"Excessive waiting time and facilities upgrade"

My 90 year old parent was taken by ambulance to Maroondah Hospital recently. The ambulance arrived at the hospital at about mid-morning. I was contacted by one of the paramedics after midday to say that my parent was in the waiting room sitting in a wheelchair waiting to be seen by a Doctor. I arrived at the hospital shortly after 2.30pm and was told that parent was in the treatment area and they would bring them back into the waiting room shortly. About an hour later, my parent was wheeled back into the waiting room and we were told that someone would be out soon to take them for an x-ray. This happened about 20 minutes later and after this, my parent was returned to the waiting room. We waited for well over an hour before another staff member came out to finally take them to a bed in the Emergency Department treatment area which I believe was around 5pm. By this time, my parent had been in the ED for over 5 hours sitting in a wheelchair whilst feeling just awful - stiff, aching and their bottom completely numb - they were unable to walk around due to their feeling so poorly.

I am not saying that my parent did not receive attention, nor care and I fully understand just how busy and overworked the ED is at Maroondah Hospital, being one of only three Emergency Departments available for a colossal area of suburbia in the outer north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

However for a 90 year old to be taken into a hospital by ambulance (even though my parent was not in a critical condition, they were extremely unwell) to then be taken into the waiting room to wait for further care is, I feel, just not right. They were also taken from the waiting area and returned to it a couple of times between assessments/treatments, being exposed to new people consistently coming through the doors with goodness knows what ailments which I believe could potentially harm my parent further? This practice, I believe is just wrong.

I do not believe that any person, once they have been in the treatment area, should be taken back out into the general waiting room where more sick and injured people have entered. I am perfectly aware that this is not a perfect world and know, especially in the past couple of years, that our medical professionals and hospitals are doing their very best with what they have.

But in my opinion, what they have at Maroondah Hospital Emergency Department is a deplorable working environment that desperately needs updating. It seems the waiting room has no space for the supposed 1.5m social distancing rule that is still required - seating is definitely not 1.5m between each person; old very uncomfortable seating; scarred and stained dingy walls; a dirty floor; and lastly I feel it is so depressing to sit in that environment for hours and hours and hours, especially when you are ill, injured and worried.

When I left the ED shortly before 8pm my parent was still in an ED bed waiting for a bed on a ward. I am not sure when they were taken up to a ward but even if it had been shortly after I left (I highly doubt it) I believe my parent would have been in the ED area for going on 9 hours plus.

Clearly based on this experience, protocols need to be revisited in this Emergency Department as I feel this kind of wait time for a 90 year old should not be happening nor should it be allowed to happen. Actually, I believe no one should have to wait that length of time in an Emergency Department.

Again, I am fully aware that any improvements take a lot of funding not to mention time but to my knowledge, another hospital nearby was given a huge facelift and was updated in the last few years so when will it be Maroondah's turn? I do not believe the ED area at Maroondah has had much done to it in years, as I am sure when I was there with a friend many years ago, the waiting area was exactly as it is now.

I believe this hospital needs something done urgently considering just how much housing expansion is occurring in these outer north-eastern suburbs. Plus once the Kinley Estate in Lilydale is fully operational and occupied, Maroondah Hospital being the closest of the three ED's that service this vast area, will be woefully inadequate to cope in my opinion, especially as just this one estate is slated to have around 3,200 new homes!

Perhaps this story will be read by the powers-that-be who decide on funding etc. and maybe something will be done to improve working conditions for what seems to be our overwhelmed medical professionals and medical administrative personnel, not to mention the waiting conditions for poor, unwell or injured persons.

But, I highly doubt it, considering that these same powers-that-be seem to feel that rearranging our roadworks, extremely badly in my opinion and with little or no thought to traffic patterns/flow, take precedent over people's health and well-being!

In conclusion, I would like to thank the ED medical professionals and administrative personnel for all their dedicated work, ethics and patience in having to deal with the sick and injured in what seems to be such a deplorable environment.