A Wollongong emergency department patient has described her "horrendous" wait for treatment over the weekend, detailing how people were lined up on the floor and asked to go home if possible due to "extensive" wait times and a lack of beds.
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"There were people sitting all over the floor, it was just horrendous," Figtree resident Catriona Fell said.
"The lady next to me said she was waiting from 5pm the night before with a cardiac condition. And there was someone in there who was bleeding from the head with a concussion - they said to me 'oh can you just make sure she doesn't fall asleep'.
"So you had people tending to other people. Every time I've been in there it's been busy, but that was the worst I've seen it."
Ms Fell was in the ED for treatment for third degree burns from dropping a Thai green curry over her left arm and leg the previous week.
After seeing her GP twice and having an allergic reaction to the bandages was sent to the emergency department for treatment.
"It looks like I've taken a cheese greater to my arm. I first went in on Tuesday and saw one of the nurse practitioners who dressed the wound and told me I had to go back every second day," she said.
"I went back in Thursday, waited two hours and it was all done, so then I went back in at 11am Saturday because it had been another two days. I ended up waiting 7.5 hours."
"I'm a diabetic and allergic to sugar, so I couldn't eat anything in the vending machines. But they did give me a sandwich after waiting so long."
While she says her own experience was draining, Ms Fell said she was most struck by the sheer number of people waiting for a long time.
"There were people having to take it in turns to sit down, so younger people standing up giving older people seats, and nurses were asking that support people please stand up so that people waiting to be treated could sit down," Ms Fell said.
"At one stage a doctor managing the ER came out, with another two staff members, and they said basically if you don't need to be here, go home and come back tomorrow or go to your own GP because there will be an extensive wait, we have absolutely no beds.
"He also said if you are here with two support people can we ask that one support person stays only, unless you're a parent with a young child who needs two support people."
Ms Fell's experience is similar to a number of Wollongong residents who have contacted the Mercury in recent weeks amid reports of longer waiting times and increased pressure on the health system.
Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District Chief Executive Margot Mains confirmed that, in recent weeks, there had been "sustained high demand for emergency care and hospital admissions, along with considerable staff unavailability due to COVID-19 exposures, which is having an impact, particularly at Wollongong".
"During busy times, those with less urgent conditions will experience longer wait times when there are high numbers of seriously unwell patients being prioritised for emergency care," she said.
"We thank people for their understanding and patience as our committed staff work to ensure everyone who presents to our hospitals receives safe, high-quality care as quickly as possible."
According to data released last week there's a roughly one in two chance that patients will wait more than four hours to leave the Wollongong ED, while ten per cent of patients waited 11 hours and 25 minutes.
The latest quarterly figures from the Bureau of Health Information shows that 49.4 per cent of patients at Wollongong ED waited for longer than the state benchmark of four hours, which was the sixth worst result in the state, but represented an improvement from the same time in 2020.
On average, people left the ED after three hours and 55 minutes, which was nine minutes quicker than the average from October to December 2020 but longer than the average time for similar hospitals across the state.
71.6 per cent of Wollongong ED patients started treatment "on time", which was better than the average (66.8 per cent) for hospitals of a similar size.
However, the figures also show that only 50.1% of the most serious patients, classified as "emergency" started treatment on time, a drop of 15.4 percentage points. At the top end, some emergency patients waited 26 minutes for treatment to start.
Labor's health spokesman Ryan Park said he planned to raise the ongoing emergency department issues with the local health district.
"It's clear we have a system locally that is in crisis and our hard working nurses, doctors and health workers need additional support, if that's in terms of additional space or funds, then that should be made available as quickly as possible," he said.
"Wollongong is getting to the stage where it is under enormous pressure time and time again, and we're seeing very high numbers of people accessing the emergency department.
"We can't weekend after weekend, time after time, see these stories and figures and not have the government look at what we can do to assist."
Ms Mains said the health district was developing "comprehensive and around-the-clock strategies to manage these periods of significant demand".
This included increasing bed capacity at Wollongong Hospital where possible, ensuring that all available clinical staff were deployed to frontline care areas with the highest demand and bolstering support in the emergency departments.
"Our staff continue to work tirelessly to care for our community, as they have in the face of the many challenges presented over the past two years," she said.
"I want to remind our community that people should never hesitate to call an ambulance or seek direct treatment from ED if they or a loved one are seriously unwell or injured; that is the primary focus of the ED.
"If you aren't seriously unwell, please consider visiting a medical centre, your GP or contact HealthDirect on 1800 022 222 anytime (24 hours, 7 days a week) for free health information and advice."
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Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
