Sydney woman spent two nights in Blacktown Hospital emergency waiting room

A Sydney woman with heart problems sat in an emergency waiting room for more than two-and-a-half days, despite being told she was a priority patient.

A Sydney woman is demanding answers after being forced to sleep in an emergency department waiting room for two nights while staff tried to find her a hospital bed — before eventually being told to go home.

Lirka Pinter said she felt pain down her left side and had difficulty breathing during a Saturday morning shopping trip on June 18, so she went to Blacktown Hospital seeking help. At the time she felt so unwell she thought she would collapse if she walked any further.

Despite being told she was a priority patient, Ms Pinter was left sitting in the emergency waiting room for two and a half days, and was forced to sleep in a chair for two nights.

Ms Pinter was advised she would get the first available monitored cardiac bed but after enduring two nights in the waiting room, she was instead told to go home on Monday afternoon.

“I was left in the waiting room for two days, from 10.30am Saturday, and I got home about 5pm Monday afternoon. That’s a hell of a long time,” she told news.com.au. “My husband and I are absolutely disgusted.”

Ms Pinter said she did not want to criticise the medical staff at the hospital, who she believes did their best, and she was seen by a doctor almost immediately on arrival in emergency who organised blood tests, a chest x-ray and CT scan. She was told her case would be referred to a cardiologist.

Blood tests confirmed she did not suffer a heart attack but her husband was told she would be admitted to hospital as a “category 2” patient for further monitoring.

Hours later Ms Pinter was still waiting and it became apparent she would have to spend the night.

Ms Pinter said she asked her husband to go home and grab her some more comfortable shoes. She also told him to go rest at home overnight as there was no point in both of them being tired.

“I was sitting there overnight in my clothing, uncomfortable, in a hard chair,” she said.

Ms Pinter wasn’t even given a blanket, although she acknowledges she didn’t ask for one. She was however provided with meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner – and a nurse came around to take her blood pressure every four hours or so.

But at one point on Saturday night, Ms Pinter woke up and felt like her heart wasn’t beating, and there was no one in attendance in triage.

“I thought, what do I do?”

Lirka Pinter waited in Blacktown Hospital emergency waiting room for more than two days. Source: Supplied

Eventually a nurse performed the rounds and Ms Pinter told her she had chest pains and wasn’t feeling well. The nurse said she would mention this to someone but Ms Pinter said no one subsequently came to check up on her. In the morning, another nurse took her blood pressure and apologised when she heard what happened.

When Ms Pinter’s husband arrived back at the hospital on Sunday morning, he asked reception when Ms Pinter would be allocated a bed.

“They said I was at the top of the list, that was I was ‘category 2’ and the first available bed, I would be in. Well, it didn’t happen,” she said.

Another long day passed and by Sunday evening, Ms Pinter was faced with the prospect of another night in the waiting room.

She finally asked her husband to bring her a blanket and other items. Her husband asked hospital staff if Ms Pinter could go home to rest instead of sleeping in the waiting room but was told if she left, she would go to the bottom of the waiting list.

When Monday morning arrived, Ms Pinter’s husband decided to take matters into his own hands, ringing the hospital’s cardiology unit to ask why no one had been to see his wife.

Within 20 minutes of making the call, a cardiologist and another colleague appeared in the waiting room and apologised for the delay.

“They couldn’t believe the manner in which I was treated,” Ms Pinter said.

Blacktown Hospital in Sydney’s west. Picture: Justin Lloyd

A stress test and echocardiogram for Ms Pinter was organised and once the results came through, they gave her a discharge letter to give to her GP for more tests, and to organise a follow-up appointment with a specialist.

At this point, Ms Pinter was free to go home.

Ms Pinter said she was understanding about the pressures on staff as there were many patients in the waiting room and several ambulances parked outside the hospital over the weekend, but her patience deteriorated when she saw another man who arrived in emergency on Monday morning, also with heart problems, who was admitted to hospital within hours. She said she had chatted to him earlier and he did not seem to be in distress.

“The guy sitting next to me, walks in and signs admission forms after three hours … I’ve been here two and a half days and no one has come near me. How many people were admitted before me? I saw red.”

Ms Pinter spoke to the hospital’s patient complaints advocate, asking why the man had been seen before her, and the department’s bed manager apologised for her long wait. However, Ms Pinter says she wants to know what happened.

“It’s just not acceptable to be left sitting for over two days and for the cardiology team to not come anywhere near me until (my husband) called them,” she said.

“I was left sitting on a hard seat, it was just appalling, I wasn’t feeling well the whole day. I didn’t come to waste time and resources, I only came when it was absolutely necessary.

“For the last three weeks I feel like I’ve been deteriorating, with pains on my left hand side more often and a very uneasy feeling in my chest.

“I went in there, I was nauseous, I wasn’t feeling well, I had pains in my left side and shoulders, and this is the treatment I’ve received from Blacktown Hospital.”

Ms Pinter says her husband saw many ambulances at Blacktown Hospital over the weekend. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Ms Pinter believes something went wrong with the hospital’s admission process.

“I know the hospital is bursting at the seams, everyone is under so much pressure and is overworked, that’s why I wanted to be patient and understanding, as I knew how overworked the medical staff were, but it still doesn’t explain what happened to my admission.

“I want to know about their admission process, how it works, and who gets a bed and who doesn’t get a bed.”

Ms Pinter said she spoke to another man in the waiting room who said he had been there since Friday with a high fever. She says he may have been admitted to hospital on Monday after appearing to collapse.

“Is it going to take heart failure or heart attack before I’m actually admitted in?”

Ms Pinter lodged a written complaint with the hospital, and was told the plan from the cardiology team changed throughout Ms Pinter’s stay and received an apology if this was not communicated or had impacted on her long wait time.

“The Nurse Manager for Critical Care Mr Khris Lacampuingan acknowledges that you should not have waited in Emergency for greater than 48 hours and again wishes to apologise for your experience,” an email from the hospital’s acting patient experience manager said.

“Mr Lacampuingan is following up with the Cardiology team in regards to not being seen in the waiting room.”

The manager said the initial plan on Saturday was for a repeat stress test and echocardiogram, but this was changed on Sunday to admit Ms Pinter to a cardiac telemetry bed, which are monitored cardiac beds.

There are only 39 of these cardiac beds at the hospital and the manager said this may have contributed to the delay. She said this may also have been why another patient was admitted more quickly than her, as they may not have required this type of bed.

“I can confirm there was an excessive demand and access block for cardiology beds across Blacktown hospital over the weekend of your presentation,” the manager said.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard visiting Blacktown Hospital’s new paediatric ward in April.

The manager said the plan for Ms Pinter was changed again on Monday by the cardiology team, with a cardiac bed not required, and an echocardiogram to be done ahead of a probable discharge home.

News.com.au lodged questions about Ms Pinter’s treatment with the Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD), including whether any patients had been discharged from any cardiac beds over the weekend and why Ms Pinter wasn’t considered for a different bed while she was waiting, instead of being forced to sleep in the waiting room for two nights.

“The emergency department at Blacktown Hospital had a large number of cardiology patients requiring beds during Ms Pinter’s time there,” a spokeswoman for WSLHD said.

“WSLHD has apologised to Ms Pinter for the long wait she experienced in Blacktown Hospital emergency department.

“Ms Pinter was assessed throughout her stay and diagnostic investigations were undertaken, but we acknowledge the excessive delay in the allocation of a bed and apologise for this.

“In our emergency departments, patients are always triaged and seen according to the clinical urgency of their condition. During very busy times, those with less urgent conditions will experience longer wait times when there are large numbers of seriously unwell patients being prioritised for emergency care.

“These delays are difficult for those waiting for care, and we thank people for their understanding and patience as our committed staff work to ensure everyone who presents to our hospitals receives safe, high-quality care as quickly as possible.”

News.com.au also put questions to Health Minister Brad Hazzard asking whether processes should be changed so people aren’t left in emergency waiting rooms for so long, and what the government was doing to fix the problems.

But a spokeswoman said he was interstate attending a national health ministers meeting so was not available to answer questions, and would defer to the WSLHD statement.

‘System is struggling’

NSW branch of the Nurses and Midwives’ Association acting assistant general secretary Michael Whaites said Ms Pinter’s experience spoke to a story the union was hearing throughout the system, where treatment was being delayed because of capacity issues in the public health system.

“You would expect a category 2 patient to be assessed and stabilised, and moved to a bed for ongoing care,” he said.

“If there are no beds available you can’t be moved out of ED (emergency) — we describe this as bed block.

“How long do we pretend that everything is OK in the system with 1400 Covid patients in hospital that weren’t there before?”

Mr Whaites said Bureau of Health Information reports show demand on emergency departments at the moment were really high and this came at a time when staffing levels, which were already inadequate, were being impacted by vacancies and staff absences.

He said the latest figures from May showed staff vacancy rates were exceeding 8 per cent across Blacktown and Mt Druitt hospitals.

“So that’s close to 100 full-time equivalent positions short just in nursing and midwifery,” he said.

This does not include vacancies due to people being sick with things like Covid or the flu.

“When the system is struggling with so many vacancies, it increases the chance of care being delayed and unfortunately of care being missed,” Mr Whaites said.

“This is why we’re pushing for nurse-to-patient ratios in emergency of one nurse for every three treatment spaces.”

The NSW Government has announced a record 10,148 full-time equivalent staff will be hired to hospitals and health services across the state over four years, to help ease pressure on Covid-fatigued health staff and to fast-track more elective surgery for patients.

But Mr Whaites said this would not be enough to ensure safe patient care on a shift-by-shift basis, which is why they are pushing for nurse-to-patient ratios.

“The government is saying they are putting additional resources in but the numbers they’ve announced don’t stack up,” he said.

“Unless the government starts to listen to nurses and midwives about what’s needed to fix the system, I can’t see a way through the crisis.”

Hundreds of nurses and midwives walked off the job in March to protest work conditions in NSW. Picture: NCA NewsWire/David Swift

Emergency waiting times blow out

Reports of patients waiting more than 24 hours in hospital emergency departments continue to emerge as Covid infections remain high. More than 10,000 cases a day are still being recorded in the state, and more than 1500 people are in hospital for treatment.

Bureau of Health Information data shows emergency attendances at Blacktown were up by 1 per cent in the January quarter, to 14,664 patients, and up by 2.6 per cent (with an 378 extra patients) compared to 2019.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the amount of patients leaving Blacktown Hospital’s emergency department within four hours has plunged.

Only 42.1 per cent of patients left emergency — either being treated and discharged, admitted to hospital or leaving — within four hours in the January to March quarter. This is the lowest it’s been in nine years, when it was 39.2 per cent in the October-December quarter, 2012.

In 2019, 61 per cent left emergency within four hours in the January quarter — 18.9 percentage points higher than this year — and Blacktown’s results were also down 8.4 per cent on the same time last year.

The figures are also much lower than the New South Wales average, with 62.3 per cent of patients leaving emergency within four hours statewide.

Wait times can vary depending on the seriousness of the injury or condition, but the median wait time for Blacktown during the January quarter blew out to four hours and 55 minutes, which is 55 minutes longer than the same time last year, and one hour and 11 minutes longer than at the same time in 2019.

This is also higher than the Western Sydney average of four hours and four minutes, and the NSW average of three hours and 15 minutes.

‘Someone has to be held accountable’

Ms Pinter said her experience with Blacktown Hospital had left her feeling worried about what she should do if she experienced another episode. Prior to the pandemic in 2016, Ms Pinter said she had also gone to emergency at Blacktown for treatment with heart problems, but had left after one night in the waiting room.

“This time I didn’t go home because I wasn’t feeling well. Do you think I would have spent two days in a waiting room if I wasn’t feeling well?” she said.

“I don’t go there to waste their time, and my time, it’s two days of my life I’m never going to get back.

“Somebody has to be accountable for this, someone has to answer some questions and be held accountable.”

[e-mail] | @charischang2