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"Hospital Stay at Gippsland Base Hospital, Sale"

About: Central Gippsland Health Sale Hospital

(as the patient),

I recently had an operation at the Sale Hospital. All went very well, my surgeon was so helpful and explained all the procedure to me. Followed up that night, calling in to see how I was.

Two weeks later I had an infection. I went back to Sale Hospital, saw my surgeon without having to wait too long in emergency.

Before my surgeon, I saw a young registrar surgeon. He examined me without a nurse present. This I did not mind so much as I had a friend with me. I felt he was rough and rude. He told me it was a waste of time travelling to Sale as it wasn't too bad and I would only be given antibiotics.  I told him my GP had spoken to the surgeon and he had told me to come straight away.

When the surgeon came in, he called for 2 nurses, as there were two doctors. My infection was drained there and then. I was admitted to hospital straight away and given IV antibiotics and monitored for a couple of days.

The young Registrar came to check my wound the next day in the ward. Again I felt he was very rude. He uncovered my wound, then told the nurse that it was to be emptied and more dressings put on.

I had a pink Limb band on my right arm. The next day when he came, same again. My cannula had to come out and a new one put in. My nurse Melissa, who was wonderful, asked him to put in another one as she did not want to miss because there were not many more places to put one and that the right arm was off limits. He said, can’t you do it and walked off. I then heard him at the desk asking the nurses that if I was dying would they still not put it in my right arm. I felt that he was downright rude and arrogant to me and the nursing staff. Melissa managed to get it in and did a great job.

I then had an operation to clean the infection out and unfortunately another one a few days later, as there was further infection.

The registrar told me that it was my fault that the infection happened because I smoke. I stopped smoking on the day before my operation. I asked another surgeon, who I believe was his boss, if I could have prevented the infection. He told me definitely no. He said it happens no matter how sterile things are, this does happen now and then.

Every time I saw the registrar, he continued to tell me it was my fault. One of the nurses spoke to him about this as I was getting very upset.

The surgeon and all the other doctors training were so nice. All the nursing staff in the Women's and Children were amazing, especially Melissa and Jen. I wish I knew their last names so I could thank them properly. Even two of the cleaners, Jenny and an older lady were amazing.

I am sure the registrar will be a great surgeon, but his bedside manner and opinions were appalling.

I have been a patient in a few different hospitals over the years and Sale Hospital, from my experience, is fantastic. Keep up the good work.

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Responses

Response from Frank Evans, Chief Executive Officer, Central Gippsland Health 8 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Frank Evans
Chief Executive Officer,
Central Gippsland Health
Submitted on 17/10/2016 at 8:58 AM
Published on Care Opinion at 9:11 AM


picture of Frank Evans

Dear aucote64

Thank you for providing us with feedback and telling us about both the good and not so good aspects of your care at Sale Hospital.

Please be assured that I will thank Melissa, Jen and Jenny for you personally and pass on your feedback to all the staff on the ward.

I am very sorry for your experience with the surgical registrar. We are currently taking a number of actions to improve communication across the entire health service. Two things in particular I would like to tell you about.

The first is that we are providing all of our clinical and home care staff with a copy of Dr Ranjana Srivastava's book "Dying for a Chat".

The second is that we are developing a communication training program that will involve every staff member at CGHS receiving targeted communication training based on their role within the health service.

My intention is that the training will have an ongoing aspect to it to include all new staff.

If you would like to talk with me about your stay you can contact me on 51438319 or by email at frank.evans@cghs.com.au

Thank you once again for telling us about your stay and please be assured of our commitment to improve our communication across all areas of our health service.

Kind regards

Frank

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Response from Frank Evans, Chief Executive Officer, Central Gippsland Health 6 years ago
We have made a change
Frank Evans
Chief Executive Officer,
Central Gippsland Health
Submitted on 12/01/2018 at 10:59 AM
Published on Care Opinion at 11:21 AM


picture of Frank Evans

Dear aucote64

I realise some time has passed since I communicated last but I wanted to assure you of our ongoing commitment to improve communication and person centred care.

We are continuing to provide all our clinical staff with a copy of Dr Ranjana Srivastava's book "Dying for a Chat".

Late last year we engaged with a training organisation that specialises in communication training and over 800 staff participated in this training, including me. We provided feedback to the training organisation as we completed each training module. The feedback we provided will form the basis for a communication charter for the health service.

I am confident that the training has already made a difference and once our Communication Charter is in place we expect to see even further improvement.

We are confident that our Communication Charter together with our Person Centred Care Project and associated training program will make a real difference for Central Gippsland Health.

As always, if I can be of assistance in any way, I hope you will feel comfortable contacting me on 51438319 or by email at frank.evans@cghs.com.au

With kind regards

Frank

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