"Emergency services"

This was not a situation that I would normally present at the emergency department unless advised to do so. My father, aged 93, fell out of bed and had a nice egg-sized lump on his forehead. The initial response was to visit his GP at 9am, who, upon cleaning his wound referred him to the emergency department of the Prince Charles Hospital with possible concussion/internal bleeding. At 11.45 we presented to triage with the doctor's letter. At 1.30pm we were seen by a nurse who took obs. This was in the overflow area where patients were sitting in a corridor. The section was extremely busy, but the area could be seen as an occupational health and safety hazard as there were numerous patients, ambulance trolleys, beds and inpatient patients walking around! Upon going to the restroom, Dad nearly collided with a trolley that was free standing in the walkway with staff and patients having little room to move; an accident waiting to happen, especially when two patients had sick bags with spittle dropping onto the floor. This is not a good environment for nurses and doctors to deal with patients and often they knelt by the patients to complete the patient history. While waiting I observed an ambulance officer assist a gentleman to use the pee bottle in full view of everyone with no modesty screen; he was just asked to face the wall. This is truly unacceptable behaviour.

When a patient presents with head trauma, I would have assumed that some sort of ice pack would have been offered. This did not happen until 5.30pm, and only when I requested it. My father was finally settled in a bed. An x-ray and scan were ordered. By 7.30pm he had still not been presented with any results, I had to return home to family. At 9.00pm I was contacted to say the results were fine, no concussion and he was free to go. By this stage it was too late for me to return to hospital to pick up an elderly man of 93, who had been sitting for 6hrs with a bed sore on his bottom, had not eaten or drunk anything and who had very low blood pressure. Did anyone think about dehydration?! Admittedly this is not a life and death situation and I am not complaining about the doctors and nurses who are under a lot of pressure, but things could have been handled differently.

1. When you have been referred by a private GP, why not have the scans and x-rays done ASAP upon arriving? When you finally see a doctor he then has some concrete evidence on which to make a judgement.

2. No patients should be subjected to being examined in the corridor known as the overflow area. Surely everyone is entitled to some privacy.

3. A 93-year-old is frail and should not be left sitting in a drafty corridor where secondary complications can arise. If there are no beds, consider armchairs with a footrest.

4. When in triage for an extended period of time (ie 11.30am to 7.30pm) the same questions are asked over and over again with the change between morning, afternoon, and night staff. Why bother doing all the admin work and documenting the incident when it is not read?!

I hope this is seen as constructive criticism.