80-year-old forced to wait an agonising 48 hours at Wollongong Hospital for a bed

A sick 80-year-old man has been forced to wait in the emergency department of Wollongong Hospital for a ­“record breaking” 48 hours.

A sick 80-year-old man has been forced to wait in the emergency department of Wollongong Hospital for a ­“record breaking” 48 hours.

And experts are warning Covid has meant public hos­pitals are increasingly suffering “bed blocks” like this.

Don Brown, from Kiama, first went to Shellharbour Hospital six weeks ago on a Saturday with a badly swollen knee. With his artificial knee joint clearly infected, staff directed him to Wollongong Hospital. He arrived with wife Jennifer about 3.30pm.

“My husband was triaged within two hours and a sample taken of the infected fluid in his knee. We were advised to continue waiting, which we did until approximately 1.30am. We were told that he needed to be admitted and a bed would be found as soon as possible,” Mrs Brown said.

Don and Jenny Brown. Don was forced to wait 48 hours in the Emergency Department at Wollongong Hospital before a bed was made available. Picture: Supplied

About 3am, Mr Brown was given a bed in a corner.

“I was in a lot of pain, my knee was swollen and fully infected and I was there for a day without being seen,” he said.

“I was there by myself for four hours, unattended.”

But at 7am, Mr Brown was shunted back to the waiting room. “He continued to wait in the waiting room until that Sunday evening where he ­became increasingly anxious, exhausted and distressed,” Mrs Brown said.

“By that stage he was starting to get stressed out and in pain, so I took him out to a long bench where he could lie down on, outside of the ED.”

By this stage, Mr Brown had spent 36 hours waiting. Staff said they simply had no beds.

After Mrs Brown insisted, Mr Brown was finally given an examination bed in the ED where he could lie down.

“I looked down the hallway behind me and as far as you could see there were stretcher beds the ambulance people had brought in,” he said.

It was not until Monday morning that a bed became available for Mr Brown.

“It was said I broke a record. The doctors and nurses were doing their best, they are flat-strap and I felt sorry for the staff but the system is broken,” Mr Brown said.

The Australian Medical Association claims a lack of government funding has resulted in hospitals that are jammed.

Dr Omar Khorshid, Australian Medical Association President: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

AMA President Dr Omar Khorshid said Covid played a role in putting more pressure on hospitals but they no longer had capacity to surge and meet increased demand.

“We have charted 30 years of a decline of the number of beds per head of population over the age of 65, this is a longstanding issue, but Covid has opened up the cracks,” he said. The number of public hospital beds available to those over 65 is on average 15 per 1000 people. Three decades ago that was 30 beds per 1000 people over 65.

The AMA said hospital funding had to be a federal election issue and is calling on the federal Government to ­increase its portion of hospital funding to 50-50 with the states from the existing 45-55 share.

Originally published as 80-year-old forced to wait an agonising 48 hours at Wollongong Hospital for a bed