DELAY AT HOSPITAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 661, 13 May 1929, Page 11

DELAY AT HOSPITAL

Casualty Ward Complaint FOOTBALLER SITS TWO HOURS Waiting With Broken Collar-Bone COMPLAIN "fs of long' and unnecessary delays in the casualty department of the Auckland Hospital have been received by The Sun. It is said by more than one informant that accident patients on Saturday afternoon suffered because of the length of time they were obliged to wait before receiving medical attention.

The casualty department at the hospital consists of a small suite of rooms just inside the main entrances. Here all minor cases are received and treated. Street accident victims, injured footballers and others are conveyed, examined, treated and discharged or "warded,” as the case may be. Every day the department is open, with members of the hospital staff in attendance. The patients trickle in regularly, for never a day passes without mishaps occurring in various parts of the city. But on Saturdays, particularly during the football season, the number of cases is much larger, and injured players from Auckland sports grounds swell the ranks of sufferers from every-day accidents. Forms and other seats are provided in the casualty department and in the passage outside. Here the sufferers sit waiting until their turn comes to enter the alcove where the doctor is working. On Saturday afternoon an Auckland man who had accompanied an injured player to the hospital casualty department communicated with The Sun shortly before 4.30 p.m., and complained bitterly that he had been unable to secure prompt attention for his friend. “It is a crying shame,” he said. “There are upwards of a dozen injured men waiting in the casualty station, and they are not receiving medical attention. One ox- two have been there since 2.30 p.m. They have been told that a doctor will not be available until about 5 o’clock.”