Time to sit up and listen

The Taranaki District Health Board this week has a chance to sit up and listen to their staff and make necessary changes. It should not waste that opportunity on a witch hunt. Over the weekend a medical professional at Taranaki Base Hospital’s New Plymouth emergency department encouraged a patient’s family to complain about the situation they were in.

We have deliberately withheld the role of the worker for fear they will face disciplinary action for what we believe was an act motivated out of genuine patient and staff concern.

TDHB chief operating officer Gillian Campbell has already stated patients had a right to complain but she would not expect staff to ask them to. She would follow up with staff who worked over the weekend, she said, and there would be a ‘‘review if required’’. We absolutely believe a review is required. The patient had spent 26 hours in the emergency ward.

Management might think it’s OK, the health worker said, but staff don’t.

Anyone who has used Taranaki Base Hospital’s emergency department system knows by many measures it’s broken.

Part of the problem is not enough staff, part of it is people using the department as a free doctor’s service, and part of it is the peaks and troughs of sickness and injury.

We know this system is routinely stretched to breaking because the goal is that people are generally treated within six hours.

Six hours is hardly something to be proud of. It’s a ridiculously long time for someone to wait when they are sick. Especially if that patient is a child who cannot comprehend why they still hurt despite being at the hospital, the place dedicated to making them feel better.

But we also know management of such departments is a balancing act. Resources need to be allocated for the best possible overall result. Within that will be tales of despair and also tales of absolute gratitude. The performance of the department cannot be judged by the outliers.

No-one knows that better than the staff working there. They’re highly trained medical professionals. They know it’s not a simple numbers game. So if they feel compelled to instigate a complaint process against their own organisation it indicates not a one-off problem but a systemic failing of the policies and procedures the department operates under.

Bear in mind the lodging of a complaint was not simply suggested, as any staff member is obliged to offer the opportunity to those who feel aggrieved. The complaint was solicited and then encouraged as the only way to get those who manage the resources of the hospital to listen and make changes.

Kiwis are generally shy about complaining. They would simply rather not do it. They don’t want to stand out. And this is why the complaint should be regarded as a cry for help on behalf of all of us. This complaint should be used as evidence to Health Minister David Clark that health workers are being pushed beyond their limits too often and patients are suffering. Something needs to change.

That change doesn’t need to start with blame, with attempts to salve bruised egos.

It is better managed by first listening to those who speak out and then demonstrating a willingness to engage them as part of the solution.

Matt Rilkoff is the editor of the Taranaki Daily News.

We absolutely believe a review is required. The patient had spent 26 hours in the emergency ward.