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"The wait was too long at Ipswich Hospital "

About: Ipswich Hospital / Gynaecology

(as the patient),

I have been referred to the Ipswich hospital by my GP for endometriosis earlier this year. I was given an appointment in September first with a nurse practioner who it seemed couldn't do anything for me. I was then asked if I still needed an appointment at the hospital. I did so I got an appointment at the gynaecology clinic at the Ipswich hospital. My appointment was at 3: 15, I was seen at 4: 40, 1h25m wait with no explanation. I was then told by the consultant that they had people off sick and rather than cancel the clinic were just making people wait. Well, maybe you should tell people in that case. I had to leave work early and ended up waiting nearly 1h30. A bit more communication wouldn't go amiss. The main reason for the referral is the fact that I can't have children at this stage. The gynaecology clinic being in the same place as the antenatal and pedatrician clinic I was surrounded by pregnant women and newborn, not the happiest thing when you can't have babies yourself.

I was seen by a consultant (still not a doctor) who even though had the whole referral from my doctor and the notes from the nurse practioner made me repeat my whole story. I was advised that they would do a laparoscopy but that if they found too much endometriosis they wouldn't be able to remove it and would have to pull out and send me to the Royal Brisbane Hospital for a second laparoscopy which means another surgery under general anaesthetic. What is the point of doing a surgery you're not sure you'll be able to complete?

Ipswich hospital has wasted my time, the communication has been terrible, a 6 month wait time just to see a consultant who makes you wait 1h30 to be seen is just poor customer service..

Overall a very poor customer service.

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Responses

Response from West Moreton Health Service, West Moreton Hospital and Health Service 10 years ago
West Moreton Health Service
West Moreton Hospital and Health Service
Submitted on 27/10/2014 at 1:03 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 2:00 PM


Dear Froggy

Firstly, our sincere apologies it has taken us so long to get back to you.

We certainly appreciate your frustration, and know that waiting can often be stressful – please be assured we are working hard to minimise waiting times across all our services, our aim is to make sure that no person waits longer than they should. We can also appreciate that having to wait in that particular area on the day would have been difficult for you.

We agree, good communication – and ultimately good customer services – is important and we were disappointed to hear you did not receive helpful information about your possible wait time. Your feedback has reminded us of the importance of sharing information while our patients are waiting, and we are reviewing our systems to make sure we improve this across all our services.

We were sorry to hear we didn’t communicate our staff’s individual roles with you very clearly. This is also something we are working hard to improve. Our excellent Senior Doctors are often referred to as “Consultants” – and your message was a timely reminder that often we don’t translate the key pieces of information about who is caring for you in the best way. Again, we are introducing improved ways to support our patients to know exactly who from our exceptional team of care providers is caring for them, and their role as a heath professional.

If you have any further concerns or queries, you are most welcome to contact our Senior Consumer Liaison Officer on 3810 1111 who is more than happy to assist.

Consumer Liaison Office

West Moreton Hospital and Health Service

27 October 2014

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