"Lack of staff at Laidley Hospital"

Recently my wife was having an episode of Tachycardia (a condition where the heart speeds up to above normal levels).

We can normally treat this however, on this night, we could not slow it down.

We have recently moved to the Lockyer Valley like so many people from our home town are doing these days, so we had not used the local hospital before.

Having been used to the hospital at our home town, which is one the best there is, we assumed that Laidley would be the same - a country hospital with fast and friendly service, particularly when your heart is playing up.

Not the case at Laidley, when we arrived, we were told that there was no doctor on duty, the nurse had been trying to call to get the doctor to come in to no avail.

Every bed was full as was the Emergency room!

Fortunately my wife's tachycardia subsided and we went home feeling shell shocked at what we had just witnessed.

How can this lack of staff be a reality in a country like Australia in 2017?

This is just not good enough.