WA Australian Law - Patient Rights to Go to Public Hospital?

[Winnie]

Hi

Not sure how to find the answer to this question, hopefully someone can help us out.

Can someone who is often unwell attend a public hospital emergency department as often as he has a need under Australian Law? Do staff have the right to tell him not to come as often and go to the gp instead?

Keeping in mind that in his country town there is often no gp surgery open. Sometimes he had to take himself to the ED and on other occasions an ambulance bought him in.

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[Rob Legat - SBPL]

Overuse and misuse of emergency departments is an increasing problem, at least according to the medical association, apparently. I can’t see anything that allows a public hospital to turn patients away, but they do appear to have the ability to request that you don’t attend unless the issue is serious or life threatening.

I guess the question comes down to - is it actually an emergency?

One way might be to call a doctor’s service and explain the situation. They’ll give an indication as to whether a trip to the hospital is warranted.

Once you’re there, the department can triage you using an apparent scale of 1 to 5. They will then treat you in order of severity. That’s why it’s not first come first served. The person bleeding out will not have to wait their turn. I suspect that hospitals use this system to ‘encourage’ people who don’t really have an emergency to leave, making them wait for long periods and hoping they get bored.

Some chronic conditions do not need emergency attention, especially if the person is already under a treatment plan.

It sounds cutthroat, but it does make sense. I obviously can’t comment as to whether the medical situation for you is actually an emergency or not, and no excuse should be made for hospital staff failing to act when action is warranted.

 

[Winnie]

Overuse and misuse of emergency departments is an increasing problem, at least according to the medical association, apparently. I can’t see anything that allows a public hospital to turn patients away, but they do appear to have the ability to request that you don’t attend unless the issue is serious or life threatening.

I guess the question comes down to - is it actually an emergency?

One way might be to call a doctor’s service and explain the situation. They’ll give an indication as to whether a trip to the hospital is warranted.

Once you’re there, the department can triage you using an apparent scale of 1 to 5. They will then treat you in order of severity. That’s why it’s not first come first served. The person bleeding out will not have to wait their turn. I suspect that hospitals use this system to ‘encourage’ people who don’t really have an emergency to leave, making them wait for long periods and hoping they get bored.

Some chronic conditions do not need emergency attention, especially if the person is already under a treatment plan.

It sounds cutthroat, but it does make sense. I obviously can’t comment as to whether the medical situation for you is actually an emergency or not, and no excuse should be made for hospital staff failing to act when action is warranted.

Thank you Rob. My brother had chronic medical issues and sadly he passed away in April. He was in the ED just a few days prior. But on reading his hospital medical records through FOI we noticed in March some comments relating to him coming in so often which we thought probably shouldn’t be needed in a persons medical file because it might cause staff on future visits to think he is just a nuisance.
Thank you for taking the time to reply to my question, I do appreciate it.