An 83-year-old woman died after suffering a head injury when she fell from a hospital stretcher during her discharge from Whangārei Hospital, with a coroner finding the incident was caused by a loss of control during patient transfer.
The fall occurred in the ambulance loading bay as the stretcher was being moved down a ramp and tipped onto the concrete floor, resulting in a fatal traumatic brain injury later that day.
The coroner concluded the stretcher was being operated by a single officer despite being designed for two operators, and found the ramp was unsuitable for that type of equipment, with nearby works at the emergency department adding to the difficulty.
While the incident was considered isolated, investigations by health authorities, the ambulance service, and WorkSafe identified contributing safety issues.
Since then, changes have been made including reconfiguring the ambulance ramp, improving communication between agencies, expanding training for stretcher use, introducing purpose-built patient transfer areas, and progressing the nationwide replacement of non-powered stretchers with powered models to reduce risk for both patients and staff.
Image credit: Eugene Chrystiakov
What s***show, health workers are never wrong and lie out of their back teeth.
They are NEVER held accountable for their f#*k-ups, either.
Signing a consent form frees them from responsibility, ie you accept the risk in the event something goes wrong.
Having a DNR Green Sheet, or being an Organ Donor might speed-up their efforts to make a mistake that is fundamentally ‘accidently on purpose’…so that someone they know, or who is ‘in the know’ ends-up with your heart, liver, kidney, etc.
Waking-up in the recovery room or in the bath tub of a third world nation…doesn’t make any difference, as the outcome is still the same!
The blame usually gets shifted onto a bullied scapegoat, or an ‘unusual circumstance’…or from the ‘lack of healthcare-related upgrades’!