"Burst appendix"

My husband has recently been admitted to emergency at the RBH for appendicitis. He was pumped full of painkillers and pushed back. He was admitted at 10am and fasted until 7pm and then told he would not be operated on that night. Unable to eat for fasting reasons prior to surgery from 12 midnight, he advised nurses he needed to pee but nothing came out. The next day, around noon, he was in so much pain he cried. It felt as though there was still no concern, and he was given a stronger pain killer. The doctor told him surgery would be in the morning. His fever had spiked overnight. Then at 3pm, the doctor advised he would have surgery within 4 hours. It was 11pm that night before they gave him surgery, 24 hours since he had last eaten. His appendix had burst and his bowel had 2L of water and was about to burst as well because of this wait because they did not deem him urgent enough.  

The take away from this - the 1 hour standard procedure appendectomy took over 2 hours because they had waited so long that the appendix burst and his bladder almost burst as well, and the standard 2-day stay in emergency extended to 4. 2 extra days he was required to stay there when they could have done the surgery prior to the burst and sent him on his way. Because of this system, he took up a bed for 2 extra days, time they could have had another emergency patient in, time he didn't need to wait, pain he didn't need to feel. We went there to avoid that situation happening and the worst case scenario happened. I believe that's a flawed system which needs to be reviewed. I felt that the nurses we saw showed about a 50% rate of good bedside manner and kindness to patients, some smelled of body odour, they laughed and had a team meeting while my husband felt like dying. Surely there is a better way.