Patience is a virtue on the casualty ward

The new cantonal hospital in Baar handles all types of emergencies on its casualty ward. Cases such as the road traffic accident two weeks ago when a car crashed into a bus on the Baarerstrasse in Zug are fortunately rare, "We knew that we had six patients all coming in at once," says Andreas Rindlisbacher, who has been head of the casualty department for ten years. And then of course there are the other – less urgent – cases that the ward handles, but the problem is that anyone arriving at a casualty department expects to be treated immediately. "It is impossible to eliminate waiting time," continues Rindlisbacher, explaining that the level of emergency is the deciding factor in who is treated first. "If you're having a heart attack, you'll be seen straight away. If you've caught your finger in the door then there are times when you may have to wait…"

 
Improvements at the new hospital

Unfortunately, the patients with the least to complain about are often the ones who complain the most, though Rindlisbacher admits that he can understand their feelings. "Even if you have only cut your finger, pain is still pain and patients want to be treated as soon as possible," he says. It is the doctors' responsibility to decide how urgent cases are from a medical point of view. For those who are forced to wait, there are worse places to be than the new hospital in Baar, where the waiting room is equipped with a television and a coffee machine. Waiting times should also be kept down to a minimum thanks to the fact that there are now 12 treatment places in the casualty department – four more than previously.

There are times however when waiting is simply the only solution, and according to Rindlisbacher, there are a number of elements which come into play here. Fewer and fewer people in Switzerland have a registered doctor nowadays, meaning that they prefer to go directly to hospital for treatment. There is also an increasing number of foreign patients from countries where there is no organised system of being registered with a particular doctor, meaning that they too are in the habit of going directly to hospital whenever they are ill. "We are also aware of the fact that people are under a lot of pressure at the workplace and that they now only tend to go to the doctor's in the evening or at the weekend,"

 

Rindlisbacher continued. Seasonal factors also have an effect, with seven people coming to the casualty department last Monday in the space of three hours with broken bones from having slipped on ice. "When things like this happen," says Rindlisbacher, "we have to do the best we can with our limited resources."

 

Even if the worst comes to the worst however, the Zug Cantonal Hospital will always treat anyone who comes through their doors. And although there are times when a visit to casualty might not actually have been necessary, Rindlisbacher is reticent when it comes to advising people to stay away. "It's only once we've seen people that we can judge whether they really needed to come in or not," he says, asking prospective patients to use their common sense in deciding themselves, and also to show a little patience if they end up having to wait once they do come in…