"Lack of follow-up care"

My spouse had a Cystoscopy and they were sent home after the procedure. By the following morning they were in so much discomfit from not being able to urinate. Went to the Emergency Department that day, there they had put a small catheter in. After some time they decided to take the small catheter out and replaced it with a bigger one. My spouse was then sent to surgical ward to stay overnight to be flushed out. The next morning they were able to go home with the catheter in, before my spouse left the ward the nurse looking after them had given my spouse a 500ml bag. I asked the nurse will that be big enough and their reply was plenty big enough. There were only straps on the bag itself and no thigh straps to hold the weight of the tube, the nurse didn't give my spouse a night bag. The first night we were up and down all night changing the bag every ten minutes. The nurse also got my spouse to sign a form for home nurse to attend. I asked the nurse what do we do now, the nurses reply was, the doctor's office would be in touch to organise this.

We hadn't heard anything so I rang the doctor's office a few days later and said I was told that they would be in touch with us. They were not aware or heard anything from Central Gippsland Health Service about this procedure of having the catheter put in and also stated that it wasn't up to them to organise home nursing or a date for my spouse to have the catheter removed. The staff member I spoke to rang the continence nurse at Central Gippsland Health Service and left a message for them to ring the doctor's office back. The continence nurse rang me at 4.30pm that day and said that they would get back to me in a day or two to organise removal of catheter. The next day I rang the nursing coordinator and asked if I could speak to the continence nurse, they said they would get the nurse to give me a call. I then got a call from the district nurse and I explained to them about the catheter. The district nurse then rang the continence nurse again and got them to call me which they did.

The continence nurse said that they just heard my spouse had the Cystoscopy done and had the catheter in. I then said that I spoke to them earlier in the week and their reply was that they hadn't spoke to me. I then asked them how many continence nurses are there with their name. They then said that they may have spoken to me but couldn't remember and told me that they have organised for the district nurse to bring a night bag and another day bag out to us on Friday and they would be here after 8am. The district nurse arrived here at our home at 9.30am. They had mentioned they had to go and find the continence nurse to get the things they needed for the visit, seems the continence nurse had forgotten about this also.

The district nurse has rang since the visit that morning stating that my spouse was to have a nurse visit every day since they left the hospital. This had not been done all week.