Canberra Health Services has removed a video it acknowledged was “not well executed and open to misinterpretation” after “appalled” advocates of endometriosis accused the government organisation of diminishing the acute pain of people living with endometriosis and arthritis.
The video, intended to provide an overview of how emergency departments worked as part of a larger health literacy campaign, has since been deleted from Canberra Health Services’ Instagram account. It is still visible on ABC News.
In the video, a health professional tells viewers “not all ED visits need a hospital admission. We prioritise life- and limb-threatening situations so we can help those who need immediate attention … This means we prioritise time-critical test results or those that answer the questions we’re asking.
“Sometimes our tests will reveal conditions that aren’t an emergency, such as endometriosis or arthritis. We don’t follow these up in the ED. Instead, we refer you back to your GP for follow-up or further tests so we can focus on helping people with life-threatening conditions.”
Lesley Freedman, the co-founder of charity EndoActive alongside Sylvia Freedman, said they were “absolutely shocked and astounded that that video was ever made.”
Freedman said the video’s implication that endometriosis was not an emergency was a particularly harmful message from health professionals, and an especially surprising one from Canberra hospital, which was the first place in Australia to have an endometriosis clinic.
Freedman said she was “shocked of the ignorance from a hospital who should know better than all the others to make such a terrible statement” and added that anyone living with endometriosis “would feel as I do – shocked, tearful, angry, appalled”.
A Canberra Health Services spokesperson said “the intention of the video was to give a general overview of how the EDs work and that the incidental discovery of chronic conditions (conditions people may not have known they had before attending but were diagnosed during their assessment) are best referred back to their GP or other community based health care for follow up, after receiving immediate treatment for their acute presentation in the ED.”
Freedman said that the hospital’s stated intention about the incidental discovery of chronic conditions was “ridiculous – you don’t discover endo accidentally.”
The spokesperson said, “the video was not intended to be about people with severe, uncontrollable pain. Anyone with severe pain who is seeking treatment should come to the ED or seek other appropriate medical attention, whatever the cause. This includes people who have acute complications of endometriosis, such as pain flare ups or severe bleeding.
“We recognise this component of the video was not well executed and open to misinterpretation. We do not want people to think they should not attend the ED with acute pain, or to appear dismissive of those who experience chronic conditions that can result in acute pain.”
The spokesperson said CHS was meeting with “concerned community members” and acknowledged that people with endometriosis “do not always experience supportive care across the broader health system”.
“Further work is needed to improve understanding of this common but often poorly understood condition,” the spokesperson said.
“We apologise for any confusion or distress the video may have caused.”
