Dad Dies After Hospital A&E Wait

Right: Stewart Fleming

10:14am UK, Tuesday December 30, 2008

The widow of a man who died after a six-hour wait at an accident and emergency department has demanded answers from a hospital trust.

Father-of-two Stewart Fleming had a note from his GP requesting immediate admission because a suspected viral infection had failed to clear with antibiotics.

The 37-year-old, of Rainham, Kent, was taken to the Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham by his wife Sarah on December 12.

But she claimed her husband had to wait six hours before being admitted and his condition deteriorated.

He was transferred a week later to the Harefield Hospital in west London, but died on Saturday.
Medway NHS Foundation Trust said it was "saddened" to hear of Mr Fleming's death, but its emergency ward was "experiencing long waits" due to a high number of admissions.

In an interview with the Kent Messenger, Mrs Fleming said her husband should have been treated sooner.

She said: "Why wait three hours for a triage when a doctor had already done it and put in writing what was going on?

"I know the A&E department was full to bursting, there weren't chairs, there were people sitting on floors."

Mrs Fleming queried why the hospital did not act on the GP's note and treat her husband immediately.

She added: "The ICU (intensive care unit) department did their very best, I am not disputing that, once he was up there. Even on the high dependency unit they were doing their damnedest to get him to the Harefield because it is the best.

"Why was he not admitted like he was told by his GP? He had all those hours and on monitor they might have been able to stop what has happened. I am no doctor but that is how I am feeling at this time."

The GP who referred Mr Fleming to hospital has called for a full investigation.
Dr Tamil Selvan, 51, said: "I don't yet know the full details of what happened... it's early days, but we most certainly need to get to the bottom of it."

Doctors in primary care endeavour to do the best they can but when we refer patients to hospital, for whatever reason, we expect the full support of our colleagues in secondary care."

Hospital Bills Woman Who Didn't See Doctor

I've decided to start covering emergency room news items because they are getting worse and worse, with long waits now the norm and staff that is indifferent to people. Not too long ago there were two items in the news, one a woman who lay dead on the floor for hours and a video of the waiting room clearly shows when she died and fell out of the chair. Another was a man who waited over 24 hours, then was left dead in a wheelchair for hours after he died.

Whether we are led in the future by a republican or democrat administration, health care must be fixed. My stance is that we all are covered by the same level and at the same cost as the members of the House of Representatives and Senate.

Woman Says She Waited In ER 19 Hours
October 21, 2008

DALLAS -- A woman says she waited 19 hours at Parkland Memorial Hospital's emergency department for treatment of a broken leg and never did get to see a doctor -- but still got a bill for $162.

Amber Joy Milbrodt, who said she broke a bone in her leg while playing volleyball, received the bill two weeks after her Sept. 24 visit.

Parkland officials say the bill was appropriate because a nurse spent time checking her vital signs to assess her level of need.

But that's not how Milbrodt sees it. "It should have been more like them paying me for having to sit in the emergency room for 19 hours," she told The Dallas Morning News.

The assessment by the nurse, which lasted a few minutes, established her place in line that night. By that time, Milbrodt said, she had already been waiting about 3½ hours.

She still had not been called more than 15 hours later, so she gave up and went home. She an X-ray taken at a chiropractic school where she is a student had already confirmed that she had a fracture.

"She's not paying for waiting," says Rick Rhine, the hospital's vice president in charge of billing. "She's paying for the assessment she received."

Milbrodt, 29, who has no insurance, said she does not plan to pay. After leaving the ER, she rested at home for a few days and then put her leg in a brace, which she still wears. It seems to be healing, she said.

A few days before Milbrodt's visit, a 58-year-old man who went to the ER with stomach pains also waited 19 hours -- and then suffered cardiac arrest and died.

Hospital officials say they need more beds to handle the excessive number of patients who need care. A bond measure on the Nov. 4 ballot would provide funds for a new, larger hospital.

Fort Worth's large public hospital, John Peter Smith, shares Parkland's policy of charging for a triage assessment. But other hospitals in Dallas, such as Baylor University Medical Center, don't charge if the person never sees a doctor.