WHAT OUR READERS SAID ...

BULLETIN readers shared their recent experiences with the Gold Coast’s public health system on social media.

Tenille Cotter: I was in paediatric (children’s ED) yesterday. Four hours and no one was seen. I’m a nurse and 90 per cent of the children I saw walk through the door needed to be seen. Doctors ended up having to come into the waiting room to see their patients. The hallways were lined with stretchers and paramedics. It’s not just our hospitals it’s also our GP clinics. The GC wasn’t ready for this mass influx of people. The staff are doing everything they can, this problem needs to be addressed asap.

Kaye Morgan: I feel sorry for the staff, they are so over worked and yes I saw the ramping of ambulances on Monday. The system is so bogged down the government need to get more staff but then there’s not enough beds so your chasing your tail. The staff do an excellent job. Wendy Deller: I needed a home doctor the other week for my daughter. But because she had vomiting and temperatures they told me to call triple-0. Stuff like that is not helping the system. All I needed was a doc to script me something to get the temp down other than Panadol or Nurofen. It’s like the system isn’t even helping itself. Dione Beddoes: Because none of our local doctors will see anyone with COVID! It’s insane! People are still going to get sick. Doctors need to start taking patients as per normal so our hospitals aren’t taking the full brunt!

Emma Krmic: Our hospitals need more staff, I was told GCUH has 20 operating theatres yet only one is allocated for emergency surgeries so I had to wait four days in hospital on emergency list until I called Ryan’s Rule to which the hospital administration berated me over doing but magically then had time for my surgery two hours later. The hospitals need more staff. Caroline Bower: I waited 11 hours for an ambulance Friday 2 weeks ago. It took a nurse from 13 Health to place a call to triple-0 to get them out to me quicker.

Rob Opray: I had an 80-plus previous stroke victim go to GCUH with a suspected stroke after passing out and they sat him in the ambo for over two hours before even seeing him to diagnose what had happened … its insane. Aaron Faulkner: I’ve been ramped three nights in a row to be told there’s no beds, go home. Guess cancer isn’t as important as a cut finger. Sarah Bussell: I arrived by ambulance Sunday night with pancreatitis. There were seven ambulances there. Seven paramedics standing inside beside their patient’s stretcher, waiting for them to get a bed. My paramedic told me that they can’t go back out on the road until their patient has been taken care of.