"Poor Treatment"

My (adult) child was admitted to hospital with a suspected case of drink spiking. They were really unwell and at the start I found the doctors at Fiona Stanley emergency to be sympathetic. However this changed.

My child was out with friends at a bar and although it was obvious they had some drinks and had a raised alcohol level, I believe it was clear their symptoms was not alcohol related. The Dr asked whether they had taken any substances and their partner who was with my child all day confirmed they did not consume any drugs. We repeatedly told the Dr this is out of character for my child and they are very much anti drugs and that this is a clear case of drink spiking.

I asked the Dr if they can test to see if my child had any drug in their system. The answer was no, as it is very expensive and of no use???

How can a patient present with these severe symptoms and the Dr asks the family whether drugs were consumed but then told no, a drug screening is not done??? It was clearly a potential criminal offence and as a result we have no legal proof of this!

We were told to go to the police in the morning yet when we went to the police they asked if the hospital had done a test???

What is more upsetting is how my child was treated by the Initial Dr on their case. As soon as it was confirmed they had a slightly high level of blood alcohol, it seemed their whole demeanour changed to being quite cold. The feeling I got was that this is a young person who brought this on themselves so no sympathy.  

This despite us insisting this is uncharacteristic and our concerns were ignored. We have since learnt that a test was possible and should have been done if the there was the slight belief my child had been drugged. We now have no legal proof.

A Dr who took over later in the night gave my child one look and their words were " this is a clear case of ghp withdrawal "! Again nothing was done after this statement!!!

Surely a person would hope that our hospitals would do the right things when someone comes in really unwell as a result of illegal acts against them. Should the police not have been contacted by the police on the night and report the event?

My issue is not with the nursing staff as they looked after my child beautifully with respect and empathy. My issue is with  Dr seemingly not listening to the family and treating the matter as an offence committed against my child.