Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Needing A Lift

You would think that able-bodied people would make way for actual patients in hospital lifts. Or better still take the stairs. Unfortunately this is not always the case.

An example happened yesterday at Concord Hospital. The lower ground level is very busy and there are three lifts available but all are very slow. When we arrived there were already about six people waiting. We had a patient on a wheelchair. Soon after us two Ambo’s came with a patient on their stretcher. I asked if they were going up the lifts, they answered in the affirmative. The lift finally arrived. My partner went to hold the doors for the Ambo’s only to see all the able bodied people pile in. He pointed to the fact that there were Ambo’s with a patient but they appeared to take no notice. The Ambo’s graciously said that they would get the next one. Part of me would have liked them to push the issue. We were still able to fit though.

One of the “able-bodies” went on to explain why she didn’t move out of the lift for the Ambo’s. “Usually I’d move but they said they would wait” was the main one. Other points she made were that silly that I don’t even remember them. She was still talking as she exited the lift, wait for it, the next floor up.

She along with her fellow “able-bodies” would have been better off to take the stairs:
  1. Would get their quicker in most cases as the lifts there are very slow and the stairs are very accessible, directly opposite the lifts
  2. Get some exercise as even people working in hospitals make poor health choices, you’d think they know better

All people need to get out of their dependence on lifts. Fair enough sometimes if you need to go up many floors but one floor like the able body in question is just ridiculous and a waste of space and time.

Meanwhile we walked back down our eight levels carrying our fold out wheel chair after dropping off our patient so even the unfit can do it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In my profession I get to deal with a lot of people who we say have 'too much money and not enough sense'.

An example of this is the people with their 3 storey houses who insist on having a lift. not because someone is disabled but because they are too lazy to use the stairs. I have recently designed 3 lifts. 1 in Coogee, 1 in Palm Beach and one in Clovelly, none of which were necessary.

Anonymous said...

yeah, another example when i walk past st george hospital and see all the workers smoking out the front on their lunch break
you would think that with all the lung cancer patients they might change their ways hahaha

kegz