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Need more staff in the Emergency Department

Posted By atlasyc75

"Need more staff in the Emergency Department"

About: Karratha Health Campus / Emergency Department

(as the patient),

I recently came here with a bleeding cut injury on my foot. A nurse attended to it and gave me a heads up that wait is going to be long, like a couple of hours, as they are very busy. And it was almost coming to 2 and a half hours wait and I didn't know how much longer it was going to take to see the doctor.

Meanwhile, the pain intensified and the injury area was swelled up and when I asked for help I was given a Panadol by the nurse again. It really felt horrible. How are patients with emergencies supposed to hold it together with longer waiting times?


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Responses

Response from Alistair Pinto, Regional Director Population Health, WACHS PIlbara, WA Country Health Service (WACHS) Pilbara 4 years ago
Alistair Pinto
Regional Director Population Health, WACHS PIlbara,
WA Country Health Service (WACHS) Pilbara

Regional Director Population Health for WACHS Pilbara and the lead of the Allied Health, Community Health and Public Health Teams.

Submitted on 7/08/2019 at 2:52 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 3:03 PM

picture of Alistair Pinto

Dear atlasyc75,

Thank you for sharing your story on Patient Opinion, and I am very sorry to hear about your experience at the Karratha Health Campus Emergency Department (ED).

Firstly I would like to apologise for the long wait you had to endure during your visit to the ED and I would like to also thank you for your consideration and thoughtfulness for other patients with emergencies who might have to endure similar waiting times.

Patients that present to ED are triaged based on The Australasian Triage Scale (ATS) and assigned a score which dictates the priority with which they are seen by the doctor. This means that urgent cases get seen quickly however this also means that sometimes, unfortunately, clients with less serious injuries wait longer, if there is a high volume of urgent cases on the day.

I would like to investigate why it took so long for you to be seen by the doctor on the day you presented to ED for which I kindly request you get in contact with me directly so we can look at this incident further, without your personal details appearing on this forum. I can be contacted via email on WACHS-Pilbara.Feedback@health.wa.gov.au or on telephone number 91447630. Should you choose to do this, I may be able to provide a further update on the ED processes to this site, while still maintaining your confidentiality.

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback to us, as patient feedback is invaluable in assisting us to deliver the best care in the best possible way.

Regards,

Alistair

Dr. Alistair Pinto | A/Operations Manager West & Inland Pilbara

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