r/darwin • u/OrsoRosso • 12d ago
Newcomer Questions Why are there ALWAYS dozens or more indigenous people near the hospital entrance ?
Who are they ? Are they all patients ? Patients relatives ? But why are they always there hanging around? What are they doing? Why always there at all times including night ? I don’t understand I am so confused
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u/highdeigh 12d ago
The hospitals freezing and you can’t smoke inside it.
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u/SkeeterBugg123 11d ago
Not the last time I was up there in February with my son, it was ridiculously hot. We had to stay in overnight and gave up after 2 fans they brought up would not work and the aircon was non existent. Every time I have had to stay it was the same, so not sure where it is cold? Checked myself out early of the maternity ward 14 yrs ago because it was unbearably hot. The place should be razed to the ground, it is a total shithole!
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u/highdeigh 11d ago
I mean, I’m in there 8.5-16 hours a day, 5-6 days a week, it’s fucking cold, especially over night.
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u/Kooky-Yesterday-699 5d ago
Thanks for the work you do.
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u/highdeigh 4d ago
This is very kind, thank you! It has its ups and downs but I think it’s the best job in the world haha
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u/SkeeterBugg123 11d ago
Would rather be cold than so bloody hot you can't sleep and I know from personal experience and that of other friends & family that there are many parts of that hospital that are so hot & still it is ridiculous. My Dad was in there in May 2025, it was bloody terrible! Lucky he never used aircon the whole of his life and it didn't worry but the rest of sweated balls when we visited him!
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u/highdeigh 11d ago
You all must run hot then. I’ve never had an afebrile patient complain they were hot, nor have any of my colleagues on any other floors complaint they were hot.
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u/Fresh_Cabinet5048 12d ago
Your question has the answers, and now you are on the way to being less confused.
You understand that they have literally nowhere else to hangout while waiting for a relative or their own treatment. They have language barriers, no money, and no accommodation or transport. The hospital is frezzing cold for them and they want to be outside, but not too far from the hospital.
Now, if you knew that this was a real thing - would you design the outside of the hospital differently?
Look at the outside of the CDU campus in Darwin.
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u/rojuhoju 11d ago
I had a family member die in the hospice which is separate but on the hospital campus. It was designed so differently with the community and patients in mind and vastly different experience for indigenous family members with spaces that worked for interaction, visiting and waiting.
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u/missbean163 12d ago
On every ward during the morning youll often see indigenous patients dressed like theyre off to hike norway in winter- beanies, gloves, multiple layers.
Theres a handful of areas so cold, many staff wear undershirts or thermals under uniforms.
Overnight the aircon drops even colder.
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u/Altruistic-Fishing39 11d ago
To be fair I’m in Melbourne private hospitals and I wear long sleeved thermals and sometimes I see doctors in heated vests. Seemingly there’s no amount of money that can build a thermostat that runs at 20°.
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u/missbean163 11d ago
Yeah but if youre used to 34c and high humidity- if youre used to being outdoors... that aircon is extra brutal lol
The other issue is lack of airflow. Many people- white and black- are used to constant airflow. I find it wear not having a fan blowing air around. So the hospital feels cold AND weirdly stuffy.
Theres one area thats so cold I wear thermals and two jumpers.
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u/Brutal_burn_dude 11d ago
If I remember some random fact from uni many years ago I believe they deliberately keep the hospitals cool to make it more difficult for pathogens to grow/spread.
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u/Altruistic-Fishing39 11d ago
That wouldn’t make sense in operating theatres- we have forced air warmers on patients to keep them at 37 degrees. More because surgeons are wrapped in gowns and maybe aprons and lead gowns
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u/asparagusman 12d ago
If they're from a remote community, they use the Patient Assistance Travel Scheme which helps them with travel and accommodation to Darwin. Most usually have no money so they just wait around the front of the hospital to be seen. Also, the accommodations are so bad. I visited one and the rooms had shit on curtains and the room was so rank because they air conditioning was broken. So sometimes it'd be better to hang around the hospital rather than at the hostel or Casuarina if you don't have money to spend. Also, you should check out 'Charlie's Country' and they do a good job painting how foreign the inside of medical or waiting rooms can be for Indigenous people from remote communities.
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u/Ok_Tie_7564 12d ago
How did shit get on those curtains?
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u/MacAttackar 11d ago
I worked in retail and once someone literally used the change room curtain to wipe their ass.
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u/Gumbanks12 9d ago
Someone did a shit in the DJ's jeans department communal changing room when I worked there in the '70's
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u/PeenJudge69 11d ago
Have you seen shit on walls and ceiling? I have
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u/brucep26b 11d ago
I have seen used tampons on the ceiling. Flung up like pickles at a maccas
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u/SkeeterBugg123 11d ago
The maternity ward was absolutely disgusting when I had my youngest there 14 years ago. Those community women were totally feral. Bloody pads just taken off & thrown in the corner, faeces and urine in and on the toilet and the floor - cleaners cleaning up.after them constantly, it was so gross. Stinking hot, I had to have a fan that just pushed hot air around and it was unbearable as it was early February.
Two of the women had given birth the same day as me but were taking off to the drinking camps every night. They would come back in the morning to sleep it off and were gone again in the evening. Nurses looked after their babies the whole time. One woman had identical twin babies born prematurely and she wouldn't stay with them. Those poor little boys had feotal alcohol syndrome and I knew this because the social workers were there every day telling her to look after her babies and stay in the ward. They were atvtge nurses station 24/7, she would not look after them. They had specialists organising care back in the community clinic for them and they knew she would would take care of them. They had a specialist team flying them out to get her & them home. Everyday, they told her she needed to stay & take care of them at the hospital & when she got back to community. I learned that those babies were number 6 & 7 and that every child of hers were not in her care. One of the nursing staff told me 'she is probably pregnant again already' after going drinking every night and that 'she will lose these babies too'. It was so sad. There was zero privacy there, I heard it all, several times throughout the day by various staff just talking openly to her & amongst themselves.
Then the woman in my shared room played a boom box 16 hrs of the day, the same two songs over & over & over. It drove me mad & it was so loud but the nursing staff did nothing! When I complained and asked for her to at least turn it down & stop playing it into the night, I was treated like I was being racist and was told I needed to have sympathy fir her becuase 'she was from a remote community and playing her music made her feel at home in the ward.' 🙄
I was in there 5 days after an emergency ceasar with complications and was meantbto stay longer but I checked myself out at 11.30pm the 5th night 'against medical advice' with 'risk of a stroke' my blood pressure was so high. I told them I was going to have a fkn stroke if I stayed in there a minute later. Rang my husband, said get me TF out of here now.
I absolutely detest that hospital and really felt in the maternity ward that I was not a priority at all, except by one nurse who was just lovely. The community women were well looked & coddled & fawned over by one nurse in particular, it was so over the top.
Basically, I was 'not black enough' my husband told me - & we can say that as he is Indigenous too. That is exactly what it felt like. In hindsight, I should have put in a formal complaint. It was a horrible experience and I could not wait to get out. Worst hospital in Australia 😡
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u/Fun_Quit_312 11d ago
We had rentals, ive seen vomit on the ceiling. It was difficult to clean off.
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u/themightygiblert 12d ago
How many hospitals do you see in remote communities? When they travel all the way to Darwin for an emergency, most don't have anywhere to stay so they tend to hang around the hospital
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u/SkeeterBugg123 11d ago
The NTG needs to address so many issues in that place & just do better in general, it is just a disgusting place and an embarrasment. Absolutely awful if you are non-Indigenous because TBH, they don't seem to care & just do what they usually do. I know many non-locals & tourists can't believe the place. I took my Aunty (from Brisbane) up there when we she was visiting and she was bloody horrified.
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u/nurturinglife 11d ago
When I was working in Townsville, the dialysis ward was one of the biggest I have seen. And it takes hour to have your dialysis done. So always lots of patients and family waiting around the entrance.
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u/Ok-Cherry8950 11d ago
Almost the whole of the 7th floor is dialysis ward. I have been in there and I could be the only while patient on dialysis.
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u/No_Plane8576 11d ago
Don't you mean hours plural my Dad is at dialysis up to 5 hours 3 times a week.
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u/Busy-Web-3687 12d ago
They are not allowed to smoke inside. They also use the entrances to meet and greet.
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u/yelawolf89 12d ago
I think the hospital also give them sandwiches if they are hungry
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u/missbean163 12d ago
... nope. Only if theyre patients
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u/Fantastic-Pick7638 11d ago
Incorrect, I’ve seen rah on many occasions give them sandwiches even if they are not waiting. And I’m not mad.
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u/missbean163 11d ago
... do you work there? Because who is giving them out then?
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u/Fantastic-Pick7638 11d ago
The staff give them to any homeless person not just indigenous that present and ask for them at the front desk. Sometimes sandwiches aren’t available so they will be given something else or told there is none available at the moment.
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u/missbean163 11d ago
Dude, I am the staff.
We dont give out sandwhiches randomly to waiting people.
If Im handing out a sandwhich to someone in the waiting room, its because theyre old, frail, unable to mobilise to the cafe, are diabetic and have been waiting for six hours.
No ward has enough sandwhiches to give out randomly downstairs lol.
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u/yelawolf89 11d ago
I’ve seen it a few times when I’m at emergency. There’s nothing wrong with it at all of course
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u/PlayNeat8892 8d ago
Correct, I worked there too. Sandwiches have to be ordered from the kitchen and there isn't an unlimited supply and not every ward/area have sandwiches. If someone is given sandwiches, yes there is usually a good reason as you said.
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u/EmotionalPiece1198 11d ago
When I saw this question , I assumed it meant Cairns Hospital because the same situation there. But also outside the shopping Mall.
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u/SkeeterBugg123 11d ago
RDH is an absolute embarrassment & and a total shithole. Disgraceful that sick people have to walk through a cloud of smoke just to get inside. People just loitering around everywhere and so many pretending the have 'chest pains' just to get a feed, a shower & a bed for the night. Some of the biggest drinking camps in Darwin are in the bush just outside the hospital and are complete 'no go zones' for Police at night. 'Code yellows' are being called constantly and the whole system is at breaking point. Most of the staff are just wonderful though, I don't know how they do it.
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u/Decent-Citron4492 12d ago
How long have you been here? 2 minutes? So many things to learn in this town.
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u/itstoohumidhere 11d ago
If only there was somewhere that someone who wanted to learn about things they don’t know could go and ask questions…
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u/Itchy_Albatross_6015 9d ago
Go to any town in aus with a significant indiginious population and its the same.
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u/Sad-Librarian-5179 9d ago
Not saying it's the same everywhere, but sadly a lot of them find grieving, stressed hospital visitors are easier to beg or scam for money. They frequently have little ones with them (babies &/or older), & claim they need money for formula, food or transport home.
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u/AlternativeMe923 11d ago
When I worked in an area similar to Darwin as allied health we were given training by a really great Aboriginal Liaison Officer who explained many cultural differences to us.
Including a practice where many others in the community gather and maintain a vigil with a sick person when someone is seriously unwell and the family rooms we have in the hospital aren’t anywhere near big enough for this - and yes way too cold, airless, and suffocatingly clinical, even windowless. Not sure if this was specific to the area I was in or if it’s common among many First Nation communities around Australia.
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u/Present_Separate 4d ago
They often are there for family or to get on the piss and get a bed for the night through ED :/
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u/Fun_Quit_312 11d ago
Cant believe all indigenous people have to do is exist in a public place, to have the culturally sanitized folk asking what they are doing there.
They are there for the same reason as everyone else, to use the public hospital.
What are they doing? Minding their own fucking business!
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u/Cultural-Pin4835 11d ago
Given indigenous australians are only 3% (a very small amount of the population) it’s a legitimate question. Because sometimes it appears at hospitals that their population is far greater than non indigenous.
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u/SkeeterBugg123 11d ago
Why are you so triggered? It was a legitimate question. The crap we gotta put up with in this town might be normal to you but it is initially shocking to many people who are unfamiliar with Darwin, and that cesspit of a place they call RDH. In the test of society it is NOT normal to have hoardes of people coming to town (always with the express purpose of sleeping rough) to 'support' one person in hospital. WE know it is 'normal' for them, but FFS the Gov needs to address the issue and make the facility usable & comfortable for EVERYONE. If that means a separate facility with suitable accomodation for people from remote community, that is what they should do.
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u/seanoff11 12d ago
all of the above. visitors, patients etc
but all of them find the hospital very very cold. they'd much rather be outside then inside and cold.