"Lack of preparation"

Letter sent by snail mail to Fiona Stanley Hospital and is my considered opinion of this alleged service - Fiona Stanley Telehealth Pain Clinic.

I attended a conference recently at my local regional hospital. The appointment was for mid-afternoon and a letter from FSH advised me to attend 10 minutes earlier. This I did.

The local hospital needed to telephone FSH twice because I was in pain and not going to sit around for perhaps hours, waiting for a Telehealth conference, organised around nine months ago. Your specialist started the conference about 20 minutes after the arranged time. I felt they had not prepared for my case at all and I believe they did not know how to find the three pages of notes that I sent with the original appointment form.

I believe the notes that they had were from an obsolete Doctor and not legible and they had to get assistance from a secretary, I believe, to discover the letters describing my situation sent by me months ago. The entire circus, in my opinion, was a shambles and perhaps the most un-professional meeting I believe I have ever encountered.

Apparently, it seemed the exercise from your end was to wean me off whatever drugs my Doctor prescribes, that work for me in probably my unique situation and try me on another substance with Physiotherapy. In my opinion, had this specialist bothered to obtain and read the information that I had, in good faith, provided and the current medical history from my Doctor, perhaps they may have had a chance to help my situation.

I suspect that the conference that I concluded early was recorded. If so, I respectfully suggest that you watch and learn from it. To me, an appointment is a meeting at an appointed time - hence the word appointment. I feel it does not mean some casual part of the day, particularly after I have received a letter and two SMS messages from you to confirm that I will arrive punctually.

At any meeting, I believe the attendees should be competent and well briefed. I feel this was not the case with your staff, who seemed to have no background of my condition and thereby, I believe, embarrassed my local Hospital staff when I dismissed your video specialist and left.

After waiting so long for an appointment in the forlorn hope of expert pain relief, I felt it was extremely disappointing to find an unprepared person who I believe had no case notes and was floundering about wasting my time by asking questions I felt were already covered by previous qualified medical professionals.

I understand that your clinic may be busy. Having been in business most of my working life, in my opinion, there is no excuse for being either late or unprepared for an appointment. Please lift your game, or find another vocation.