Trapped and dying: Victoria’s worst hospital for emergency department waits

Hundreds of patients are languishing in Mildura Base Hospital’s emergency department for more than 24 hours, with one elderly woman dying following a lengthy wait in a corridor.

This week, the regional hospital in Victoria’s north-west declared a code yellow for an internal emergency due to a high volume of emergency presentations and high sick leave causing staffing shortfalls.

Linda Romeo’s mother died in March after spending six hours on a trolley in a corridor at Mildura Hospital.Credit: Ian McKenzie

Doctors who work at the hospital, who are not authorised to speak publicly, blame the situation on a lack of beds for the growing community and staff shortages.

“It’s totally unacceptable by any standard,” one doctor said.

“Research shows that the longer people stay in ED, the worse their outcomes. Their mortality and morbidity goes up.”

A leaked document obtained by The Age lays bare the extensive delays, revealing that up to 100 patients spend between 24 to 48 hours in the hospital’s emergency department every month, with some experiencing waits of more than 48 hours. In April, 90 patients waited between 24 and 48 hours, while nine patients waited more than 48 hours.

Official Health Department data reveals that from January to March, more than 3 per cent of Mildura Hospital patients spent more than 24 hours in the emergency department, eight times the statewide average.

Linda Romeo is mourning the loss of her mother, Maria, who died on March 19 following a six-hour wait on an ambulance stretcher in a corridor of Mildura Hospital’s emergency department. The 85-year-old was breathless and having a suspected heart attack when she arrived at the hospital at around 11.30am.

Romeo raced to the hospital to be by Maria’s side, but said an administration staff member refused to let her see her mother until she’d been moved to a bed.

“I wanted to see her for five minutes so that she knew that I was here and that I cared,” said Romeo, her voice wavering.

By the time Maria had been moved to a bed, it was evening and Romeo had returned home to care for her three grandchildren and was unable to leave. Maria died from heart failure later that night.

“I didn’t get to say goodbye or even say I loved her,” she said. “I am so angry. I don’t blame the doctors or nurses, they need more beds. I feel like deep down this could have been avoided, this is why it hurts so much. She didn’t get the care she needed.”

Dr Peter Milne, a vascular surgeon who has worked in Mildura for 20 years and now solely consults in its private hospital, said one of his patients spent six hours sitting in a chair in Mildura Hospital’s emergency department in January while suffering from septicaemia, a life-threatening infection in the bloodstream.

Milne had phoned the hospital to request that his patient receive intravenous antibiotics after a blood test he had ordered showed all the hallmark signs of septicaemia. He requested that staff call an ambulance so that the patient could be swiftly transferred to Melbourne.

“This was a life-or-death situation,” he said. “When I phoned back six hours later he was still sitting in a chair in a corridor and hadn’t received antibiotics because they can’t put a drip in a person while they are sitting. There were no available trolleys or beds.”

In desperation, Milne also phoned for an ambulance, stressing the critical condition of his patient.

The patient only received antibiotic treatment when he was lying down in the ambulance on a stretcher and being transported to Melbourne.

Milne, who previously worked at Mildura Hospital until it stopped providing vascular surgery in 2023, described its emergency department as “overcrowded and overwhelmed”.

Mildura Base Public Hospital.Credit: Carmel Zaccone

“It is inadequate and needs expanding and better staffing,” he said. “I don’t have a gripe with the hospital. I have a gripe with Spring Street, and the hospital is the victim.”

The Age has been informed of another incident where a palliative patient died from a brain tumour in the emergency department because there was no room for them in the hospital wards. In another case, a teenager with an infected hand waited for 75 hours before discharging himself.

Mildura Hospital was operated as a public hospital under a private management contract with Ramsay Health until 2020, when it was taken over by the state Labor government.

A state government spokesperson said: “We’re reducing wait times in emergency and increasing bed availability through our timely emergency care program, and handover times have improved by 5 per cent in the last year at Mildura Base Hospital.”

Nationals MP for Mildura Jade Benham called on the state government to immediately invest in 30 additional hospital beds to address the delays in the emergency department.

“We outgrew this hospital 10 years ago,” she said.

“When the Labor government took back the hospital, they declared that the public would be better off, but it is just getting worse,” she said.

Speaking generally, Australasian College for Emergency Medicine Victorian faculty chair Dr Annelise Staples said patients should ideally be moved from the emergency department and into another area for care within eight hours.

Linda Romeo on her mother’s death: “I feel like deep down this could have been avoided, this is why it hurts so much.”Credit: Ian Mckenzie

“We know that after eight hours, patients really start to suffer long-term effects,” she said.

Staples said delays in emergency departments were often caused by a lack of beds in inpatient units, staffing shortages, delays in discharges and more patients requiring admission due to seasonal illnesses such as influenza.

Mildura Hospital was contacted for comment.

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