to estimate waiting times.

If you went to a restaurant and waited an hour after being told you’d be served in 10 minutes, youd feel the same. If youre told upfront theres an hour wait, chances are youll accept it (or go elsewhere) and not go ranting to the media about their service.

Maybe doctors don’t want to come here because everyone says Canberra has no soul, due to a lack of public artwork? At least we’ve got a quarter of an AFL team now.

Shock horror there is a waiting time at emergency and the orderly hasn’t brought back the wheel chairs from upstairs. Quick, whine lots. You pay for it. Pay some more and stop being so cheap.

Are our hospitals full of the same working cheapskates trying to get work certs for free?

Does Canberra really have a shortage of wheel chairs?

Shall we ask impactednurse? He has this to say about how to improve the wait.
http://www.impactednurse.com/?p=161

All the effort to keep impatient people happy may be better spent elsewhere. Maybe nurse surgeries.

Staff ??? We need more Staff?? I knew we forgot something………..

Realitycheck, you were right to have sympathy for the staff at the hospital. You’ll find triage staff are just as frustrated as you by minor ailments presenting to accident and emergency when they should be attending their GPs. I guess they would rather wait at A&E rather thatn pay for a consultation. While I don’t know how it can be acheived, I think Canberra needs bulk billing doctors.

Agree, apart from the claim the hospital is clogged by GP type patients (that’s a common misconception, given legs by Katy and her cronies – the truth is that the system is clogged by very ill patients and there aren’t enough beds for them… but that’s another post altogether). I hope you did, or will, file a complaint with ACT Health, describing what you experienced and how you think it should be improved. They sure as hell don’t listen to the workers at the coalface, but I hope they might listen to you and others in your position.

Maybe you should do a cut and paste of your rant and send it to the ACT Health ministeress. If you have written to the Minister, why didn’t you mention it?

Totally agree. If they’d used the steel in that monstrosity of “art” in the bridge instead, it wouldn’t have collapsed.
Also, what kind of logic makes the government build a multi-storey carpark in Woden and then a SINGLE story mental health building on a footprint nearly the same size right next door? Wasted opportunity to use the space available for more beds, more wards, more surgery rooms.
I guess they figured if there was more of all this, then they’d need to fill it with qualified medical staff too and there’s the real problem.