NSW Premier Chris Minns confronted on radio by patient who waited 16 hours for a hospital bed at Concord

NSW Premier Chris Minns has been confronted live on-air by a patient who languished for 16 hours waiting for a bed at a western Sydney hospital.

Jane was ordered to attend Concord Hospital by her GP about midday on Monday, but only received a bed in the emergency short-stay on Tuesday morning.

Once in the ward, Jane said she was “flabbergasted” to find two of the four beds were empty, with a nurse telling her they “just don’t have the staff to cover the beds”.

“So, all this time there’s been empty beds, but they just don’t have enough staff to monitor them,” Jane told 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Tuesday.

In the studio for the call, Mr Minns apologised to Jane for “what would have been a very difficult night perched on those chairs in the ED”.

“I’m glad you’ve got a bed, but I don’t want to be too cute about it,” he said.

“The reason everybody’s sprung into action is because it’s on the radio this morning.

“There’s going to be a lot of people in New South Wales hospitals that don’t have access to radio programs.”

The Premier said the state government was trying to recruit and retain staff for emergency departments, and that there had been “slow but steady improvement”.

He said the number of patients in life-threatening states being seen on time had risen from 50 to 64 per cent because of the lifting of the wages cap.

Mr Minns admitted the result was “not where we need to be” and that with 6000-8000 people attending the ED every day, at points it “gets completely overwhelmed”.

“It’s really difficult,” he said,

“Now, I’m not suggesting that we are there, or it’s been solved, or the solution has been found.

“There’s going to be periods and times when people like Jane, who expect and not demand, but want the kind of help that they pay their taxes for are not going to receive.

“The reason I’m reluctant to sort of say, ‘look, help you around the corner, Ben’... is that it’s steady progress.

“It’s going to take time to recruit people for the health system, get them into emergency departments and help people when they’re in a really critical situation”.

Jane was now waiting to see a surgical team.

She told 2GB that since appearing on-air, she had been contacted by Health Minister Ryan Park and the executive director of Concord Hospital.

It comes as the state government faces continued pressure of hospital conditions, particularly in western Sydney.

Last month, a woman was forced to sleep in her car, and an elderly man lied down under seats at Blacktown Hospital.

Liverpool and Blacktown hospitals have consistently ranked “significantly lower” than average in a survey of patient satisfaction, according to recent findings.