A health worker claims that patients are dying in the waiting room at one of the biggest hospitals in Sydney’s west due to overcrowding.
The whistleblower worked on the frontline at Westmead Hospital and told the Nine that preparing a shift felt like “preparing for a battle”.
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“I don’t want to look another patient’s relative in the eye and say they have died in our waiting room,” the whistleblower said.
The worker told the news outlet that they were trying to resuscitate sick people in a space that was not designed for that purpose.
“They have died because the emergency department was so overcrowded that patients we have already seen have not moved on, and we can’t treat new patients,” the worker said.
The worker advised people to drive to Royal North Shore Hospital for better care.
They said patients would receive better care and more private bed space compared to facilities at the Westmead Emergency.
According to an interview between the Nine and a 67-year-old patient, Josephine Lord, Ms Lord was left in the same area for 15 hours while suffering a fever and having trouble breathing.
She sat on a plastic chair all night and stayed awake for almost 24 hours.
After the doctor told her that no beds were left in the hospital, she was moved to a temporary bed in the emergency department for three days.
“It’s at that point I’m thinking, am I in trouble here?” Lord said.
Western Sydney Local Health District chief executive Graham Loy said Westmead Hospital had experienced “a high volume of patients presenting the ED in recent months.
“We sincerely apologise to anyone who may have experienced a long wait time in our emergency department (ED)”.
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