"The emergency care"

One afternoon, my spouse went into Knox Private Hospital - Emergency Department (ED) as they had back pain that was also going down to the right leg. We waited for approximately two hours before being called in and of course, there were other patients that clearly were waiting before us.

My spouse had a CT scan done, then a few hours later l went to the main desk to check if the scan had come back and yes it had. After approximately an hour and a half later, the doctor came back and apologised for the delay as they were waiting for the results, which I understood are apparently are diagnosed overseas?  The doctor told my spouse they had bulging disks and could be easily treated with an injection and was going to organise for them to be admitted into the hospital to have it treated. 

So to my spouse's credit, they informed the doctor that they were taking Warfarin due to a heart surgery about a year ago, and yes, at Knox Private Hospital.

My spouse was discharged with Endone and told to take Voltaren for the pain relief and if it was not improving within five days, to come back. We presented a few days later due to no improvement and was seen by another doctor, who told my spouse it would take a few weeks for the pain to improve.

In my opinion, what is so disappointing, is this doctor prescribed more medication. Now a total of six. My spouse went to see their GP recently who I believe was annoyed and felt that the doctor should have asked my spouse what current medication they were on and read the medical history!

I understand this environment is very busy and doctors and nurses are under a lot of pressure a lot of the times, however, l feel it does not excuse what I believe was the lack of reading a patient's medical history.

The GP has told my spouse not to take these medications and has only kept them on one. In my opinion, this has been wasted time and money. I believe it's so unfair to patients, these costs!

The total cost, all up comes to several hundred dollars to be seen in the ED,  for the medication and the hire of crutches (which GP also recommends not to use, just slowly walk every hour to help improve condition).

Luckily my spouse had not been admitted or we would have had to pay the hospital admitting cost all because the care to read the patient's medical history, in my opinion, seems too time-consuming!