Patients at a regional Western Australian hospital say they are worried the facility is at "bursting point" due to staff shortages and a delay in upgrading the emergency department and intensive care unit.
There have been repeated concerns raised about staff shortages at WA hospitals and delays to a multi-million-dollar redevelopment of the Geraldton Health Campus, which was originally expected to be completed this year.
A recent visit to the regional hospital, which included an identification mix-up, was a "terrifying" experience for Sam de Vries.
"I ended up waiting there for a period of 10 minutes with chest pain while they were waiting for my RAT test to come back," he said.
"This is a by-product of the fact that the government, the McGowan government, has promised since they beat the Liberals in the election in 2017 that they would upgrade the Geraldton Hospital and employ up to another 100 staff to ease the pressure on the department that we currently have.
The $73.3 million Geraldton Health Campus redevelopment was a McGowan government promise ahead of the 2017 state election.
The plans included an expanded emergency department, a new intensive care unit, and an integrated mental health unit.
The project was expected to be finished this year, but it has since been revealed that only the emergency department and mental health unit will be operational by 2023.
Greg McInnes spent a lot of time at Geraldton Regional Hospital with his brother in June 2021 and said he saw the hospital at "bursting point" with extreme under-resourcing.
"We got to sit there for two days and two nights and watch that hospital system trying to cope with lack of staff, facilities, and beds," he said.
"And this is before the borders were open, there was no COVID."
Regional director for the WA Country Health Service (WACHS) in the Midwest Rachele Ferrari said the organisation took patient feedback seriously.
She said in Mr de Vries's case the correct procedure was followed.
"That's why the medical director at Geraldton Health Campus will follow up with the patient to discuss his concerns, to better understand his experience, and identify how we can do better — something that is extremely important to us," she said.
"I also want to be clear that this patient received one-on-one care and next-of-kin details were already available in our system."
Midwest 'paying' for health system shortages
An email chain between WACHS and the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) shared with the ABC shows the health organisation is experiencing "critical shortages" and is turning to private agency staff because state agency NurseWest cannot fill all the gaps.
In a statement, a WACHS spokeswoman said the organisation was "actively" working to address workforce shortages and staff fatigue by calling in employees from other areas and increasing incentives.
However, ANF state secretary Mark Olson said more needed to be done to recruit interstate staff when Western Australia was free of COVID-19.
"The anecdotal evidence I'm getting is that nurses and midwives in other states are simply saying 'Well, why would I come to WA now when you've got all these restrictions? I'm going to stay where I am in Queensland, or New South Wales, Victoria, where we don't have any restrictions'," he said.
The state government was contacted for comment.
