"Mount Beauty Emergency Department and Hospital Admission"

I have stage 4 bowel cancer and I am having palliative chemotherapy. One recent evening, my temperature spiked to 40.1c and remained above 38.4c for over 45 mins. I admitted myself to our local Mount Beauty Emergency to be checked out.

The nurse on duty (Grace - outstanding care!!) knows me (from previous recent emergency care incidents) and undertook the obvious checks and then rang the doctor on call (Jeff - very thorough + professional) to further discuss my case. He decided to come in and see me face to face. (Note – other than a high temp, all other vitals were good & I felt and looked OK). After assessing me and consulting with the oncology registrar in Albury, it was decided to do a thorough bloods other cultures, put me on IV antibiotics and admit me to hospital until results come back. I was due to have my chemo treatment the next day in Albury. The next morning (1am) – I received a text from my oncologist – delay treatment one week and ring his admin person. Everything was being well communicated, coordinated and organised between my care in hospital and my oncologist. I had chest x-rays + more bloods down my first day in hospital, then, stool, chest, pleghmetc undertaken.

I felt extremely well looked after and cared for. I was able to contact my palliative care nurse to have my appointment with her in the hospital. My palliative care nurse was then able to assess my pain management plan and advise doctors treating me of new dosages (Kate from the Wangarata team is amazing!) I was impressed with the caring & professional culture demonstrated.

By the nursing team (Mohit, Emily, Kindra, Jade, Arethra, Kerri) the other doctors on duty the proceeding days (Dr Vanessa? Dr Dan, Dr Lauren) and the other auxiliary staff (food/cleaners).

It was a positive and caring environment. Sometimes my scheduled medication was late, but only because hospital nursing staff have to juggle with acute care patients (like I had been) and ward patients. If acute care suddenly gets busy (which it does being a tourist town) staff that are on duty get stretched! On my discharge my prescriptions had already been sent to our local pharmacy and being a public holiday I was given meds until I could get to the our local pharmacy shop on Sat.

During my stay there were some delays and the regional pathology service forgot one of samples to check my white cells but the Dr’s still just took some more and re-sent them.

I felt extremely well looked after and so they did for my partner too.

The outstanding nurse was Grace as she dealt with my initial admission and care on the following day shifts to continue my care.

I also feel extremely fortunate to live in a wonderful local + regional area where the diverse medical services + care endeavour to collaborate and support local patients.

I receive amazing care from local GPs in particular Laura, Skye, the District Nursing Team and Wangaratta Palliative Care and my wonderful oncologist Richard E and the oncology register Dr Dave and Dr Steff. And just to acknowledge the wonderful local paramedics + ambulance team who have cared for me recently too! Paramedic Johnno is exceptional.

When you have a complex medical history and a s*** disease to deal with daily, having wonderful caring medical personal caring for you just helps you cope with everything much more easily... I can't ever thank them enough for their service and care!