Twelve hour ED wait at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead slammed by sick baby’s mum

11-month-old baby Michael’s lips were turning blue, but hours after being rushed to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead by ambulance mum Jasmine was still waiting to see a doctor.

Another mother has spoken out about “crazy” emergency delays at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, saying she waited 12 hours before a doctor saw her sick baby.

It follows revelations last week that parents were forced to wait outside the new emergency department because of overcrowding, amid a surge in emergency department delays across the city.

Jasmine Greenshields initially rang a health hotline number on the evening of May 25, worried about her 11-month old son Michael’s lips turning blue.

They told her to call an ambulance, which arrived at 8pm, and, finding he had a temperature and high blood sugar levels, took them to the children’s hospital - arriving around 8.30pm.

Ms Greenshields waited another 30 minutes with the ambulance crew before going to triage, where the baby’s temperature was checked but not his blood sugars.

Michael, 11 months, waited 12 hours to see a doctor at The Children's Hospital at Westmead on May 25.

While in the waiting room a male nurse came do to a waiting room check, but upon seeing Ms Greenshields breastfeeding her baby, said he would return later.

“One hour later he had not returned,” Ms Greenshields said. “I chased down another nurse to ask for Panadol to bring down my baby’s fever.”

“She said she would tell the male nurse. Another one hour later he did not return so I chased her down again.”

In the end, she waited another hour and asked a different nurse – only for the second nurse to “yell at me saying she is doing door entry triage” and advise her to find another nurse, which she luckily did.

“So I finally found another nurse who immediately checked his temperature - 38.8C – and got him Panadol and did observations.

“Then at 2.30am the nurse finally checked he wasn’t going to die from low blood sugar - which was the main concern from the ambulance.”

The Children's Hospital at Westmead Emergency Department.

Ms Greenshields still waited in the seats of the emergency department through the early hours of the morning until 7am, when she was shown the hospital entry by a nurse and “pointed at a bed to be seen by a doctor”.

“They did not walk us over,” she recalled. “They did not set us up or show how to use the bed or where drinks of water were.”

Finally, two hours later, at 9am, a doctor checked on Michael and they were discharged at 12pm.

“I think they are so understaffed it is crazy,” Ms Greenshields said. “They are letting us down. “We waited in seats in hospital waiting room for 10 hours then a hospital bed for two hours.

“One to two hours is the actual waiting time that hospitals should max run out for non-extreme life threatening issues.”

A spokeswoman for the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network said that “like all emergency departments across NSW, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick has seen a significant spike in children presenting with flu-like symptoms”.

“Staff make every effort to see all children as quickly as possible and apologises if some children have needed to wait longer than usual, during this unprecedented peak period,” she said.

“Children are prioritised based on clinical urgency, with the sickest children always seen first.”