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"Emergency Department treatment"

About: Bunbury Hospital / Emergency Department

(as the patient),

Recently, I had a heavy crash on my road bike and was transported to the ED of the South West Health Campus by ambulance as I was in too much pain to physically move and be placed into a vehicle. 

Upon arrival at the ED and waiting for about an hour, I was seen by ED staff. I was asked how much pain I was in (0-10). I indicated that when I was laying still there was no pain (0) however upon the slightest movement of my left hip the pain would immediately jump to 10. I was taken for an x-ray and after waiting for the results, the doctor informed me that the radiologist's report from the x-ray showed there was no fracture. I was then informed I was free to go home. I was unable to walk or weight bear on my left leg and it was a painful experience to move into a wheelchair, then wheeled out of the hospital, ready to go home by car. My wife had to return back into the hospital and request a medical certificate for my employment. The doctor signed me off for one day! I.E. I was due back at the work the next day!

When I was home I was in intense pain and it became so bad that I was unable to move without excruciating pain. As the day progressed I decided to contact a friend of mine who is also an orthopaedic surgeon. He indicated that he will have a look later in the day at the x-ray online and get back to me. When he messaged me, he said he suspected a fracture and suggested that I be admitted to St John of God Hospital, a private hospital on the same site as the South West Health Campus. Due to the intense pain, I was unable to get to the hospital by car so my wife called an ambulance who came into my house and bedroom and made the delicate trip to the hospital. I was admitted to hospital and went straight to have a CT scan. This confirmed the fracture of the hip. My surgeon also suspected there was an additional fracture and informed me I was to have an MRI scan. This was done the next day. On this day, a friend and doctor who works at the ED visited me to apologise for the treatment I received. I was scheduled for surgery the following day. This was performed by two surgeons and I believe the operation took over an hour and a half. A 30cm scar was my memento from the surgery. My rehab started the next day and I left hospital 5 days after the accident and two days after surgery. While my time off work will depend on my speed of recovery, a 4-8 week period off work was suggested.

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Responses

Response from Jan Cook, Operations Manager Coastal Hospital, WACHS South West 5 years ago
Jan Cook
Operations Manager Coastal Hospital,
WACHS South West
Submitted on 9/05/2018 at 6:02 PM
Published on Care Opinion on 10/05/2018 at 9:03 AM


picture of Jan Cook

Dear jupiterek83

I am sorry to hear about your recent experience at Bunbury Hospital Emergency Department.

Thank you for contacting us via Patient Opinion so we can improve on the care we provide.

I do apologise that you needed to contact a friend. It is fortunate that they are a surgeon and were able to assist you.

Given that you couldn’t walk you should have been offered hospital admission, further senior medical review & investigations. This did not occur & I apologise for this.

We have introduced a program called “CareCall” where we encourage patients or family to call a 1800 number if they are concerned with their treatment. This enables us to address the concern, at the time.

An Executive staff member will answer this call and then follow-up with the staff involved.

We would like to investigate your presentation fully. To do this, we need your details, could you please contact the Patient Liaison Officer on 9722 1521 so we can arrange for Dr Adam Coulson, the Director of Emergency Department, to review your records

Yours sincerely

Jan Cook

A/Operations Manager Bunbury hospital

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