A 66-year-old man's death could have been prevented if he did not have to wait six hours at a Victorian hospital emergency department, a coroner has found.
Neville Ernest Mills died at Bacchus Marsh and Melton Regional Hospital on July 15, 2021, after an aortic aneurysm ruptured in his abdomen.
The Melton West resident had complained of pain in his lower left side a day earlier and was taken to Sunshine Hospital's emergency department.
He waited in the emergency department for more than six hours from about 10.30pm, before he left at about 5.30am without receiving medical treatment.
Mr Mills rested at home but remained in considerable pain.
His daughter drove him to Bacchus Marsh and Melton Regional Hospital in Bacchus Marsh and they arrived about 2.10pm on July 15.
Staff performed a CT scan at about 5.10pm and decided he needed to be transferred to a bigger hospital for treatment because his kidneys were not functioning normally.
His daughter was called back to the hospital, but Mr Mills suffered a sudden onset of severe pain and collapsed shortly afterwards.
The results of the CT scan showed he had suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm.
Staff performed CPR for 40 minutes, but Mr Mills was unable to be revived.
Death caused distress
Mr Mills's daughter wrote to the Coroner's Court nine days after her father's death, expressing "concern, frustration and distress" at the lack of treatment received at Sunshine Hospital.
"Mr Mills's death may have been prevented if he had been able to be seen earlier by a doctor when he presented to the ED at Sunshine Hospital," Coroner David Ryan wrote in his findings released yesterday.
"It may also have been prevented if he had have remained at the ED until he was seen by a doctor.
"However, it is understandable in the circumstances that Mr Mills left, given he had waited over six hours and he may have been minimising his pain."
Hospital records reveal more than 90 adult patients were waiting in the Sunshine Hospital emergency department when Mr Mills was there, above the maximum cubicle capacity of 50 people.
More than 45 patients were waiting to see a doctor and eight patients were waiting to be off-loaded from ambulances, with four medical registrars on duty to manage the patients.
Ten patients left the emergency department that day without being seen or were discharged without accessing a treatment space, with the average length of stay for those patients almost 11 hours.
Records show 9 per cent of patients were seen by a doctor within the recommended time.
Hospital makes changes
Sunshine Hospital told Mr Ryan the emergency department was being expanded to increase cubicle capacity and staffing levels, especially overnight.
It said it was also introducing new processes to contact high risk patients who decided to leave without being seen by a doctor.
Mr Ryan did not criticise Sunshine Hospital emergency department staff.
He said the situation was reflective of "significant overload" at Victorian emergency departments and "access block" causing delays in moving people from emergency to inpatient wards.
