"Saying no does not seem to mean anything."

My mother is an inpatient at Maroondah Hospital, Eastern Health and requires inpatient rehabilitation. Yesterday during discussion about the rehab options she stated that she did not want to go to Angliss due to its location. My sister and I live in the Northern and Western suburbs so Peter James is more suitable for a range of reasons. Later in the afternoon she was offered a place at Angliss and she again confirmed that she would not go there as she had previously explained. There were comments such as I am not sure what the NUM (Nurse Unit Manager) will say about this etc. and that it would be a couple of days before a place would be available at Peter James. The ANUM (Assistant Nurse Unit Manager) discussed this morning with my mother again about Angliss and this time my mother stated that she would go home which would be unsafe rather than go to Angliss. Shortly after this the ambulance arrived on the ward to take her to Angliss! ! ! My sister happened to be at the nurses station to follow up what was happening so was able to prevent the ambulance from going to my mother. (What a waste of precious ambulance resources too). My mother is distressed about her experience and her legitimate preference not being listened to. We all appreciate the pressure on the health system as my sister and I work in it - we also wonder where the values of compassion and person centred care fit with the experience of, in my opinion, being bullied to go somewhere that is not in the persons best interest.

My father was also in Maroondah last year and I believe we had a similar experience of bullying, poor communication and threatening behaviour of staff that seem to come from a focus on beds and access at any cost rather than on people. I should have put in a complaint about my father's experience and I am deeply concerned that this culture has continued with my mother despite receiving excellent nursing and physiotherapy care. What will it take for kindness and compassion to be part of the experience!