Be a patient ED patient this Christmas
21 December 2010
Hunter New England Health is asking the community to be patient if they need to attend a hospital emergency department for a less urgent condition over the busy Christmas period.
John Hunter Hospital Emergency Medicine Service Manager Catherine Foster-Curry said the holiday period tended to be a particularly busy time of year for emergency departments with more people presenting to the hospital with injuries as a result of being more active during the summer break.
“The John Hunter Emergency Department can get really busy over the holiday period and while our staff work hard to keep waiting times down, the increased demand over this time may mean that people with less urgent conditions may need to wait until more urgent cases are seen,” Ms Foster-Curry said.
“It’s important to understand that emergency departments are for people requiring immediate medical attention for urgent, unexpected conditions. While we wouldn’t turn anyone anyway, our priority is to treat the most serious cases first.
“This is why emergency departments have a ‘triage’ system in place to ensure that people needing urgent medical treatment are cared for first. They do not operate on a first-come-first-served basis.
“When a patient arrives in the emergency department a triage nurse will assess them as soon as possible to determine the severity of their illness or injury and an appropriate timeframe for the patient to be treated will be assigned based on a triage category assessment,” Ms Foster-Curry said.
“If you see a person arriving after you and being treated before you, it may be because their condition requires more urgent care. Patients in the waiting room can’t see behind the scenes and they don’t see the number of critical patients arriving by ambulance.
“However, if your condition changes while you are waiting to see the doctor, please let the triage nurse know and they will reassess you,” Ms Foster-Curry said.
Ms Foster said there are a number of reasons why there is an increased demand for emergency departments over the Christmas holiday period.
“People tend to be more active during the holiday season and there tends to be more people on the roads which unfortunately can lead to more people getting injured and seeking treatment in the emergency department,” Ms Foster-Curry said
“We also tend to see an increase in patients presenting with stomach problems since Christmas is often a time for overindulging in food or not storing food under optimal conditions.
“The best Christmas present you can give your family is to take precautions and keep yourself safe so that you don’t end up spending time in an emergency department waiting room this holiday period.”
Contact: Frances Holz
Phone: 4939 2216