"Terminal Cancer"

As a carer to a good friend who was diagnosed with terminal cancer at the beginning of November it has been a battle to get their most basic needs met,

Left in pain for 17hrs in pain before they bothered to put a drain in, draining 10litres of fluid from this petite person ...

Bowel obstruction left screaming sobbing on the ward for over 7 hours before a Dr noticed and said no one should be allowed to be in this much pain ... and dealt with it..

In my experience, there has been absolutely no communication in this hospital between anyone, doctors, nurses, patients... dietitians

Pain medication was reduced to a quarter, leaving my friend in pain for hours again ..

Over and over told sorry it was a miscommunication...In my opinion, it's not good enough ..the staff I've seen in this hospital can't even seem to get it together to provide basic pain management as an inpatient or outpatient...

Ring the 24/7 Cancer hotline.. and occasionally they will call you back ...

But even when they did I was given the wrong information apparently.

I tried calling Southern Services palliative care, but they can't give pain relief if the pain is caused by chemotherapy...

They rang cancer ward, the Oncology Dr promised to call as soon as they had finished their rounds... but didn’t, what a surprise!

I rang hot line at 3 pm, no response at all, I ring cancer ward ... they say it's after hours they can't do anything, and of course the it's not my fault, that's nothing to do with what I feel are excuses yet again ...

So at that time, my friend had been in pain for two days and was going to be another night of pain for my friend unnecessarily unless they want to go wait in outpatients for 15 or more hours

The Nurses and Doctors in the Cancer Innovation Suite are awesome,

In the hospital, in my experience it's everything you never wanted or need if you have cancer.