Staff at Sydney’s busiest hospital have said a lack of beds is leaving some patients stuck in emergency for days, four years after taxpayers spent $900 million on a major redevelopment.
Hospital data released in December revealed half of patients at Westmead Hospital spent at least 6½ hours in the emergency department, the longest time spent in emergency anywhere in NSW.
Patients spent longer in the emergency department at Westmead than any other hospital in NSW between July and September.Credit: Dean Sewell
Only one-third of patients left the department within four hours between July and September, and one in 10 patients spent over 21 hours between arriving and leaving.
More than 27,000 patients were admitted to Westmead between July and September, the most of any hospital in NSW. They spent an average of 7.1 days in hospital, compared to the state average of 6.4 days.
Some patients spend up to four days in the department while waiting for a bed on a ward, two emergency staff members told the Herald, requesting anonymity to protect their employment.
“Whether it be for a broken finger … or a heart attack or a stroke, you just have to stay in emergency because there’s no bed for you,” one doctor said. “All the pressure that generates just blows up. Every day between about 5pm and midnight, the place is just absolutely out of control.”
This “bed block” is causing patients with less-urgent conditions to wait longer for treatment, another employee working in the emergency department said.
“We’re working hard, we’re getting diagnoses … [but] if patients were sent to the ward quicker it would allow us to focus more time and resources on new patients waiting to be seen,” they said.
Western Sydney Local Health District chief executive Graeme Loy said the winter flu season contributed to “very high demand” for emergency care, with visits increasing by 4 per cent compared to the same time last year.
Loy said more patients were starting treatment on time at Westmead than at the same time last year.
“All patients are seen and triaged on arrival at the ED and, as always, the most seriously unwell
patients are treated first,” Loy said. “During busy times, people with less urgent conditions will experience longer wait times.”
Health Minister Ryan Park declined to say whether Westmead, which recently underwent a $900 million redevelopment to add 300 new patient rooms and a new emergency department, needed additional beds, but said the government had invested $500 million to improve patient flow and direct patients away from the state’s emergency departments.
Park said the decline of bulk billing by GPs had put pressure on hospitals around the country, “including Westmead”.
Opposition health spokeswoman Kellie Sloane said the blowout in wait times could not be blamed on the primary care crisis because most people visiting emergency were too sick to see a GP.
“Families in Western Sydney should be able to rely on one of our biggest hospitals to deliver timely, urgent care when they need it most,” she said. “Western Sydney deserves answers, not more finger-pointing.”
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