Page 3285 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 13 November 2007
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The average waiting time in emergency was about two hours, and from 2003, that suddenly seemed to jump to about eight hours. It certainly has not got any better. Recently Katy Gallagher and I received a letter from a constituent. I wrote to him on Monday asking whether, in fact, I could use his comments in debate in the Assembly. The letter he sent by email to both Katy Gallagher and me was sent on Monday, 17 September 2007, at 7.54 am. I am not going to name him, but that, in itself, should enable the minister to actually respond to his email, which, as of yesterday, did not appear to have been the case.
He gave me consent to use his email. He wanted to stress that the people working in the hospital are superheroes working under great stress. He went on to say that it was 25 years since he was hospitalised, and he was appalled to see how conditions have so badly deteriorated. He wondered whether, in fact, the health minister would respond to his email. I hope she does.
I will just read out his email that he sent to us on 17 September at 7.54 am:
Dear Minister and Mr Stefaniak,
I have several questions of you Minister I copy this email to Mr Stefaniak as a local member of ours and as opposition leader:
1. Is a waiting time of over ten hours to receive emergency surgery for a serious injury at Canberra Hospital an acceptable time frame?
2. Is a waiting time of over three hours to have an infected and exceedingly painful hand attended to at Calvary hospital an acceptable time frame?
3. Is a public hospital clinic so short staffed and over worked that staff cannot do their work competently (my opinion) and acceptable outcome?
4. Is a bathroom in a hospital ward of Canberra Hospital that is literally dirty (that is being kind, I would say filthy given that it is in a hospital) an acceptable situation?
Now Minister, I do not want a “politician response”, simply a yes or no will satisfy me to the above questions with which to begin, assuming you actually get to read this mail of course.
A little background to assist you in replying to this mail in short point form;
• I was admitted to A&E Canberra hospital with two fractures one a compound variety the other a common type and a dislocation. I arrived at about 23:00 and was taken to day surgery at about 09:30 the following morning to rectify matters a very long time flat out on an A&E bed with an exposed wound and while I fortunately have limited memory of pain my wife expressed the fact that I was in significant pain from time to time.
• My wife required attention for a severely infected hand (she has no lymph nodes in that arm and is prone to infection from the most
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