Commentary: A pregnant patient needs emergency care but hospitals are full. This is my experience treating her

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A recent experience I had as a medical specialist in the private sector underlined some of the challenges the healthcare sector is facing currently.

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I would like to share my experience with the aim of urging patients and their families to be more understanding and patient.I received a call at 7am on a Saturday earlier this month from a senior obstetrician about a patient with abdominal pain that she needed to refer to me.

I needed her to be hospitalised for an ultrasound scan and laboratory tests as well as for her to be given pain relief and intravenous antibiotics.Any significant abdominal conditions in a pregnant mother can trigger premature labour, which would lead to premature birth. A loop of small intestines were adhered together in the right upper abdomen. The flow of air and faeces across that loop of small intestines was blocked.But this is part and parcel of practising medicine. The more tests we do, the nearer we are to the correct diagnosis.

But this can happen, especially since hospital and healthcare resources here have been stretched for some months.at the National University Hospital where a pregnant woman was allegedly left unattended for two hours at its emergency department.NUH explained that the emergency department was seeing a high patient load at the time the woman was there, and the hospital was managing three other expectant patients with Covid-19 in the emergency department and labour ward, which was full at that time.

This does not necessarily mean there is fault or professional misconduct by the medical staff or the hospital. If Mrs J had deteriorated and turned ill at my clinic before she could be transferred to a hospital, I would be held responsible.

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