"Lack of communication"

My spouse spent 3 weeks in Fiona Stanley Hospital (FSH) following severe kidney infection that resulted in kidney failure. My spouse’s treatment while in ER was of the highest standard for which we are very grateful - since leaving hospital and still very unwell the service has been very poor indeed. Communication has been extremely bad, we tried calling the urology team for support when our family was so concerned for the well-being of my spouse with no response whatsoever, finally we contacted the patient liaison for support and thankfully at that time they got the doctor to call us.

After several weeks waiting for results on a biopsy we were given an appointment late last month but as we were driving out our driveway on our way to the appointment the mail man came and amongst the mail was a letter from FSH saying my spouse’s appointment had been cancelled with no explanation as to why? Given that we were extremely stressed already having been told my spouse had cancer and my spouse's anxiety waiting for results was sky high we were left feeling isolated as again attempts to contact the clinic was unsuccessful and our family was left without answers.

The new appointment earlier this month saw us wait in the clinic for over 3 hours - we were told my spouse needed further surgery and that would happen in 4-6 weeks, we were then sent off for a pre-admission appointment - another appointment was set for a week later to see the anaesthetist while there we were told my spouse’s surgery was booked for this week - but late yesterday we received a call saying my spouse’s surgery was postponed because they forgot to give my spouse antibiotics and they needed them before the surgery, the person who called couldn’t tell us how we were going to get the medication, they said they’d get back to us, I suggested they have the script faxed to our local chemist and gave them the name and address but as I’m writing this we have still not heard back - I tried calling the urology clinic today but after 10 attempts with no response I contacted the family liaison who said they would contact the doctor and arrange for my spouse’s script to be sent to our chemist.

At no time during the 5 months we’ve been dealing with the hospital have we been successful getting through to speak to anyone. It’s absolutely appalling, we have lost confidence in the hospitals ability to respond appropriately to our enquiries.