Patience, it’s an emergency
Dr Tom Mulholland is an Emergency Department Doctor and GP with over 25 years’ experience in New Zealand. He’s currently a man on a mission, tackling health missions around the world.
Emergency departments are like icebergs. You only see about 10 per cent of what is going on when sitting in the waiting room. What lies beneath or inside the doors can be frightening and dangerous, just like an iceberg. So ‘‘How long will I have to wait?’’ is a difficult question to answer. Unseen by the waiting public, are the ambulance and critically ill people, who go to a different area of the ED and understandably take more resources and time. Having survived working another busy weekend, which included the last Lions test, you could feel the vibe in the waiting room as the walking wounded and ill await their turn. Although most are pleasant and understanding, a few become agitated or unreasonable as the wait time extends. It takes a certain amount of selfcontrol when you have just been seeing a critically ill patient to then be accosted by someone who has had a rash for five years and has rocked up to the Emergency Department on a Saturday night of a test match – and is complaining about the wait. The irony and reality is we are not trained in chronic rash, that’s what dermatologists do and we don’t have them on call in an Emergency Department. If you have had something for five years then it is not really an emergency and is best seen elsewhere. Other things people can do to avoid coming to the ED and having to wait is to take simple pain relief available from the chemist or supermarket. We often see people who present with simple pain and when asked have you taken anything for it they respond ‘‘no’’. We give them some pain relief and they go home feeling better and reassured. Having some pain relief at home is a good idea if you don’t want to wait for long periods of time and expose yourself to a waiting room of coughs and illness.
Doing a First Aid course, having some Steri-Strips , a First Aid kit and dressings can sometimes save you a trip to the ED. This is especially relevant in the workplace: we often see kitchen staff with a simple, clean superficial cut that doesn’t need our expertise if the nerves, tendons and blood vessels are intact and their tetanus is up to date.
It’s not that we mind seeing people, that’s what we are paid to do. It’s just that it is getting busier with winter, Saturday sport, plus fewer people seem to have a GP. We are often busy with emergencies, and the heart attacks, strokes, trauma, assaults and drunken falls take priority.
It may be convenient to turn up to the Emergency Department but expect to wait if you don’t have something seriously wrong. While it would never happen, a TV in the waiting room showing the real-life carnage happening next door would put things into perspective for angry, impatient people waiting to be seen.
So, here’s a plea from Emergency Department staff nationwide who are under the pump this busy winter.
Ask yourself, is it really an emergency you have? If you want to be seen that’s fine, but please be understanding if your wait times are unpredictable or long if you have a minor complaint. We are doing our very best to help those you cannot see.