Laura Caldwell feared she was dying during six-day stay in RHH emergency department
Laura Caldwell feared she was dying during her six days in Royal Hobart Hospital's emergency department before leaving in a worse condition than when she arrived. Read about her stay.
A Hobart woman has told of her fears she was dying during a six day stint in emergency at the Royal Hobart Hospital describing her experience as “essentially a horror film”.
Laura Caldwell, 32, went to the hospital’s emergency department this month with back pain and was in ED’s short stay unit until she left with an impacted bowel to be treated at Calvary Hospital.
She says she told the hospital she had had reactions to pain relief medications and Irritable Bowel Syndrome but was left with a bleeding rectum and no IV fluids.
“My pain wasn’t managed the whole time that I was there,” Ms Caldwell said.
“I didn’t have any consistent contact with my doctors and because I was in EMU, the ED doctors couldn’t prescribe medication to me and had to come from the rheumatology team which weren’t always available.
“Towards the end of my stay my bowels were completely full and impacted which is basically like cement.
“I thought I was dying.”
Ms Caldwell, who has been in hospital previously after a skiing accident years ago, said her bowel issues exacerbated her back pain.
She said she understood ED nurses were “dealing with life-threatening emergencies” but that meant she missed medication and proper care.
“I just felt really unsafe.
“I felt really neglected and when I left I was in worse state than when I presented six days prior.
“I genuinely feel for the nurses. They are just so understaffed and so exhausted and you can just see it in their face and I even had some of the nursing staff when I was kind of begging, literally, for help, crying with me.”
Ms Caldwell said she had private health insurance but as she was unemployed she went to the RHH because she was “nervous” about the costs.
“I will never go back there and it concerns me because a lot of people don’t have a choice.”
A Department of Health spokesman said patient safety at the RHH was at “the centre of everything we do”.
“We are concerned that Ms Caldwell did not have a positive experience at the RHH,” a spokesman said.
“While we cannot comment specifically about the care and treatment of individual patients, we encourage anyone with concerns about their care to speak to our complaints team.”
Labor health spokeswoman Sarah Lovell said at budget estimates hearings this week Labor would ask the government questions about “the dire situation in our hospitals”.
“Health Department statistics show that Laura isn’t alone in experiencing overstretched and under-resourced emergency departments,” she said.
“We are seeing patients wait far longer than they should be for treatment and that is having adverse impacts on their outcomes.”
Premier Jeremy Rockliff acknowledged “some challenges in our healthcare system” but said the government was investing more in health than ever.
He said 40 per cent of people who attend at EDs could access their healthcare elsewhere.
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