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Palliative terminal cancer patient discharged from hospital ...

Posted By pelican75

"Palliative terminal cancer patient discharged from hospital with no pain relief"

About: Geraldton Hospital / Palliative Care Services

(as a relative),

My elderly relative was hospitalised for sepsis at Geraldton Regional Hospital for 4 days earlier this month. They had terminal cancer and was under the care of the palliative team. English is their 2nd language. 

On discharge my relative stated they were in pain. We live in Perth but came to see them on their discharge day. We reviewed their Webster pack and they did not even have a Panadol written up.

We attempted to get into GP but no appointments available so we contacted the palliative team and the NP Tash was able to review and prescribe strong analgesia ( we are grateful for her compassion and professionalism).

We found this hospital situation very frustrating, not patient focus, not compassionate and extremely disappointing. 

My relative spent multiple hours awake overnight trying to deal with the pain.

This then lead to a readmission to hospital a few days later for pain management.

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Responses

Response from Cameron Ross, Operations Manager Geraldton Health Campus, Midwest, WA Country Health Service 20 hours ago
Cameron Ross
Operations Manager Geraldton Health Campus, Midwest,
WA Country Health Service

Operations Manager Geraldton Health Campus

Submitted on 15/12/2025 at 12:53 PM
Published on Care Opinion Australia at 5:24 PM

picture of Cameron Ross

Dear pelican75,

Thank you for reaching out to us on Care Opinion. I am sure this has taken great courage to write and I am very grateful that you have taken the time to do so.

I was so very sorry to read about your relative’s experience at our hospital and offer you my sincere apologies that their pain was not relieved as it should have been. Not having pain controlled is incredibly upsetting and I am very sorry that this caused additional stress at an already distressing time.

To ensure that this situation does not happen again, I would like to commence an investigation into your relative’s care and treatment. If you are happy to contact me and provide their details I will ensure we undertake a comprehensive investigation and provide you with our findings at the conclusion of this. My name is Cameron Ross, and I am the Operations Manager at Geraldton Health Campus. You are welcome to reach me on (08) 9956 2369 — your call would be very much appreciated.

I would also like to assure you that our Director of Medical Services will share your story with the medical teams and reinforce the importance of providing appropriate pain management at all times. I am pleased, however, to hear that our Nurse Practitioner, Tash, was able to ease your relative’s pain. You are correct that she is extremely professional and compassionate and I will make sure that she is acknowledged for her efforts and knows about your kind words.

So that you are aware, we have a process in place at Geraldton Health Campus, where patients and their families and carers can escalate their concerns if they feel they are not being heard. Known as Aishwarya’s CARE Call, this process is a way for patients, families and carers to receive or call for urgent assistance when they are concerned about a patient’s health and feel that the healthcare team has not fully recognised their changing health condition. You can learn more about this at https://www.wacountry.health.wa.gov.au/About-us/Contact-us/CARE-Call

I would like to thank you again for reaching out to us. I do hope to hear from you soon.

Yours sincerely

Cameron Ross
Operations Manager Geraldton Health Campus
(08) 9956 2369

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