"Hospital resourcing"

A colleague of mine had a work accident earlier this year.  The day after the accident they had difficulty holding their head up and had to use their hand to keep it up.  They had many doctors and physio appointments but no one seemed to be addressing the issue.  The next month they were having difficulty eating and speaking.

A couple of weeks after they attended the emergency department but were sent home with the doctors saying there wasn't anything they could do for my colleague.  I don't know what they told the doctors so can't comment on why they were sent home. My colleague was declining rapidly.  We organised a police health check on them that day but all they did was ask if my colleague was OK and left. 

I went to their house to do a welfare check and took them back to the Emergency department.  They did tests, put my colleague on a drip and admitted them. The staff were unsuccessful in inserting a feeding tube. 

My colleague was flown to the Intensive Care Unit at Fiona Stanley last month where they inserted breathing and food tubes. A few weeks later they were deemed medically stable enough to be discharged and are staying with family in Perth so they can continue to receive infusions and health care. 

As I understand it, if my colleague returned to Kalgoorlie they would be readmitted to the hospital as there aren't the facilities to cater to their care.  Recovery time is unknown.  In my opinion, this would not have happened if the Kalgoorlie Health campus was sufficiently resourced.  I believe it is not.  I feel the hospital staff are constantly overworked and regularly abused.  There are not enough beds on the ward to admit patients to. 

We are a six hours drive away from the nearest major hospital and I believe Kalgoorlie deserves better as it's a high risk town consisting of mainly mine workers.  I don't blame the Kalgoorlie staff.  I blame the politics for downgrading the hospital to a health campus.  In my opinion, it won't be long before we are reading about a death that could have been prevented.