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Obscene waiting time

Posted By telescopiumhs45

"Obscene waiting time"

About: Fiona Stanley Hospital / Emergency Department

(as the patient),

Was called by a doctor from Fiona Stanley Emergency Department 6.30pm Friday about an x-ray from previous Sunday. There was a fracture in my jaw that they took 5 days to pick up on. I was asked by this doctor to present to the emergency department for a CT scan. This doctor told me that they would be expecting me and I would go straight through. I presented at emergency at 11am Saturday where I had to wait to be triaged again. I waited for 2 hours for this CT, which took only 5min. I was then told that the report would be in within 30min-1hr. It is currently 2. 30pm and I have been waiting for an hour and a half. When I asked how much longer, I was told to wait another 30min. During this time I have not been allowed to eat. I have now waited another 30min with no results and have left the hospital. In total, it took 4 hours for a 5min scan. I am incredibly disappointed in the service and care I received.

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Responses

Response from Janet Zagari, Executive Director Transformation, South Metropolitan Health Service, South Metropolitan Health Service 5 years ago
Janet Zagari
Executive Director Transformation, South Metropolitan Health Service,
South Metropolitan Health Service

Submitted on 6/11/2018 at 6:50 PM
Published on Care Opinion on 7/11/2018 at 9:59 AM

picture of Janet Zagari

Dear Telescopiumhs45

Thank you for your willingness to share your story on Patient Opinion. I am very sorry that your experience was so disappointing.

The reason for the 5 day delay in contacting you is that the Emergency Department has a formal process of reviewing all x-rays of patients undertaken on Day 5 by a senior doctor. This happens with every patient that has blood tests or x-rays taken as an additional check. Therefore a senior emergency doctor reviews the x-ray report with the diagnosis and advice given on discharge to ensure that the best and most appropriate care was given to the patient and documented on the discharge summary. This happens on Day 5 to ensure that all images and blood tests have had time to be formally reported. In some instances, the review will identify issues that were not noted at the time and will contact patients for further follow up. In your case, the fracture of your jaw was found and noted on the final x-ray report and it was advisable to follow up this fracture with a CT scan. From your feedback, we are going to review the process and look at whether we can do this check earlier and be assured that the results will be available.

I wish to apologise for the delay in being scanned and the further delay in waiting for the results. I am also concerned that you left before the results were provided. If you are willing I would encourage you to contact the Fiona Stanley Hospital Patient Family Liaison Service on 6152 4013 or via email FSHFeedback@health.wa.gov.au so that we have more detailed information to be able to use your feedback to ensure that we can do better.

Kind regards

Janet Zagari

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