"Tom Price Hospital and local GP"

 Good Morning,

I would like to know more about the hospital in Tom Price and it’s relation to the private GP practice in town.

When you visit the ER you are told no doctors are employed there (WA health does not employ them at the hospital we are told) and you are directed towards the local GP for which a visit even for a referral for a toddler is $76.

Now sometimes when a doctor is in the hospital he/she will not pre-advance your GP visits, they won’t write a referral there for a urine or stool sample. You have to go and see that doctor who is standing in front of you at the GP ($76 or $86) to get that referral (no check over of my toddler was done in this visit, just a referral write up). They then send it off and you need to visit again when results are back (another $76) even if nothing shows up.

I believe it’s quite common knowledge throughout this town that many people steer clear of the hospital and GP because of these reasons. It feel like we are being taken for a ride by something that does not seem like standard practice. Not to mention what seems to be aggressive responses when raising the subject and then being made to feel like a second rate patient by staff.