00:02This doctor works at Ballarat Base Hospital and says its emergency department is under
00:08siege.
00:08It's not uncommon for someone to wait around 40 hours for a bed on the ward.
00:14He says staff are deflated, defeated and many, including him, want to lead the industry.
00:21It's something you work really hard for.
00:23I enjoy it, but being pushed in a system where you can't do your job effectively or safely,
00:30it makes me want to leave.
00:32Government data shows in the first three months of this year, the major metropolitan hospitals
00:37had almost no patients stay in emergency for more than 24 hours.
00:41But in hospitals servicing regional Victoria, Bendigo and Aubrey had more than 400 each,
00:47while in Ballarat, 884 patients were stuck in the ED for 24 hours or more.
00:53The target is zero.
00:55Any patient waiting for an inpatient bed more than eight hours, that starts to actually
01:00be a sign of system dysfunction.
01:02Kevin Harper has worked in the health industry for the past 40 years.
01:06When he visited the Ballarat Base Emergency Department with his partner recently, he'd never
01:11seen anything like it.
01:13I heard the senior nurse discussing with one of the triage staff where they possibly could
01:19put beds into corridors to make them, not just a waiting space, but a treatment space
01:24as well.
01:25He says it's placing undue pressure on doctors.
01:29Running, running to get the bloods off, running to get paperwork, running to the next patient,
01:34non-stop, all night running around.
01:36And staff say it's also putting patients' safety at risk.
01:40In one instance, the ABC's been told an intern doctor gave pain relief to a patient with a
01:45headache, only to discover it was a life-threatening brain bleed.
01:50Their hands should basically be held.
01:52We're dealing with people's lives.
01:54They require direct supervision.
01:57Should an intern have that much pressure to see a patient independently?
02:02Of course not.
02:02Grampians Health acknowledged its wait times are longer than others, but says its highly
02:08trained doctors and support staff are committed to providing high-quality care under challenging
02:13circumstances.
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