"No Beds"

I was recently in Albany Emergency Department, and think the no beds situation is atrocious. The first hurdle was getting inside, to receive medical treatment, because the ED was so full of admitted ward patients there was no room to put the new patients. For myself and others, our Dr consults and treatment was being commenced in the waiting room, because there was no where to put us. And no privacy!

Once I did eventually get inside, I could see that patients lined the corridor, on beds/trolleys and chairs. I was told that some patients were in chairs because the hospital had physical ran out of beds (not just bed spaces but actual beds). Luckily, I was well enough to not get admitted. Because I believe I never would have made it to Ward anyway, due to no availability.

I had heard about people being stuck in emergency due to no beds on the ward, but I had always thought it was for a few extra hours etc. From what I understand, there were patients that had been stuck in that ED for days!!! For days, in the emergency department, waiting for a bed to come available.

The nurses and doctors were doing amazing, trying their best to give everyone the care they needed, but you can only do so much when there is no space to put anyone. The nurse I had also let me know that they were short staffed and there was no free nurses to look after those patients that lined the corridor.

You could tell they were so defeated and spread far too thin in my opinion. Imagine living in Australia and going to hospital for healthcare and spending 3 days stuck in the emergency department, waiting for a bed. When did this become the normal for our country? There needs to be more outrage about this. What is being done about it? Surely this is dangerous and not in the patients best interests? I believe it’s a disgrace what is happening.