Dr Chris Ingall, a member of the executive of medical staff at Lismore Base Hospital, believes the hospital’s Emergency Department is over-extended to a level approaching “dangerous”.

“The way the Emergency Department is running at the moment is fast going from critical to dangerous and this has been communicated to North Coast Area Health on a number of occasions,” Dr Ingall said.

On Tuesday afternoon seven ambulances were parked outside the ED, including one in Uralba St, outside hospital grounds, with delays in patients being admitted due to ‘bed block’.

“It’s a hospital, not a hotel, and you get surges of demand from time to time,” Dr Ingall said. “When you’re working at an occupancy rate close to 100 per cent, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out demand surges can’t be met and you get bed block.”

Lismore MP Thomas George said the planned stage three upgrade to LBH, which includes the Emergency Department, needed to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

“It is an ongoing problem with the ED at the hospital. We have been highly concerned for some years,” Mr George said. “The community has been fighting to finally get a new ED but earlier this year we were told stage three is not planned for the near future.

“Of high concern is that not only the medical practitioners but the staff and allied services at the hospital have conveyed to me their concerns in relation to what they’re faced with in the emergency unit.

“It reinforces the need for us to continue to get the government, which might also include the federal government, to commit to stage three of the hospital.

“The Emergency Department has got to be addressed.”

Mr George said he was seeking a meeting with NSW Health Minister Reba Meagher to discuss the situation.

In Ballina in July Ms Meagher ruled out fast-tracking the planned upgrade of the ED. Yesterday, when asked if the Minister was aware bed block was an increasingly-regular occurrence at Lismore Base and if it was considered acceptable, and if a start date had been planned for stage three, a spokesperson for Ms Meagher said:

“I understand Lismore Base Hospital experienced a very busy morning and early afternoon yesterday.

“I am advised only a small number of people arrived by ambulance, and were cared for appropriately while they waited to be transferred to the Emergency Department.

“I am additionally advised that by mid-afternoon the hard-working doctors and nurses of LBH had cleared the backlog of patients.

“A larger Emergency Department is a key part of the Lismore Base Hospital stage three planning strategy.”

However, emergency medical staff at the hospital who spoke to The Echo, on the condition of anonymity because they were concerned about a witch-hunt by their employer, said bed block was becoming more frequent and leading to unsafe situations for both workers and patients.

Dr Ingall said stage three should be placed on the government’s agenda as soon as possible and suggested the project would probably need financial support from the federal government.

A spokesperson for the North Coast Area Health Service said the hospital “experienced a very busy morning and early afternoon on Tuesday, August 26, with a surge of patients”.

“As is customary, only a minority arrived by ambulance,” the spokesperson said. “Ambulances’ patients awaiting transfer to the ED are in a clinically managed environment and there were no adverse consequences as a result of the delay.

“Medical and nursing staff worked hard to clear the backlog, and by 3.30pm there were more than enough beds in LBH to accommodate any patients requiring admission.”