John MacDonald: Is the ED in our second-largest city up to scratch?

Is it good enough? When you hear a doctor at Christchurch Hospital say that patients are dying in the waiting room and car park because the place is so overloaded, is it good enough? I’ve been talking to someone who was there at the weekend and saw first-hand how overloaded it actually is, which I’ll tell you about shortly. But is it good enough that we have Dr Dominic Fleischer saying that patients are dying in the waiting room and car park because the place is so overloaded? It’s not good enough in my book. But what’s the solution? I honestly think the only genuine solution would be a second general hospital in the greater Christchurch area. What chance of that happening, do you reckon?   I was talking this morning with someone who wasn’t shocked to hear what Dr Fleischer is saying. Because this person was at Christchurch Hospital at the weekend and saw first-hand what it’s like. They went to the emergency department with a family member on Sunday afternoon. So it wasn’t Friday night or Saturday night, when the ED is, typically, its busiest.  The person they were supporting was “fast tracked”, but still had to wait six hours to be seen. There were other patients being told that the wait for them was going to be eight-to-nine hours. It was standing room only in the waiting area. Support people had to stand and there were people squeezed-in together. Some vomiting. There were people bleeding, with blood running to the floor. A guy arrived with his wife after he’d been lying on the floor at Bunnings for five hours waiting for an ambulance that never came. He had some sort of back injury. Then, when the person I spoke to and the family member they were supporting eventually got through to the ED ward, every cubicle was occupied and the corridors were lined with people in seats, wheelchairs, stretchers and beds The family member they were with had to have a consultation in a resuscitation room, where they were told not to put their bags down - in case they had to leave in a hurry. Another so-called “private” consultation had to be done in the nurses tea room - because there was no other space available. There was even a doctor wearing a backpack the whole time because he was being moved from ward-to-ward and didn’t know where he was going to be working next. So he kept his backpack on and his personal belongings with him the whole time People having invasive tests - like blood  cultures taken - in the corridor. They struggled to even find a wheelchair with a hook to carry IV medication. This person who spoke to me about their experience said they couldn’t fault the doctors, nurses and security. Everyone was doing their best. But it did occur to them, what if there was some sort of mass casualty event? Would the hospital be able to cope? And this person said, based on what they went through, they couldn’t see how it could cope. Which brings me back to the question I asked right at the start: Is this good enough? Is it good enough that some patients are waiting 24 hours to be seen? Is it good enough that patients have died in the waiting room and carpark? Is it good enough? And what would you do to fix it? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.