Monash Medical Centre

Let’s talk emergency departments.
Hospitals have been getting a lot of flack over the last few years, mostly because of underfunding, lack of space and the resulting overcrowding and slow treatment times.
So maybe I shouldn’t be so critical.
At least, that was what I thought until I experienced another hospital emergency department that has even less money than MMC.
Unfortunately I’ve had to spend far more time than I’d have liked sitting in emergency waiting rooms over the last year — not as a patient, but as the person bringing a patient in. I’ve thus been in an interesting position of seeing the attitudes to patients, and patient care without being in significant enough distress to forget it all. What I have seen is the hospital being quite disillusioned with its patients, and now treating them as tasks to get through rather than people who need care. Sure, if you’re dying, they’ll look after you. But if you’re having a mental «episode», you’ll get left in the waiting room to be minded by people who have no idea what to do (your friends). I recognise that they are short of beds and time, but I suspect it’s starting to impact patient care.