Appalled patients lift lid on emergency department treatment at Blacktown Hospital

Past experiences in the emergency room of Blacktown Hospital have been so bad one chronically ill patient begs paramedics and doctors to send him elsewhere, he told 7NEWS.

“I’m not going to Blacktown emergency department, let me die,” Rooty Hill local George Evans said.

“I would rather die elsewhere or at home”.

His wife, Kaylene Evans who has been his carer for more than 25 years, said she has spent “many days, hours, years, attending emergency departments”.

George suffers from chronic heart and lung conditions which often lead to emergency medical interventions, along with regular medical visits and testing.

“Blacktown Hospital is in crisis,” Kaylene said, adding a a hospital doctor recently treated her husband over the phone.

A 7NEWS investigation has exposed dozens of complaints and photographs of patients left lying on the floor for hours at Blacktown’s brand-new emergency room.

Opposition health spokesperson Kellie Sloane raised the issue during Question Time in state parliament on Wednesday.

“Will you admit that our health system has hit rock bottom?” she asked NSW Health Minister Ryan Park.

He responded: “It’s been a hospital under unprecedented demand.”

Blacktown is statistically one of the worst hospitals in the state, according to quarterly Bureau of Health Information data released on Wednesday.

Emergency department attendances at up 9.7 per cent and ambulance attendances are up 11.2 per cent.

More patients are stuck with paramedics for longer than 30 minutes and more patients are taking more than four hours to leave the ED.

State-wide emergency department attendances have ballooned to 795,817 — up 3.3 per cent.

Park said people are “using emergency departments — like at Blacktown — as a way to try to access primary health care” rather than visit GPs.

“That’s never been the way our health system in this country has been designed,” he said.

Park argues primary care — which is the federal government’s jurisdiction — is in free-fall.

“It has never been more difficult to find a GP in NSW,” he said.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler responded: “There’s nothing unique about the NSW hospital system, all hospital systems around the country — frankly, all hospital systems around the world right now — are under extraordinary pressure.”

Kaylene Evans said: “I’d rather go to a hospital in a third world country.”