Southern District Health Board member Richard Thomson told the hospitals' advisory committee meeting this month of a recent experience where the patient could have left the department within the target time of six hours, but this was doubled because of the lack of after-hours access to a wheelchair.
To get a wheelchair, to allow the patient to be taken home, would have required a physiotherapist to be called in to assess the patient concerned.
He said he was "really pleased" to see changes had been made as a result of him raising the issue.
The committee was told the acute occupational therapy service had worked with ED and the short-term loan equipment service to enable the department to have some equipment to issue in the evenings.
Approached after the meeting, Mr Thomson said he did not wish to elaborate publicly on the circumstances of the event which prompted him raising the matter with the hospital.
The hospital has been under pressure to improve its ED staying times to meet the national target which requires that 95% patients are treated and discharged or admitted to a ward within six hours.
