"Wagga Base Lack of Communication"

My partner went in for surgery recently and all was good until after the surgery. He was told he was allowed to use crutches and be going to the toilet on his own. Sunday we were told he would be discharged Monday morning but by Sunday night a new nurse told him that he shouldn't be walking and that he was NBM as he may possibly be going in for further surgery which, to my recollection, the Doctor told us nothing about. When we questioned this, the nurse simply said well the other nurse must not know how to read.

Monday morning came around and instead of being discharged they told my partner he needed a PIC line fitted to administer antibiotics to him 24/7 then he would be discharged. Nothing of this had previously been mentioned. As my partner was having the line fitted the Hospital at Home staff advised me that they would be coming to my house at 3pm each day to change his antibiotics and dressing his wound for the next 2 weeks. That would be ok except my partner lives 100km not in Wagga. They had organised all this without consulting either of us and luckily I live in Wagga and he could stay with me.

After all the drama at the hospital he was discharged. The first day out of hospital the nurse came round for a visit to change the antibiotics but did not seem to be aware they were meant to change the open wound on his foot. While discussing this the nurse let us know my partner had a review at 8am the next morning at the hospital AND a home visit in the afternoon. We were not made aware of any of this and with my partner living 100km away this makes it extremely difficult to be having to be at the hospital every couple of mornings at 8am and then home visits every day at 3pm in the afternoon.

The lack of communication and not even giving us the opportunity to be involved in choices and organisation of my partner’s aftercare was ridiculous. Had we been given any notice at all about any of this we may have been in less of a shocked state and been able to rearrange and organise things properly. In my opinion, this all just goes to show how inconsiderate some people are when it comes to patient care.