Long waits a hard pill to swallow

Lee Mohr says she feels like a nuisance at Middlemore Hospital. Photo / Michael Craig

It is just after 8 o'clock on Friday night and Lee Mohr is doubled up in pain, alone at a bus stop outside Middlemore Hospital in South Auckland.

The 39-year-old has just spent six hours in A&E and has missed the last direct service home to Otahuhu. She faces a 3km walk to catch another connecting bus.

Mohr says she has made eight trips to Middlemore in the past 19 months with a recurring gynaecological problem. The condition leaves her with agonising abdominal pains and she is unhappy about the quality of her treatment.

"I have an infection that won't go away with the antibiotics my GP has given me, so when I'm in pain I am sent to the hospital," she says. "Most of the time the staff say they can't keep seeing me as an ongoing patient. They hand me some Panadol and send me on my way."

The Herald on Sunday interviewed patients leaving Auckland, Middlemore, North Shore and Waikato hospitals on Friday night. They were mostly impressed with the medical care. Many, however, were unhappy with the delays and paperwork.

Mohr feels like she is being passed from pillar to post. "I am made to feel like I am a nuisance."

But Dr Vanessa Thornton, Middlemore's head of emergency care, says Friday was particularly busy: 316 patients in 24 hours.

In most cases, she says, chronic abdominal pain with exacerbation has been fully investigated and all the emergency department can do is offer pain relief. "There is no acute emergency requiring admission," she adds. "These patients are often difficult to diagnose and help."

Outside Waikato Hospital, psychiatric patient Barbi Sutton, who has recently undergone reconstructive surgery, is unhappy with the attitude of hospital staff. "I think that the psychiatrists and doctors perhaps look down on their clients."

Health Waikato chief operating officer Jan Adams rejects that: "Our staff are employed to be professional in their workplace and provide quality, safe healthcare with respect and dignity."

At Auckland City Hospital, amputee Matt Gardener is happy to have found doctors and nurses who address his concerns, after surgery in another hospital left him with an infected wound on the stump of his amputated leg.

Gardener, 43, was impressed with Auckland City Hospital: "They take time to listen to the patient. Here they know all about you and you leave it up to them."

At North Shore Hospital, Takapuna, it is a similarly positive story. About 10pm, the A&E department is fairly quiet.

A couple who had taken a sick relative there earlier in the day are happy with the experience. "We were seen straight away and tests and x-rays we thought would not get done until Monday were conducted immediately," one of the visitors says. "The treatment couldn't be faulted."

Reporting team: Russell Blackstock at Middlemore and North Shore hospitals, Elesha Edmonds at Auckland City Hospital, Ciaran Warner at Waikato Hospital