I was referred to Armadale emergency department by my GP after complaining of abdominal pains. Emergency was very busy once I got there, but the staff were great. The wait was long and the waiting room quite full.
Once I was finally seen, again every medical staff member was great - they were friendly (despite obviously being very very busy) and professional in the way they went about their work. It turned out that I needed to go in for surgery, however given it was getting late the surgery at Armadale had already closed. I was going to be admitted into a ward before going into surgery first thing the next morning.
As I was about to be taken up to the ward, I was asked to sign a Medicare form. At this point my partner mentioned that I was a private patient. In my opinion, the staff member made it out to be a big inconvenience that now they had to redo some paperwork - all for what I thought was a process I was going through to give the hospital more money. Meanwhile, I was left waiting in a bed in the corridor blocking access for other staff to move freely around the area.
Once I was finally sorted and moved to the ward, the staff at the ward were again great.
The next morning, as I was about to be wheeled out for my surgery, I was approached by another staff member asking me about who I spoke to about being admitted as a private patient. Apparently the doctor I was admitted under preferred to see me as a public patient, so I was going to be changed back to public rather than private. This seems crazy - I felt like I was being talked out of giving the hospital money. I was also quite upset about the timing, as I was already anxious about going into surgery first thing in the morning after a sleepless night, and now felt like I was being interrogated about something that I thought I had sorted out the night before.
After this experience though, again all of the staff were fantastic and I don't think I could really fault the hospital.
"Great staff at Armadale"
About: Armadale Hospital Armadale Hospital Armadale 6112
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