Another cancer patient shares Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital corridor hell

Another cancer patient who has experienced the indignity of spending the night in a cold and draughty hospital corridor has stepped forward to share her story. As revealed in The West Australian, retired Esperance farmer Ian Hay, 83, who is battling the incurable cancer mesothelioma, was last week forced to spend more than 24 hours on a bed in a hallway at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital because it didn’t have a room for him. Now a woman in her 60s has come forward to describe how she also spent 24 hours in the same cancer ward corridor in June, in the same position as Mr Hay. And she had seen other patients in the same place during other hospital admissions. “I can’t explain how stressful it is — on top of having blood cancer and having chemo treatment — to be left on a bed in a corridor,” she said. “If it’s just one or two hours, OK, but overnight is just not on.” The woman said the bed was placed near the ward’s main entry doors and a chilly gust blew past every time they opened. “And you’re undergoing chemotherapy treatment and it’s freezing cold,” she said. “Every trolley, every patient, every visitor walks past you and you’re opposite the visitors’ room. Your only toilet option is the public toilets. “The poor nurses do their best, they give you extra blankets, but a corridor’s a corridor.” Apart from the discomfort, the woman also struggled to sleep because she felt insecure and exposed to illnesses that could be life threatening for an immunocompromised individual. “You feel very vulnerable because strangers are walking past you,” she said. “Someone could walk past and sneeze on you.” The patient said nurses gave her a small buzzer attached by a magnet to a notice board on the wall, while a screen offered some privacy. But it was still an uncomfortable night. “They turn down the lights at night but otherwise the light’s on,” she said. “You’re underneath the alarm for the room behind you so every time someone presses the buzzer, you’ve got that right in your ear.” She also felt for the nurses, who had been apologetic that she was put in that situation. “The staff there are just impeccable, I can’t tell you how amazing they are,” she said. “There has to be a solution to this.” The woman asked not to be named, but The West has confirmed with the hospital she was treated in the corridor in June. Six weeks ago The West also revealed the plight of former fly-in, fly-out worker Gary Helm, 65, who spent hours in a SCGH hallway while suffering stage four prostate cancer. The North Metropolitan Health Service said during busy periods patients could be transferred to a ward to receive specialised care while waiting for a bed to become available. “During winter months, hospitals expect to have higher admissions through the emergency department of complications from influenza and respiratory viruses,” a spokesperson said. “At all times our focus remains on ensuring patients are properly cared for and triaged according to clinical need.” Australian Nursing Federation of WA president Janet Reah said it was clear Perth’s hospitals had exceeded capacity. “Unfortunately, hallway patients or ‘red squaring’ as it’s referred to is still very commonplace,” she said. Red-squaring refers to the practice of outlining the position for a hallway bed with red tape. Liberal leader and shadow health minister Libby Mettam described the practice as “awful”. “No Western Australian should suffer the indignity of being treated in a corridor,” she said. “WA is living through the biggest boom in our history, but this government has totally squandered it.” Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said the Cook Government had injected “record funding” into WA’s health system, including a range of measures to ease pressure on hospitals. “These include the State Health Operations Centre and the WA Virtual Emergency Department — which are being progressively brought online,” she said. “The reality is health systems around the nation are under pressure as a result of our ageing population.”