A father is furious after having to wait six hours in the SERH emergency waiting room to have someone attend to his three-year-old daughter who was bleeding from the head.
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Toby Youlten attended the South East Regional Hospital in Bega late last month after his daughter cut her head.
She had been jumping on her bed but fell off and opened up a 3-4cm gash, Bermagui resident Mr Youlten said.
Paramedics took the girl to the SERH where her wound was “glued up”.
However, three days later, the cut was still bleeding so on advice from his GP, Mr Youlten took her back to the hospital.
“Usually we would go to Moruya, but we thought that as there is a big new hospital in Bega it would be much quicker there,” he said.
After arriving they were told they had around a four-hour wait. Then once that time was up they were told to wait another four hours.
Eventually Mr Youlten told the doctors he could not wait any longer as a friend was watching his son at home, so a nurse glued the cut up again despite him requesting his daughter have stitches.
“But it wasn’t just me waiting, there were a few older people that got told they couldn’t be helped for a long time so they left,” he said.
Mr Youlten said one elderly man waited for five hours before being told he could not be helped at the hospital.
A spokesperson for the Southern NSW Local Heath District (SNSWLHD) said all hospitals aim to see people presenting to emergency departments in the shortest time possible.
They said patients are prioritised on a standard “triage scale” upon arrival at hospital, with Category 1 patients likely to die if not seen to immediately, through to Category 5 with successively longer acceptable wait times.
“At all times, SERH endeavours to attend to patients within four hours and is currently sitting at 82 per cent for the year,” the spokesperson said.
“Mr Youlten’s daughter was assessed as a Category 5 patient and therefore able to wait without her physical condition deteriorating.
“Treatment and treatment times are within the triage policy guidelines. We are unable to comment on the treatment protocols for the elderly man the gentleman claimed he saw.
“We are sorry Mr Youlten was disappointed with the experience he and his daughter have had. If they need to access our service again, we hope the experience will be more positive.”
The spokesperson rejected claims of understaffing at SERH, saying the new hospital is busy, but there was no restriction on filling established positions.
They wouldn’t comment on recent allegations by the Health Services Union of understaffing within the cleaning services, saying cleaning and catering is provided by a contracted third party over which SNSWLHD has no jurisdiction.
