As you read this some of our people are sitting on hard chairs, or on the floor, or on stretchers, in the waiting room of Tauranga Hospital's Accident and Emergency Department and being ignored. Some are in acute pain, others are bleeding, still others are being sick and are dehydrated. They have been waiting for three, four and up to ten hours for a Doctor's attention. Their family suffers with them and is powerless to ease their trauma.
Mrs Hackett and the Hospital Board Members know all about it and have ignored the suffering of our people for years and appear not to care. They are very comfortable in their Soft chairs and Plush board room and do not feel the pain they cause us. Our Hospital Service, at A and E is an absolute disgrace.
For example, about four weeks ago I had to call for the ambulance as my wife was desperately ill with Viral Meningitis. St John's arrived within 20 minutes, took us to A and E, at the hospital and were wonderful. We were left in the outer area and totally ignored by the hospital staff! Nobody even spoke to us, offered advice or comfort, nothing. I gave them 10 minutes and then politely asked two women, who had their heads in computers, 'What happens now?” You wait, was the reply. How long do we wait, I asked. I don't know, was the reply, half an hour to an hour! After an hour I asked again and was told to ask a nurse who had just appeared. She did not know anything but tried to find a patient information sheet but admitted they were none. Total inhuman treatment.
It took FOUR HOURS before a so-called doctor came to help us and eased the pain and dehydration problems. Then the so-called doctor sent my wife home when she had classic meningitis symptoms. A day later she was sent back to hospital, by her doctor and we endured another four hour wait before going into a ward where she stayed for eleven days.
This week a news report said, 'Three Hundred People a Year Die in the Accident and Emergency Departments of New Zealand Hospitals. It is easy to see why! Could the Hospital Board could be guilty of manslaughter due to neglect? I intend to bring this information to the attention of the new Health minister and would welcome your Horror Stories to add to the file.
Ken Evans. Tauranga.