Emergency rooms in New South Wales have been in crisis due to chronic funding and staff shortages.
A Fairfax Media investigation revealed in August that there is a “bed block” or “trolley block” crisis, with patients forced to wait outside in ambulances due to a lack of beds inside the hospitals. Once admitted, they then are forced to wait for hours in emergency, as nurses and doctors frantically do the rounds with few resources.
In a medical emergency, a minute can be the difference between life and death. According to the Bureau of Health Information, at Westmead, one of Sydney’s largest hospitals, the average wait time for treatment that needs to be performed within 5-10 minutes was 76 minutes.
Ambulance response times have also been dangerously long. In some cases, drivers had been told to avoid a major hospital, and take the risk of driving further away to get patients treated.
Health Services Union state secretary Gerard Hayes told the Illawarra Mercury, “In the Illawarra alone, there’s a staffing shortfall of 43 paramedics”. They have taken an average of 30,000 calls a year since 2010 with no increase in funding.
Between ambulances backed up in emergency parking lots waiting to offload patients, not enough vehicles and staff, paramedics are simply unable to meet call demands.
The health system needs a huge injection of resources.
