"Poor processes and patient outcomes"

We attended an outpatient clinic today for my spouse who was to be examined by an oral maxiofacial specialist following an unconscious syncope which resulted in a fractured scull.

During the consultation it was determined through examination and consultation that my spouse required an immediate CT of their brain to rule out inter-cranial bleeding.

The consultant then contacted the ED department and spoke with a consultant in ED to see if it could be done, in which it was confirmed if we went to ED it could be done.

On arrival in ED we spoke with the triage nurse advised them of the intended plan they acknowledged this request and asked us to take a seat and advised we would have approximately 2 hr wait. 

After 2 hours I spoke to the triage nurse and asked if we had progressed. In which they replied we had. Fast forward 3 more hours we once again approached the same triage nurse to ascertain what the timeline was looking like for us. They seemed openly shocked that after 5 hours of waiting they had no plan in place for my spouse to be seen and when we requested that maybe we go home and organise the scan privately they were unable to help us with this and advised we had another ten patients before us that needed seeing. 

What I felt was a complete lack of care or communication with the waiting room or consideration to many of the patients waiting made me so ashamed that in the care industry we have in Australia, it seemed to me that Monash lacked this basic fundamental requirement. We left Monash medical centre after being on premise for 6 hours and achieving absolutely nothing. We have no results from either the maxiofacial team or CT of the brain results from ED. Now we find ourselves in limbo as my spouse requires a cardiac ablation for AF but this can’t take place due to the undiagnosed Brain results. Very poor outcome all round. It seems to me that the system is obviously overwhelmed and needs an immediate overhaul.