Patient with suspected stroke waited 15 hours at Lyell McEwin Hospital before leaving, as ‘meth-heads’ skip queue

A man suffering a suspected stroke waited 15 hours at Lyell McEwin Hospital before giving up – as meth-affected patients in handcuffs were ushered through, his furious wife says.

A man who waited 15 hours to be seen at Lyell McEwin Hospital with a suspected stroke — unable to see or walk — left in frustration and was later diagnosed with a brain tumour when he went to the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Allan Haigh, 78, of Port Wakefield, visited his local GP and was sent to Balaklava Hospital who called ahead to LMH alerting them to the suspected stroke, on Monday night last week.

However, Mr Haigh’s wife Brigitte, 74, who drove him to hospital, said they were left unattended for 15 hours after arriving just after 9pm.

Allan Haigh, 78, waited 15 hours at the Lyell McEwin Hospital before giving up.

“Police were bringing in people on meth in handcuffs who were ushered in ahead of us, there were old ladies who had been waiting even longer than us still there – it felt like a third world country,” she said.

“I will never, ever go to the Lyell McEwin again under any circumstances.

“We were totally ignored, no one checked on us even though Balaklava Hospital had called ahead, and I was worried Allan was going to die in the waiting room. He was in a wheelchair unable to move or see.

“It felt like we were absolute nobodies.

“He was so exhausted he kept saying ‘just take me home’ and when it got to noon the next day we finally went to get some sleep at our son’s house and went to the RAH first thing next morning.”

Mrs Haigh was full of praise for the RAH where they were seen almost immediately and after two CAT scans and two MRIs which point to a brain tumour, Mr Haigh will have a brain biopsy on Friday.

Allan Haigh, 78, of Port Wakefield, in the RAH. Picture: Supplied by family.

Opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn said the Labor made health a central election issue but said the system was “going backwards” pointing to a Productivity Commission report and an Australian Medical Association report card showing long waits for people to be seen in EDs.

“This was not a stubbed toe, it was a suspected stroke – the health system is completely blocked, it is a total mess,” she said.

Brigitte Haigh and Opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn. Picture: RoyVPhotography

“This is the unseen toll of ramping, patients languishing in waiting rooms while our EDs are bursting at the seams, after Labor has delivered 32 of the worst months of ramping in South Australian history.”

Ms Hurn said a Liberal government would look beyond ramping to a system-wide approach, including a focus on primary health care, scrapping the GP payroll tax and boosting the workforce.

The Haighs’ case comes as Steven McKeeny of Gawler claims his father Lee was put in an access cab for a transfer from the RAH to Modbury Hospital a week after having brain surgery, which had Ms Hurn questioning whether it was due to ambulances being ramped.

Northern Adelaide Local Health Network chief executive Karen Puvogel offered her apologies to the Haigh family, noting wait times blow out when the ED gets busy.

“In this instance Mr Haigh waited too long,” she said. “We clearly could have done much better in this case.”

Health Minister Chris Picton said: “I am concerned any time a patient has a long wait in an emergency department which is why we are investing so much to build a bigger health system.

“My office reached out to the Haigh family last week and offered the family a meeting with the hospital’s clinical team so that the care can be properly reviewed. This has been accepted by the family.

“We don’t want any patients to face lengthy waits in our emergency departments which is why we are adding more than 600 extra hospital beds to the system to improve capacity and patient flow. This is in stark contrast to the Liberals who failed to invest in the health system and made hundreds of nurses redundant.”

Originally published as Patient with suspected stroke waited 15 hours at Lyell McEwin Hospital before leaving, as ‘meth-heads’ skip queue