Over a year ago the emergency department at Wollongong hospital was in crisis. At times this city's entire ambulance fleet was sitting in the hospital car park with patients that could not be off-loaded because no beds were available.
Money materialised to increase the number of treatment bays and it seemed that reason had prevailed - and that the problem was solved. Now it seems that this is not so.
Once again we have this ambulance queue and we learn that ambulances had to be drafted in from the Shoalhaven to try and spread the load. The safety of patients requiring the fast dispatch of an ambulance is at risk because the trained personnel who could save a life are acting as nursemaids to other patients in the hospital car park.
It seems that the health people found a very reasonable solution to this overload problem - but only put it into practice in Sydney and Newcastle. As usual, Wollongong is the poor relation that misses out whenever new innovative practices are devised.
It was also a very simple idea. Off duty ambulance officers were drafted to form crisis teams who could be quickly deployed when an ambulance bottleneck was looming at the hospital. These fully trained people took over patient care and waited until the triage people took over their patient - freeing the ambulance and it's crew to attend other emergencies.
Of course these off duty people expect to be paid - and that seems to be the stumbling block.
Patients in Wollongong have every right to think that the health department sees them as second class citizens if the standard of care offered is lower than that provided in Sydney and Newcastle.
Time to prove the theory that the squeaky wheel gets oil !
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