Perth Man With Kidney Failure Waited 12 Hours to See a Doctor

An elderly man in Perth, Australia, had to wait 12 hours before a doctor could see him at a hospital emergency department. The man, named John, is 81 years old and was suffering from acute kidney failure — a serious and painful condition. His family brought him to St John of God Midland Hospital at noon on Thursday after his regular doctor sent a note saying he needed urgent care. His daughter later spoke to a local radio station to share what happened.

John's daughter told Radio 6PR that her father was not seen by a doctor until midnight — a full 12 hours after he arrived. Once doctors finally treated him, they placed him in a bed, took blood samples, and sent him for an ultrasound and a CT scan. Those are medical tests that help doctors look inside the body to find out what is wrong. It seemed like John was finally getting the help he needed.

But then things got worse. John was taken out of his hospital room and moved into a corridor — basically a hallway. By noon on Friday, his daughter said he was still sitting in that corridor with no proper room. 'He is still in that corridor that they shoved him in last night,' she said. She was upset and wanted the public to know how her father had been treated.

This is not the first time this hospital has made the news for 'corridor care.' In March, an 88-year-old woman named Elsie McGribben spent nearly 48 hours lying in a hospital corridor. At that time, the Premier of Western Australia, Roger Cook, said he was disappointed but explained that moving patients to corridors sometimes happens when hospitals need to manage the number of people they are treating. Still, many families say it is not an acceptable way to treat sick and elderly patients.

On Friday afternoon, St John of God Midland had 79 patients in its emergency department and 18 more waiting. The Midland hospital's emergency department is smaller than bigger hospitals in Perth, like Royal Perth Hospital and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. Those larger hospitals had 87 and 81 patients in their emergency departments at the same time.

Just one week before John's experience, the same hospital had opened 60 new beds and three new surgical theatres. A brand-new private hospital with 123 beds also opened nearby. Health Minister Meredith Hammat called these changes a 'significant capacity injection,' meaning she believed they would give Western Australians much better access to health care. However, John's family says that for them, those new beds did not seem to make a difference.