"Failed again"

I received an urgent phone call from my family member's oncology department to attend the ED immediately as their blood test results show immunotherapy induced hepatitis.

We immediately attended the Bunbury ED department who had been notified that they were to be admitted for urgent steroid treatments by IV.

As of 5:12 pm, my family member is still waiting and has received no treatment. They have been shoved into short stay as they have no beds as per usual.

I feel there was no urgency from the registrar or nurses who I asked numerous times to please help my family member.

I was told that triage has put other cases above my family member but how much more urgent can a stage 4 cancer patient with hepatitis be?

Over the past year we have repeatedly been let down by this ED. I feel it’s ridiculous to not fast track cancer patients! My family member was sitting there with a swollen leg (due to surgery for melanoma removal 3 weeks ago at FSH) and very uncomfortable for hours.

I feel i’s no good apologising when, in my opinion, nothing improves at this department.

Cancer patients need fast tracked care and at the very least seat them somewhere away from everyone else coming in with numerous contagious cases.

It’s really not good enough