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How busy is the Bendigo Health Emergency Department?
Bendigo Health will always treat the sickest and most seriously injured people first.
Even during normal activity
staff are often busy and waiting
times around an hour can be expected.
As we get busier, the number of
people in the waiting room increases
and the time you may need to wait
for treatment gets longer.
When we are extremely busy, the waiting
room often gets crowded and some
people may need to wait more than four hours.
Virtual Emergency Department
The Victorian Virtual Emergency Department allows you to access care for non life-threatening emergencies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You will be connected to our emergency doctors and nurses via a video call, and receive medical advice from the comfort of your home.
To register, visit: https://www.vved.org.au/
Alternative services
During times of high demand where waiting times in the Emergency Department are long, patients may choose to seek consultations / health advice from alternative providers.
What we do
Nearly 60,000 people are seen in our Emergency Department each year. These patients are suffering from serious illness or injury and require timely medical treatment.
We work hard together to ensure all patients receive prompt, high quality care and make every effort to minimise the time spent waiting.
When you arrive
On arrival please go to the triage desk, here you will speak with our staff and receive an initial assessment. From here patients are triaged (sorted) and streamed into high dependency, acute care, ambulatory care and shortstay areas and have the opportunity to be treated by nurse practitioners, mental health workers, care-coordinators and physiotherapists who complement the emergency team of physicians and nurses.
After the triage process you will need to wait to see a doctor. Your wait can be anywhere from a couple of minutes to several hours, this will depend on how unwell you are, how long your tests take to come back and the number of patients who also require treatment at a similar time. Patients who arrive by ambulance are not necessarily seen first.
While in the waiting room, please direct all concerns to the triage desk. If you have been taken through to one of the clinical areas, please direct all concerns to the nurse that has been allocated to care for you.
When you are unwell and are not at your best it is sometimes difficult to fully comprehend what is happening and you may not remember what you have been told. We strongly encourage you to discuss any issues you have with your care with your nurse or doctor to try and put you at ease about your medical condition and the current plan.
If you need to be admitted to the hospital, staff will discuss this with you.
How to access this service
No referral is needed.
What to bring
When you come to Emergency please bring
- Any information from your GP, to assist in determining your health status and urgency category at the time of your arrival
- Medicare card
- Health Care and/or Concession Card (if you have one)
- Adverse drug alert card (if you have one)
- Medicines you need to take while you are here
- List of medicines you are currently taking (or the boxes), including medicines you have bought without a prescription, such as herbal supplements and vitamins
- Relevent x-ray films, scans, ultrasounds or any other test results or reports
- Private health insurance card (if you want to use it)
- Glasses, hearing aid, walking frame
For an overnight (or longer) stay
- Dressing gown and slippers, or comfortable day clothes and shoes
- Personal hygiene items, such as shampoo, shaving cream, shaver, toothpaste and deodorant
- Something to do, like a book, a magazine or an iPad/tablet with headphones
Resources View All Patient Resources
Head of Department
Dr Simon Smith
Emergency Department
Location
Drought Street, Bendigo, VIC, 3550
Phone
Fax
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- Our Services
- Emergency Department
How to refer your patient
Referrals can be sent by e-Referral or fax. Please include all relevant, recent investigation results, medications and the reason for the referral and what further interventions you expect the Emergency Department to perform.
ED consultants welcome your referrals and being contacted by phone (and sometimes may be able to suggest a more expedient plan of action with a more appropriate service, or a plan that is kinder to the patient than a wait in ED). If you do not know the GP only Admitting Officer telephone number, please email the GP Liaison Officer: [email protected]
ED Central
ED Central is an education website for emergency medicine. An initiative of the Bendigo Hospital Emergency Department, the website supports the comprehensive medicine training programs such as the Emergency Medicine Fellowship and the Emergency Medicine Diploma and Certificate. For more information visit: www.edcentral.com.au
Mental Health Triage and Enhanced Crisis Assessment Team
Phone 1300 363 788, 24 hours a day, seven days a week
Mental Health Triage (MHT) acts as a single point of entry for all referrals into Mental Health Services and provides you with immediate telephone access to an experienced, highly skilled mental health clinician and if appropriate further referral and assessment with Enhanced Crisis Assessment Team (ECAT).
Service Overview
Bendigo Health Emergency Department provides urgent care to patients of all age groups presenting to the hospital acutely with physical and mental illnesses and injuries. It is staffed 24 hours a day by a team of emergency physicians and critical care trained nurses who specialise in the diagnosis, stabilisation and treatment of paediatric and adult emergency conditions. On arrival patients are triaged (sorted) and streamed into high dependency, acute care, short stay, paediatric and ambulatory care areas and have the opportunity to also be treated by nurse practitioners, mental health workers, care-coordinators and physiotherapists.
Every year nearly 60,000 patients attend the Emergency Department, one in five arriving by ambulance, one in six are children; however one in three will need admission to the hospital after assessment and management in the department; 75% of patients are seen and treated and either discharged home or admitted to an inpatient hospital bed within four hours.
Head of Department
Dr Simon Smith
Emergency Department
Location
Drought Street, Bendigo, VIC, 3550
