Hosptial Emergency Department Refuses To Help Accident Victim

[bloodrayne]

Hospital Refuses To Help Accident Victim

A badly injured man who was hit by a car outside Sydney Hospital in Macquarie Street on Thursday night was refused treatment by its emergency department.

Distraught bystanders were forced to treat the man's wounds with handkerchiefs as he lay in the gutter drifting in and out of consciousness just metres from the hospital.

Bystanders appealed to the emergency department for help three times, but each time they were refused.

One witness, a family counsellor, came across the scene about 7.15pm, seconds after a car carrying two young women hit the man, aged in his 60s, outside the hospital, at the top of Martin Place. His body bounced off the car and into the gutter.

"He was unconscious, he was bleeding from his head," said the counsellor, who asked not to be named. "There was blood all over his face, his hands, his arms, his shirt. There was a pool of blood."

People began to help him and to calm the distraught young woman who had been driving the car and her companion.

A man ran into the hospital for help, but came out moments later and told the eight or nine shocked bystanders that no one from the hospital's emergency department was coming to help.

"He said he told them he thought the man might be dying. They said they could not help and to call an ambulance," the counsellor said. Another bystander went into the emergency department but he did not return, nor did any doctors appear.

"I couldn't believe it. I decided to ask as well," the counsellor said. "They weren't busy. They weren't rude to me, they just said they would not send anyone out to help.

"I was furious. There was a man who needed help on the footpath right outside the hospital. They told us to call an ambulance."

Finally, about 12 minutes after one of the bystanders had called an ambulance, first one and then another arrived on the scene.

The counsellor sat with the young driver of the car, who appeared to be in shock. Paramedics began their treatment by cutting the man's dark suit from his back and tending to his wounds.

A spokesman for the Ambulance Service confirmed yesterday that it attended the accident at 7.28pm. Police have confirmed that the man was eventually taken to St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst.

He was in a stable condition there last night.

A spokeswoman for Sydney Hospital said it was usual practice not to care for people outside the hospital.

She said the emergency department was not equipped to move injured people, staff were not allowed to leave their posts in the emergency department and the hospital was not insured for medical indemnity outside its facilities.

"Our first consideration has to be staff safety."

A spokesman for the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine said yesterday that hospital staff were not insured to treat patients outside their hospitals, but he said doctors had an ethical duty to render help when it was needed.

"Even if it was appropriate that an ambulance was called, it wouldn't have been unreasonable for someone from the emergency department to assess him and give first-aid."

[friday13thfan]

"Our first consideration has to be staff safety."

thats fucking gay. there first consideration should be the safety of the injured,ill and sickly.

ppl come first, staff later:mad: