Before Friday night, I'd never been to the Emergency department of a hospital before. So I'd thought I'd share what I learnt.
Who goes?
I used to think those in life or death situations went: heart attacks, strokes, bullet wounds or crazy injuries. That's why when I had intense stomach pain, I didn't think to go. Until Georgina asked why I didn't. When the pain came again, Bec reminded me to seek medical help sooner rather than later and off I went to the Emergency department at the hospital, for the first time. We went after hours and there were people with different sorts of ailments: poor kid with an earache, a woman who was throwing up, a young man in his catering uniform with his arm in tea towels. So if you're in pain, if it's after-hours or not the kind of thing your GP can deal with, go to the hospital!
So, I'm there. Now what?
When you rock up, you line up to see the triage nurse. She (or he) assesses your condition and then you wait. You'll get called up by another assistant to give your details. Some more waiting. Because of my condition, they did a blood test first. Then more waiting. After three and a half hours, I got to see a doctor, which is a lot sooner than I expected.
Have you been to Emergency before?
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Yep, when I was in Bathurst. It was a saturday afternoon and I had an infected cut on my hand. But the doctors had closed for the weekend, and Susan had told me at eat street to get antibiotics before the infection spread and I lost my whole hand. So hospital was the only option even though it was overkill. It's just an after hours clinic.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's it - its like an after hours clinic, yet it feels so wrong to go to the "hospital" for it, doesn't it?
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