Cooloola Cove man opens up about ‘horrific’ Gympie Hospital stay

A 65-year-old recent patient at Gympie Hospital has spoken out what he says was his worst healthcare experience in 65 years.

A 65-year-old Cooloola Cove man has excoriated Gympie’s Hospital and Queensland Health over an experience he calls the worst he has ever had.

Frank Hayward said the state’s once renowned hospital services had “turned to a pile of rubble” after he had to rely on its care early this month after pinching a nerve in his back.

What he experienced was a hospital “woefully” understaffed and overworked.

Mr Hayward said he was taken by ambulance to Gympie Hospital on Thursday, November 4, given pain relief and kept overnight.

When a new shift started the next day the new doctor on duty did not know Mr Hayward was supposed to stay in hospital for physio, and discharged him after a “crash course” in using crutches.

He was in such pain waiting for his wife Beverly to pick him up that a hospital employee gave him more pain relievers.

His pain continued though, and Mr Hayward wound up back at the hospital the next day, his ambulance forced to queue behind two others.

Frank Hayward said the broken air-conditioning in his room left he and other patients suffering from heat rash.

In the week that followed he said he wanted to go home as he felt “unsafe in the hospital”.

Gympie Hospital nursing director Deanne Mitchell declined to comment on Mr Hayward’s claims.

“Due to privacy reasons Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service is unable to comment on the treatment provided to individual patients but is always happy to respond directly to patients who are unhappy with the care we provide,” she said,

“We have been in contact with this patient to discuss his concerns and I can confirm Gympie Hospital is appropriately staffed with skilled clinicians who provide comprehensive care for our community every day.”

Mr Hayward said he observed a number of troubling problems during his stay.

Those included the “stacking” of ambulances and the breakdown of the air-conditioning in his room which left he and other patients suffering heat rash.

Frank Hayward’s daughter told him to skip Gympie Hospital in favour of travelling an hour further to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital following the ‘horrific’ experience.

He was discharged on November 17, the doctor explaining that the “bed was needed”.

“After being in many hospitals over my 65 years, Gympie Hospital was my worst experience,” Mr Hayward said in a letter he has since written to Queensland Health.

“My daughter has told me ‘do not go back to Gympie Hospital,” he said Friday.

Mr Hayward praised the efforts of the hospital’s nurses but said the system was letting them down, especially with the reality of imminent Covid outbreaks.

He believed the facility was no longer able to appropriately cater to the region.

“It needs to be pulled down,” he said.

“It’s too old.”