"Urgent Care"

We are ever so grateful that we have such a wonderful Urgent Care at Leongatha. As a whole the staff are amazing and the doctors go above and beyond. We have visited for anaphylaxis, teeth through a tongue, cuts and chest pain. The doctors have supplied their own ultrasound machines to ensure that we had the quickest possible treatment while waiting for other tests and professionals to come in. We have felt seen and supported.

However on the last two occasions we have faced a nurse who has very quickly accused us of looking up our symptoms on Google and social media prior to arriving to the urgent care. This has been disheartening especially when we live with invisible illnesses and have to deal with this bias in everyday life. No we  did not shop our diagnoses on Google we have had our conditions verified by multiple specialists and had extensive testing over years to be provided with the “labels” we have.

A young teenager who has spent months on wards in the Royal Children’s and in their clinics shouldn’t have to be advocating for their right to be seen and heard when given their accurate medical history. Someone with extensive heart concerns and under the close watch of a cardiologist shouldn’t need to advocate for a their right to be heard when presenting with chest pains. If we are so quick to make assumptions out loud to the patient what assumptions are being made that we are not aware of?

Living with multiple invisible disabilities and health concerns is challenging enough, please consider biases. To out incredible doctors and specialists we are lucky enough to have an Leongatha thank you for your help and support during such stressful times.