Table thumps fail, doctor tries poetry

John Chambers
John Chambers
Frustrated with what he sees as lack of progress on resolving long-standing concerns about patient treatment times in Dunedin Hospital's emergency department, clinical leader Dr John Chambers has turned to poetry.

His offering, which he said followed a meeting last week at which he had " failed to make any impact by thumping the table", has been published on the website of the senior doctors' union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists.

Entitled " Busy doing nothing ... and the patients wait for hours" , the poem repeats that line at the start of the five stanzas and at the end.

Other lines show Dr Chambers' frustration including "Doctors nurses pleads don't matter, Dismissed by managerial chatter" and "But let's not rush there is 'no money' we would not want to get it wrong, And anyway who are these patients, Does it harm them waiting long".

In October, Dr Chambers called for an urgent multimillion-dollar makeover of the department and more staff.

The hospital has been the poorest performer in the country on the requirement that patients should be admitted or treated and discharged from the emergency department within six hours.

Although hospital management has several projects planned to improve processes and efficiency, Dr Chambers remains unconvinced that significant progress towards meeting the six-hour target without serious investment in facilities and staffing.

 

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