In the wake of revelations about the dire state of Dunedin Hospital's emergency department, Otago Daily Times readers have been sharing their experiences.
They describe patients waiting hours to be seen only to be left alone again on a bed shoved in a corridor, a lack of pain relief, nurses having to use cellphone torches to put in lines and extreme overcrowding.
It is not all bad - among the horror stories are tributes to staff delivering excellent care in challenging circumstances.
But the overall picture is of a department under extreme strain.
The situation is terrifying
We were in ED less than 2 weeks ago and it was 10 hours before we were seen by a doctor.
My 84-year-old mum was there with face droop and words slurring.
It was a suspected stroke.
To be clear the nurses were marvellous and did monitor her blood pressure the entire time but it was stressful.
They are understaffed and under immense pressure in there.
Mum ended up ok thank goodness.
The situation is terrifying.
Eight hours before I saw a nurse
My wait time at ED when I had my kidney stone in July was over 8 hours before I got through the door and saw a nurse.
The ED waiting room was so full I had to sit outside in the vapers' area, then by the vending machines and then on a spare wheelchair.
Triage of babies and young children a huge problem
A couple of months ago my then 14-month-old daughter was taken to hospital by ambulance due to a really bad bout of croup.
Given it had somewhat settled by the time we got there due to being given steroids by the ambulance staff, we ended up sitting there for almost 4 hours before I gave up and went home.
The staff were incredible but the triage of babies and young children alongside adults is a huge problem for Dunedin hospital.
This has happened to me multiple times with my kids, and I have always given up and taken them to the GP the next day because even though they are ill, they are better off in their beds at home than sitting in the ED waiting room for hours.
People will die in waiting rooms
I used to work in Dunedin ED as a clinician/doctor and this does not surprise me.
There is problem with CT access overnight, bed blocking from poor flow due to lack of safe discharge locations for current inpatients, and lack of primary care access for patients to see GPs.
This will end up looking like the UK in the next few years if the current establishment/Government does not make great changes.
Expect the wait times to increase year on year (at present the UK wait times are anything from 12-48 hours for a bed).
Private hospitals are NOT the answer to this as they will only take the easy cases - leaving the public system to clear up the complications.
With our current aging and complex population this issue will continue to grow.
People will die waiting for ambulances, and in the waiting rooms countrywide (it is only through the sheer hard work of those on the ground that this does not happen more often).
The nurses, healthcare assistants, security, lab staff, reception and doctors are all working their wee tushes off to see patients.
It’s heartbreaking caring for patients in corridors and morally broke!
The waiting is torture
We have visited Dunedin's ED several times lately due to my husband's condition.
The waiting is torture. The waiting area was filled to overflow with people waiting to be seen.
My 83 year-old husband's right leg was swollen, which can indicate a blood clot = danger! - nonetheless we still had to sit on the hard chairs for hours waiting.
Eventually, I asked if we could wait in the car so he could at least recline comfortably.
They then took him to wait further on a trolley in the hallway.
Our total time in ED that time was 25 hours. I realise they are terribly busy.
It seems they urgently need an expanded unit with more staff. It must be said that once my husband was seen, he was given excellent care.
ED too small and too many patients
In Dunedin I was at the Urgent Doctors two weeks ago for three hours, when at last seen ($75!) I was referred to ED.
Triage was efficient for the numbers in waiting room, 35+ at all times. Three hours wait, Covid/flu test, Xray, admitted to isolation room.
The inner part of the ED was jammed full!
Staff worked off feet, people in chairs and beds in corridors.
Treatment was effective, I got to go home within 6 hours, but the facility is far too small, there were so many people in need of treatment, the staff were caring, efficient and responded appropriately even to some disturbed patients.
We need more nurses, more doctors and a bigger better resourced facility!
The prime function of a government is to care for the people, and it is failing in this regard, an emergency response to expand ED care is needed at once!
The system is completely f’**d
My husband was injured in a workplace accident and had to be seen at ED.
After 9 hours we went home.
In this time we saw:
- drug seekers
- people with mental health issues taking up staff time with nonsense, often leaving soon after
- homeless people coming in using the bathroom
- drunk entitled students with their mother on their cell phone demanding to be seen quicker
- multiple people being sent to Dunedin ED from Balclutha doctors
- police bringing in many, many people
- perhaps most alarming, Milton corrections facility staff being forced to wait to be cleared by the hospital staff after a fire broke out at the prison. They were there before us and remained there after we left.
The people the police bring in seem to be tended to quicker.
The system is completely f’**d.
We returned the next morning and waited 6 more hours.
It’s hard to not hear the conversations of others in a small, cramped environment.
So I can tell you that common reasons for visiting included: I have a sore tummy, I have had a sore tummy for months, my arm hurts, v&d, I can’t get into my doctor for 6 weeks so I came to hospital, I dropped a frozen bowl of soup on foot 2 weeks ago (why come to ed on a Friday night all of a sudden?)
Medical team incredible but highly stressed
I have experienced a wait of 10+ hours. I went in at 7pm.
Was admitted to ED at 2am where my bed was in the corridor, nurse had to ask me to use my cellphone torch so she could do a blood test and put a line in. Nurse kept apologising.
I then saw my first doctor at 8am.
The staff were amazing but they were understaffed and over capacity. The wait time was determined on the beds, so I when someone was either transferred or discharged, it allowed someone else to come through from the waiting room.
The medical team were incredible, but highly stressed.
Unfortunately not all patients are as understanding, and often when people would complain, it would take up actual medical help to others.
I was forgotten about for 12 hours
Earlier in the year I was in ED for over 10 hours. I came in at 7pm with chest pain, sore teeth, dizziness, sweating, nausea, and panic attacks.
After about two hours I was given an initial assessment where it was concluded I needed to be seen quickly.
They advised that somebody would give me Panadol and give me a blood test while they wait for an EKG.
After a few hours I asked if I could please get the pain relief and some help.
I waited another hour and then someone came and took my bloods.
I asked for Panadol and they said they’d go and get it.
At about the six hour mark I said I really needed help because I was feeling really unwell.
They put me on a bed that had freed up. The entire hallway was packed with beds.
The people were stressed, the staff were stressed, and more and more people were flowing in.
There was eventually a change in staff and new nurses came in.
They looked at my chart and said that I should have been seen immediately with my symptoms and that they had forgotten about me.
They apologised and said it happened sometimes because they’re so under staffed.
I waited another two hours and was seen by a doctor who informed me I had been misprescribed the dose of a medicine I was on and was taking 10x what I should have been.
This was putting me at risk of seizures, panic attacks, vomiting, nausea, sweats, heart palpitations, headaches, and horrible withdrawal type symptoms.
I never got an initial EKG, I was never given Panadol, nurses were constantly apologising about how understaffed they were, and I saw nurses regularly calming down other overwhelmed nurses who weren’t coping.
I was forgotten about for between 10-12 hours and I had a very real medical emergency.
Gobsmacked and disgusted
My partner and I took my daughter to ED after going to our local practice Clutha Health.
She was really ill and her temperature would fluctuate from extremely low to extremely high and she had been vomiting for 8 hours straight, was limp and lethargic.
I rang the Clutha practice earlier on in the day and there were no appointments (even on the triage system).
There is a 6-8 week wait to get into a doctor. We did get into Clutha on an urgent basis after phoning health line after my daughter got worse.
We waited in the waiting room for 10 hours before we got given a bed. Not a bed in a room a bed in the corridor beside where the ambulances come in. It was cold and drafty. We waited another four hours for a cubicle.
We left Balclutha at 4.30pm arriving in Dunedin at 5.30pm. I asked at 4.30am if we would be seeing the doctor soon as my partner had to drive back to Balclutha for work
An hour later I asked again about the doctor. And an hour again after that still getting the same answer. Finally at 7am we saw the doctor after waiting for 15 hours..
My partner had to drive an hour back to Clutha go straight to work with no sleep. We were not offered a drink of water let alone anything to eat.
My daughter was not offered anything either. I had to ask for some Panadol for her as it had been two hours after the nurse said she would bring some and didn’t come back.
This is a 14 year old child who was seriously ill. I was gobsmacked and disgusted in the wait times and lack of communication from the staff. I get they are busy.
I honestly respect nurses and doctors for all they do and am thankful for them. But on this occasion I felt very let down by the system and thankfully after a few nights in hospital we were able to go home.
But it just highlights how people can end up in a serious critical state due to the wait times.
12 hours in ED followed by seven months of pain
Last October after a slip and fall I called Healthline and they suspected a possible fractured spine.
When I got to Dunedin Hospital I passed on what Healthline had said about a possible fractured spine and got told to go and sit in the waiting room.
After seven hours of excruciating pain with no pain killers I finally got called in and had to wait another two hours on a bed before actually being seen.
The doctor sent me for an Xray which thankfully came back clean with no fractures. He concluded I had a hematoma which would go away over a few weeks.
After 7 months of being in pain and restricted walking my GP got me a referral for an ultrasound as he believed it was a Morel-Lavallee Lesion (internal degloving). I had the ultrasound which came back as probable MLL and probably needs surgery to fix.
So after 12 hours in ED I left there with a misdiagnosis because they didn't have the time or staff on to find out what was actually going on.
I have been living with this injury for 11 months which could have been sorted ages ago.
This ED needs to be sorted out so that people don't have to wait ridiculous amounts of time and can actually get a proper diagnosis before being sent home.
Waited all night to be seen
Was taken into Dunedin hospital by ambulance August 30.
My bed was placed in the corridor at 10.30pm.
I was finally seen by a doctor this morning at 7.30am.
Five hour wait despite GP calls
About a month ago I got a call from my GP saying to get to the hospital within 30 minutes.
I got to the hospital and then proceeded to wait 5 hours after my doctor had called them multiple times to organise my arrival.
When I went up the triage nurse and mentioned that I was told to get there quickly he said: “Well they obviously don’t know what’s going on in emergency department”.
No pain relief offered
I have experienced the wait times at Dunedin hospital quite recently. In the last month.
I went in at 5pm with extreme abdominal pain, which was being caused by gallstones. I informed them of the gallstone diagnoses on arrival.
Hour after hour rolled around, then at around 9.30pm, they took me back, put a line in and took blood for testing.
They asked about my pain level (7-8/10!) but never once offered any pain relief, not even paracetamol.
Instead, sent me back to the waiting room with a line in my arm, still in pain. It got to around 12.30am, and I self-discharged.
They ‘strongly advised’ me to stay put as my blood tests were abnormal and concerning - however said it would be at least another 3 hours.
At this point my partner and I still had a 45 minute drive home, and had had no dinner as the vending machine only had nuts or oaty bars.
I understand the staff are under pressure but this is ridiculous.
When I was out the back getting my line put in, there were elderly patients asleep in some of the beds.
Very happy with the care I received
When I was having a miscarriage the Dunedin ED staff were very quick and the only line I had to wait in was 5 minutes at the triage desk.
Then I was taken to a private room and all the staff were very kind caring and efficient.
I was very happy with the care I received.
Care was excellent
Having visited ED in Dunedin recently, yes there was a wait time but in all respect to the staff of ED the waiting room was full, the corridors were full and patients coming in were constant.
I didn't find the wait too long and the level of care I received was excellent.
Time would be better spent finding out why people with flus are not going are not able to get into a GP.
