Mum speaks out after daughter’s nightmare hospital experience

A Brisbane mother has spoken out about her 16-year-old daughter’s nightmare experience in southeast Queensland’s struggling hospital system, including frightening security incidents and being exposed to the sight of a man’s genitalia.

A BRISBANE mother has revealed her daughter’s nightmare experience in southeast Queensland’s overloaded hospital system.

Leisel Dray, from Ashgrove, sought help for her 16-year-old daughter Josie at Queensland’s Children Hospital a few weeks ago when the teen was suffering acute pain and severely distressed.

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They were transferred by ambulance to Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital about 9pm and waited 90 minutes on an ambulance transfer bed to be admitted.

“We were the fifth ambulance bed in the line. I need to iterate that the ambulance staff were as frustrated as we were with the system,” Ms Dray said.

“That ambulance could have been on more important assignments than waiting for us to be admitted.”

After blood testing in a treatment cubicle, they were moved to chairs.

Over the following three hours, Josie became frightened by a number of security incidents and the sight of a man’s genitalia through hospital gown misfunction.

Liesel Dray and her daughter Josie, 16, at home in Ashgrove. Picture: AAP/Claudia Baxter

Josie was discharged about 2am, with a GP appointment made for the next day, in which a scan confirmed she had an inflamed appendix and was sent back to hospital.

“We decided to go to Prince Charles instead of RBH — we presented at about 6pm and waited for 20 minutes and was admitted straight into the emergency area, given blankets for warmth, offered tea and reassured.

After being seen by consultants, Josie was operated on the following day, and sent home after a further one night stay.

A Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital spokesman did not confirm or deny the claims however said patients “are seen in order of medical priority and not in order of arrival at the hospital”.

“The latest performance data for RBWH (February) shows that across all five categories, the median wait time was 19 minutes.”