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A man who mangled his leg in a boat trailer mishap last week says his local health system is inconveniencing the people it’s designed to help.
WARNING: This story contains a graphic image.
Desmond Barritt was working on the trailer near the remote town of Mataranka, 420 kilometres south-east of Darwin, when it slipped while his leg was underneath.
He sustained two curved lacerations that were bone-deep and bleeding heavily.
“It was like two bits of meat hanging off, down to the bone.”
Mr Barritt used a first-aid kit to contain the bleeding and then drove about 20 kilometres to Mataranka for initial treatment.
From there, his wait for surgery became an ordeal that kept him away from his family and business for days.
‘I’m still here’
On Monday afternoon he was transferred from Mataranka to Katherine Hospital but an anaesthetist was unavailable.
“The surgeon in Katherine was really, really angry — almost to the point of being in tears,” he said.
Mr Barritt spent the night in hospital, and after a 20-hour wait he was transferred at Tuesday lunchtime by CareFlight to Royal Darwin Hospital via the Tiwi Islands.
That evening he was admitted and kept on standby until about midnight, but was then informed he wouldn’t be seen that day.
The wait continued throughout Wednesday before Mr Barritt received surgery in the early hours of Thursday morning. He was discharged on Friday and caught a bus home.
Mr Barritt praised the actions of health staff, who he said repeatedly expressed their frustration over the long wait times in the hospital.
“Some people were really angry; some of the nurses would come back to their next shift and I’m still there,” he said.
“I was getting more and more frustrated. You start thinking: ‘Well, how long can a wound not be stitched for?'”
The Top End Health Service, which operates the public hospitals, has been contacted for comment.
Patients waiting too long
A recent Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIWH) report found only about 57 per cent of patients presenting to emergency departments in the NT were seen on time.
Those figures, from the 2017-18 financial year, are below the national average of 72 per cent and based on federally set benchmarks for GP performance.
Royal Darwin Hospital has previously been beset by overcrowding at crisis levels, with the rescheduling of elective surgeries and a 140 per cent running capacity among the problems faced last year.
The nearby Palmerston Regional Hospital has since opened, but Robert Parker from the Australian Medical Association (NT) said the new facility only offered a “certain level” of emergency treatment services.
Dr Parker said the AIWH report aligned with a separate one from the Productivity Commission that identified a lack of GPs in remote and rural areas.
“[The NT has] also got over double the number of avoidable hospital admissions compared to any other state and territory in Australia,” he told ABC Radio Darwin‘s Adam Steer and Jolene Laverty.
“There’s less primary care available for Territorians which means they tend to turn up to emergency departments as a default.”
Mr Barritt said his experiences were evidence of a system letting patients down.
“There were hundreds of people involved in this whole thing, which is probably another massive cost,” he said.
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