A HUNTER man who had his surgery for a smashed elbow "postponed" every day for almost a week at the new Maitland Hospital is calling for change after being left "gobsmacked" by the staff shortages and service delays.
Mark Howe, a former radiographer who now runs a safety consultancy business, was to have "nil by mouth" ahead of surgery for a badly broken elbow that was "bent back the wrong way".
Mr Howe said he was drip-fed and on minimal water to prepare for the surgery each day, but six days passed before he would receive the operation as more urgent, higher priority cases came in. He said he felt like he was in a third world country.
"It was like I'd come off a moped, and I was waiting for someone to go and buy a Makita drill to put some screws in my arms," he said.
"One day went passed. I was prepped all day, I had the stockings on, ready to go, and it was cancelled. The next day - same thing. Nothing to eat - nil per mouth, then cancelled. Third day... It was five or six days that I got prepped and ready to go, and still nothing occurred."
Mr Howe said he is not sure the surgery would have happened when it did had he not reached out to state member for Maitland, Jenny Aitchison, to intervene. But the procedural problems, wait times, and chronic staff shortages he witnessed during his treatment there needed to be addressed because it was "atrocious".
"You spend all this money on a brand new hospital..." he said. "The staff morale was bottom of the barrel. Some of the staff were wonderful, and others had been pushed and pulled so hard they were quite agitated. I'm not blaming them for that - I'm blaming the workload.
"There were nurses that had years of experience telling me they were ready to walk out because they'd lost their passion and drive to look after people... and they would rather go and pack shelves at Woolies."
Mr Howe's injury occurred after a "slip, trip and fall" in Singleton in March. He said he was taken to Singleton Hospital that morning by paramedics, despite expressing a desire to go to a hospital more likely equipped to perform the required surgery.
"I'd broken four components off the end of my humerus, and my elbow and humerus were dislocated," he said. "I waited at Singleton Hospital for nearly seven hours with the green whistle because that was their 'process'. Then they took me to Maitland Hospital where I waited another eight hours before I got into a bed about 3am the following morning."
It required about 16 screws and three plates to fix the bones back into place.
"I wanted to make sure I didn't damage any response in my hands, so I was quite concerned about getting this done and getting it done straight away," he said.
But he was worried others - particularly elderly patients with hip fractures - could be waiting weeks for surgery at the hospital too.
"The room and the facility at Maitland Hospital? Fantastic. I had a room at the top with a big window, I could look out towards Morpeth," he said. "But this is just atrocious. I was gobsmacked by the delays and the stress the staff are under."
Mr Howe said he had tripped on a towel in the hospital bathroom one night, banging his injured elbow.
"I'd needed to go to the toilet - I had been buzzing for a bottle, and no one came. After three quarters of an hour I just had to get up and go to the toilet," he said. "There was just not enough staff to come in and do everything.
"The nurses, cleaners, caterers - they were all just flat stick the whole time."
He had received a response to his complaint from Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Justin Clancy, on behalf of Health Minister Brad Hazzard.
"What a load of bullshit that was," he said. "He was virtually calling me a whinger."
In the response, Mr Clancy said Mr Howe's surgeries were "delayed", not cancelled, due to more urgent cases needing to be prioritised.
It said Mr Howe had received appropriate pain relief and care while waiting, and that the director of nursing at the hospital had apologised for the delay. It said while it was not ideal, surgeries occasionally needed to be "postponed" at short notice for emergencies. In response to Mr Howe's bathroom stumble it said: "The District apologises if Mr Howe's room was not cleaned to his satisfaction".
"God it was disappointing," Mr Howe said. "There is an opportunity for an improvement in their processes... They need to address that instead of flying by the seat of their pants that when something else comes in, they send everyone else to the end of the list again."
Mr Howe said a family member also waited nine hours to see a doctor at Maitland's emergency department three weeks ago.
What was your experience like at the new Maitland Hospital? Email anita.beaumont@newcastleherald.com.au.
