We spent some quality time in the emergency department waiting room last night at Calvary Hospital in Canberra. Five and a half hours to be exact and I'm pretty fucking cranky about it.

My five year old had the classic childhood accident, slipping and falling on her chin, splitting it to the bone. I was out getting some groceries at the time and came back to Apocalypse Now. The French (bless him) has a different approach to me in these situations and was administering first aid in shouty, theatrical gesticulations guaranteed to make any small person think she is dying. Before I could get her out the door I had to guarantee that we would see the resident plastic surgeon# (wtf?) and report back every ten minutes on progress. By the time this little girl-child was in the car she was shaking with shock and had deerintheheadlight eyes, certain of imminent death. So all the way to the hospital I sang every nursery rhyme that came to my head, one hand on the wheel, the other hand hold a wad of bandage to her chin.

When we arrived at emergency, the staff were everything that you would expect of them. Professional, highly trained, calm, assertive but also from the number of people in the waiting room, outrageously understaffed. We chose a strategic seat close to the front desk, not knowing that this would be our home for the next five and half hours. We read books and played eye spy and had drugs adminstered to numb the pain until E fell asleep on my lap. I spent the next three hours motionless watching the fascinating human condition as it presented itself in that small hot waiting room and slowly but surely became very bloody pissed off. NOT with the staff, they were to a man (and woman) wonderful. It was the fucked up nature of the system that allows very small children and elderly people to sit  in pain for hours and hours waiting to be attended to that incensed me.  For myself I can understand the wait, I've lived in a number of countries where waiting is like a national pastime. Healthy young adults can get in line, I'm good with that. Very young children and elderly people have the right and I would say our society has the moral obligation to ensure that their needs are attended to promptly and effectively.

As it stands E's needs were met if not promptly, certainly effectively by a young registrar who was profuse in his apologies. She will have the classic rites of passage chin scar to remember the occasion. My question now is when will we as a society get our collective shit together and effectively fund our public health system? Afterall what can be more important than meeting the needs of some of the most vulnerable members of our community?

# Sidenote: The French's demand re a plastic surgeon sounded ludicrous to me at the time but I realise that it demostrates a clear difference in the investment in health services between Australia and France. In most public hospitals in France children are triaged and attended to very quickly and it would not be considered laughable to expect a plastic surgeon to be on hand to suture a split chin.

Comments

[flowerpress]

So sorry to hear about your daughter's chin and that wait.
At our local(by luck RPA of tv fame) they have a separate system and space for kids' emergency and have always dealt with us quickly which is such a godsend. Its also away from adult emergency patients who can sometimes be a bit messy.

[katiecrackernuts]

The system is indeed rooted and I feel for the people at the frontline. How they do what they do, I have no idea. Hope the chin heals a-OK.

[leah of sang the bird]

Oh, I hope she is ok. It is so stressful being inemergency waiting rooms, especially with children. Understaffing hospitals is disgraceful. Hope you had a glass of something strong when you finally got home xxx

[cherrie]

It's part of the rite of passage for parents too. The endless waitng and fear for your child. Don't worry - nothing will happen any faster than before you went. Sorry but I think the days of improvement in the system have passed by. Also sorry for your little one. At her age it must be very scary. Hope she heels fast. Cherrie

[Kate]

Don't get me started on the health system. I shell out a shed load for Alfie on an ongoing basis, yes we can afford it but I constantly wonder about those who can't and what that means for their smalls?

Glad to hear the 5 year old is on the mend x

[Kate]

So sorry to hear about the split chin and the wait. One good benefit of small town living is being seen and fixed very fast at our little hospital.

[Kirsty]

Yep - it's crap.

Sorry about the small & the long wait too. Hope she's aOK today.

Lots of love.

xxx

[paula]

ah yes last weekend we spent saturday night at the childrens hospital, our little one fell and pushed his teeth up into his gums x we were lucky as we needed a dentist not doctor but 3 hours is still a drag ...

[Jules]

Oh Nan, poor little love. In my (sadly extensive) experience with the health system in Canberra, I now take small people to Canberra, not Calvary - they have paediatric emergency beds and tend to see the smalls a bit quicker. Still, the system sucks - we need a beer together to compare war stories, have spent WAAAAAAAAAAYYY too much time in that place in the past couple years!

[Karin]

Must be so frustrating for those who are caught up in all that as part of their day to day work. Not only do other counties manage this process better, but looking at the comments, the process changes depending on the hospital. If a good model exists, why isn't it implemented everywhere?