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Care Opinion

Transfer from out of town

Posted By Frustratedpartner

"Transfer from out of town"

About: Royal Perth Hospital

(as a relative),

Hi my husband is currently still sitting in RPH emergency where he has been since 1. 50pm today, it's now 9. 10pm. He was sent by commercial flight from our home town about 1,500 km away after an injury yesterday. He was told to present at outpatients with his paperwork, was also told to fast as he would be undergoing surgery this afternoon. He went to outpatients, was redirected to plastics and then to emergency. He has been seen at least, but is now waiting for a room. He has missed dinner, been given a sandwich, has to fast again from 12pm and can't get anything delivered as he still doesn't have a room. Nor can he leave the hospital to get his own food. Where is the continuity of care for remote patients with no-one to help in the city? 

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Responses

Response from Aresh Anwar, Executive Director, Royal Perth Bentley Group 7 years ago
Aresh Anwar
Executive Director,
Royal Perth Bentley Group

I am a doctor and my job at Royal Perth and Bentley Hospitals is to help co-ordinate all the elements of the hospital to ensure patients get the best clinical outcomes and experience

Submitted on 5/09/2017 at 11:40 AM
Published on Care Opinion at 12:58 PM

picture of Aresh Anwar

Dear Frustratedpartner,

Thank you for taking the time to write highlighting some of the shortcomings in the quality of service you received.

We have been working actively with the WA Country Health Service in order to bolster the ability to deliver care locally. At Royal Perth Hospital we have also been trying to ensure that patients where possible are admitted directly from outpatients to a hospital ward thereby avoiding unnecessary lengthy waits in the emergency department.

Unfortunately at this stage I am unable to fully explain why this pathway failed your partner causing them to have such poor quality experience. Whilst I would like to apologise unreservedly today to you, I asked to be given a short period of time to look into this matter in a little more detail so that we can put steps in to minimise the chance of it recurring.

I will get back to you by the end of this week.

Yours sincerely

Aresh Anwar

Executive Director

Royal Perth Bentley Group

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Update posted by Frustratedpartner (a relative)

Thank you Aresh, my main purpose for posting was so that it would hopefully be brought to the attention of someone able to implement changes to help the process for us out of towners. The system we have in place is already one that does provide us with lots of assistance but I felt that perhaps something here may have gone amiss so wasn't sure if it was changes to procedures needed or that perhaps someone somewhere was just not aware of the appropriate method in this instance. My husband was otherwise happy with the level of care he received and commended the nurses on what they do.

Response from Lesley Bennett, Chief Executive, East Metropolitan Health Service 7 years ago
Lesley Bennett
Chief Executive,
East Metropolitan Health Service

Submitted on 6/10/2017 at 4:36 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 4:47 PM

picture of Lesley Bennett

Dear Frustratedpartner,

Thank you for allowing me the time to investigate further the concerns you raised on the day you visited RPH.

Once again I would like to apologise for your husband’s experience which is not the level of service we aim to provide to our patients and their carers.

On that day we had a higher than normal admission rate to the hospital which unfortunately caused delays in bed allocation.

Our dedicated Patient Flow team manage our hospital beds and are continually working with our clinical staff to improve the efficiency of discharging patients to free up beds for new patient admissions. We have several initiatives running in the hospital at present to make this process smoother, but I am sorry that on this occasion our admission processes fell short of our preferred standard resulting in inconvenience for your husband.

I thank you once again for sharing your experience and hope that the work we are undertaking will result in a better experience should you ever need to attend RPH again.

Regards

Dr Lesley Bennett

A/Executive Director

Royal Perth Bentley Group

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