Terminal cancer patient Kevin Hillman ramped for hours, left in pain for days at Royal Adelaide Hospital

Ramped all day and left in agony for hours without proper pain relief, a terminal cancer patient’s three-day stay in a tiny Royal Adelaide Hospital emergency cubicle left him broken and in tears.

A terminal cancer patient was ramped outside the Royal Adelaide Hospital for eight hours, then left to wait, suffering in a tiny emergency cubicle for three days.

Kevin Hillman, 60, has stage 4 cancer. It started in his head and neck. It’s now spread to his liver and lower spine. Doctors say he has just months left to live.

He was flown from Whyalla to Adelaide for a heart scan after developing a golden staph infection on Saturday, July 5. The stay was meant to be short.

He arrived at 6am. An ambulance picked him up at 7.15am. But he wasn’t let inside Royal Adelaide Hospital until after 3.15pm.

“I was ramping all day with 17 other ambulances,” Kevin said. “It put me in a dark place, which I try so hard to stay out of.”

He then spent the next three days in a 3x4m cubicle in emergency. No TV, no shower and in severe pain.

On Saturday night, he called his wife Julie and pleaded for her to come as soon as she could. They arrived the next morning.

“He cried as soon as he saw us,” Julie said.

“He said he’d been asking for pain meds. Six hours later, he was still waiting.”

“He was in pain. It’s just really hard because he can’t lie very long on one side or on his back because of the cancer in his back. He’s got nerve damage too in his lower back”

A pain pump was charted on Sunday. It wasn’t installed until Monday afternoon.

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“If I’d known, I would’ve jumped up and down until he got it,” Julie said.

By the time Kevin was moved to a ward Monday night, the damage was done.

“He’s a strong man,” Julie said. “But this has broken him … even just thinking about it now, he’ll break down.”

She said a doctor promised a room on Monday morning, but hours later a nurse told her one had never been allocated. Her husband wasn’t moved to a ward until 9.30pm that night.

“They told me the doctor shouldn’t have said anything,” she said. “It’s chaos. The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand’s doing.”

She believes her husband’s “terrible” treatment was a symptom of the RAH being “understaffed and under-resourced.”

Central Adelaide Local Health Network chief executive admits Mr Hillman’s treatment didn’t meet the standard of care they strive to provide patients. Picture: Aden Stokes

Kevin has since returned to palliative care in Whyalla. But vowed he won’t go back to RAH.

“No one should go through that,” Julie said. “I just want him home. So we can enjoy what time we have left.”

Central Adelaide Local Health Network chief executive Dr Emma McCahon has apologised to Mr Hillman and his family, admitting his experience fell below the standard of care they aim to provide.

She said the system was under pressure from high winter demand, but staff were working hard to prioritise the sickest patients and move all others into appropriate care as quickly as possible.

“We sincerely apologise to Mr Hillman and his family for what was no doubt an incredibly stressful situation,” she said.

Ambulance Employees Australia general secretary Paul Ekkelboom says patients are at risk now, and steps must urgently be taken to address SA’s ramping crisis. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Emma Brasier

Ambulance Employees Australia says ramping delays are worsening this winter, with some crews stuck for over 12 hours and unable to respond to emergencies.

“The AEA supports long-term investments into the health system and whole lot of system changes that improve patient care and flow. But the reality is that patients are at risk now, and steps must urgently be taken to address the ramping crisis,” general secretary Paul Ekkelboom said.

Emergency figures freeze as EDs overflow

Hospital emergency departments teetered towards a record gridlock on Monday night — then the data froze.

At 5.30pm there were a near-record 433 people being treated by clinicians despite the combined metropolitan capacity being 333, but then the SA Health online system which is supposed to refresh with updated data every half-hour froze for several hours.

At that time there were 137 people stuck in EDs who had been treated and were waiting for a ward bed, 29 of them for more than 24 hours.

SA Health says there was an IT issue overnight that impacted the processing of the data flow and caused the suspension or delay of regular dashboard updates.

“Once that was identified, remedial action was taken to restore data processing and catch up data currency on dashboards,” it says.

“Analysis is still underway to identify and remediate the cause of the original fault.”

The data refresh outage had no impact on any clinical service delivery or associated operations.

The ED gridlock, causing ramping, continued through Tuesday — at 7pm clinicians were treating 399 patients in the 333 place system, resulting in patients being stowed on trolleys in corridors including ward corridors.

The blockage in getting ward beds is contributing to a rise in violence in EDs, with doctors saying there is rising frustration among patients.

SA Salaried Medical Officers Association chief industrial officer Bernadette Mulholland says the ongoing ED gridlock “is absolutelythe worst I have seen it”.

Ambulance Employees Association state secretary Paul Ekkelboom warned that paramedics are at risk of losing skills.

He said when he started as a paramedic he would be treating around 400 to 500 people a year, but new starters may only treat around 100 due to time stuck ramped.

In some cases this month crews have been ramped for their entire 12 hour shifts.

Originally published as Terminal cancer patient Kevin Hillman ramped for hours, left in pain for days at Royal Adelaide Hospital