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Attending with acute back pain and being ignored in the ED

Posted By Optimistic

"Attending with acute back pain and being ignored in the ED"

About: Royal Perth Hospital / Emergency Department

(as a parent/guardian),

My child attended Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) Emergency Department (ED) recently suffering acute back pain. They were brought in by St John Ambulance at my suggestion as I hoped they would be cared for and receive treatment that would assist them as they had virtually been bedridden with the pain for weeks.

My child had done all the right things, tried their GP, been to physio countless times but nothing helped.  At my insistence, they attended RPH ED and was triaged as a 4 and sent to Quick Assessment.  They could barely walk and were crying in pain.

In the 3 hours they were there, it took 1 hour to call them in, another hour of questions and, I believe, being ignored before some pain relief was offered and another hour where we waited for the pain to ease, which it did but only minutely.

I requested a scan but was refused. I requested a referral back to the Pain Clinic at RPH as my child had already been under their care but was refused.  I requested some form of medication that would calm the spasm in my child's back in the hope this would at least calm things down but was told no.  They were discharged still in a great deal of pain with nothing more offered than for them to take the medication they already had at home that wasn't helping.

My child was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 2012 and has managed the chronic pain fairly well but this was obviously a flare-up and they needed assistance and were given none.  I felt their pain and believe that my child, as a person, was totally disregarded and felt appalled that this was the best RPH could offer.

It has affected my child so badly. They have no confidence in the public hospital system and I don't blame them.

I feel something must be done to address attitudes of the staff we dealt with who are treating patients presenting in acute pain and at least some care and consideration should be shown.

Very disappointed.

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Responses

Response from Grant Waterer, Acting Executive Director, Royal Perth Bentley Group 4 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Grant Waterer
Acting Executive Director,
Royal Perth Bentley Group

Submitted on 24/12/2019 at 1:48 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 2:11 PM

picture of Grant Waterer

Dear Optimistic,

I am deeply sorry to hear that you and your child had such an unsatisfactory experience with the RPH Emergency Department and that we were not able to effectively manage your child’s pain. This does not meet the standards we aim to achieve. We would like to be able to provide safe, effective and timely pain management to all our patients, particularly those with chronic pain conditions.

I would like to reassure you that medical staff in the emergency department routinely follow pain management protocols for the management of back pain. There are also clear clinical guidelines for times when people with back pain require an emergency radiology scan. Current protocols suggest that people with chronic pain do not usually require emergency radiology (scans) unless there are signs of nerve compression and some types of strong pain relief are actually detrimental for people with chronic nerve type pain like fibromyalgia. This does limit the options available to the doctors in the emergency department in these types of situations. However adherence to these protocols should not leave patients and their families feeling uncared for and should not equate to a lack of compassion by staff.

The senior emergency department staff reviewing your story did report that they would like to have access to a rapid assessment pain referral or clinic service to get urgent advice or assessment by a pain specialist for people presenting with similar conditions to your child. Therefore there may be opportunity to improve our access to specialist advice or assessments in cases like this which we will further explore.

If you would like more information about these protocols or specific information about the care and treatment options available to your child please contact the Consumer Engagement unit on RPBG.Feedback@health.wa.gov.au or phone 9224 1637. The Unit will be closed over the Christmas period, but open for business again from Monday 6th January.

Best wishes

A/Prof. Grant Waterer

Acting Executive Director

Royal Perth Bentley Group

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