"They were unreal in their care and concern for my daughter (Ipswich Hospital emergency department)"

My daughter was mauled by a dog and had severe lacerations, gauges and deep wounds to her face, neck and upper body. In my state of horror, I did not call for an ambulance but decided to take her to the Ipswich Hospital. My experience with the all staff in the Emergency dept. from the ward clerk, triage nurses and doctors was absolutely fabulous. As soon as they realised that my little girl would need extra attention than they could give they organised to have her transferred to Mater Children’s Hospital. They acted quickly, efficiently and professionally and I thought they were unreal in their care and concern for my daughter. I simply cannot thank the staff at Ipswich Emergency enough.

Sadly the treatment I received by the security guard when I first arrived and parked my car in the emergency bay at the hospital was what I can describe as only barbaric. Whist holding my bloody, hysterical and distraught child, the security guard walked over to me and in a what I thought was a threatening manner told me that if I didn’t move my car in 2 minutes he was going to call the police. He did not render any assistance whatsoever. I parked in the emergency bay as this was clearly an emergency and did not appreciate being spoken to like that when surely it was obvious what I was doing and that I had an emergency. I don’t know if he has the authority to treat people like that and maybe the reason for having emergency parking bays needs to be clearly explained, either the public is unaware of why they are there or the security guards are unaware as to what actually an emergency is and their ‘role’.

This whole situation could have turned very nasty as he made me very agitated and I was ready to punch him. I am still absolutely disgusted at the treatment we received by this guard and can only say that this can be a very negative influence on the hospital.