I RECENTLY experienced what life was like in the Ipswich Hospital Emergency Department and it was a sobering revelation to say the least.
Over the years I have needed on rare occasions to attend ED’s so I wasn’t expecting anything other than a long wait.
It was 11pm when I took myself off to Ipswich Emergency for an issue that had the potential to be life threatening.
My long wait turned out to be almost eight hours and in the end I left in frustration to try my luck in the private health system which by then was just waking up.
My doctor’s surgery was obviously closed at 11pm, but my pain was so severe I was worried for my health and I didn’t want to wait until the next day.
Fortunately, I was diagnosed later for an ailment that has now been successfully treated with anti-biotics.
The long wait When I arrived, a middle aged woman sitting in the waiting room said, “I trust you aren’t in a hurry, I have been here since 3pm.”
That woman was eventually taken in for treatment just after 1am, which meant she had sat around in the sterile waiting room for 10 hours.
I only recounted her comment when I walked out of ED the next morning still none the wiser about my issue eight hours after presenting.
This first person article isn’t about me complaining about waiting for hours and getting nowhere.
Editor Peter Chapman
This story is one for every person in Ipswich to be aware of.
The message is you need to know that Ipswich’s Hospital’s Emergency Department is at breaking point.
Like many hospitals in Queensland, Ipswich has seen a continual increase in the volume of patients presenting to the emergency department.
Like all ED’s patients who are classified as high risk category one are seen quickly.
This means patients with less serious illnesses need to sit and wait and that’s exactly what they have been doing for hours on hours.
In the last three months of 2022 almost 20,000 people took themselves off to Ipswich ED. Between 2017 and 2022,
the 5.6 per cent increase in emergency presentations outstripped population growth, suggesting other factors were having an effect.
This includes the loss of bulk-billable GP services in some regions and the general decline in private health insurance membership.
Don’t clog the system My simple advice is if you have a minor issue don’t go and clog up a broken system just to save on a doctor’s bill.
If you do go expect to sit and wait for a long time in an uncomfortable chair watching info-commercials through the wee hours of the night on the one small TV monitor.
You will see many people come in looking for help and you will watch as the frustration on their faces build.
The nurses at ED will do the best they can and they will treat you with respect, but they won’t be able to answer you when you pleadingly ask “how much longer will it be?”.
They don’t know because they have no idea of just who will be the next person that walks through the door or who will arrive in an ambulance.
When I was the editor of the Queensland Times in 2017 I tried to organise a journalist to go along and spend a night in ED Now I have done the story myself and while it’s not a happy one, it’s one every resident of Ipswich should take note of.
