"Not Happy"

I attended the Pre-Admission Clinic at Maroondah Hospital recently, I was told I had a toe infection. A scraping was taken for Pathology, the doctor said a report and a request for a specific antibiotic would be sent to my own doctor, and that Maroondah Hospital would see me again in two weeks. None of this happened, so I purchased an over the counter remedy and started treating my toe myself.

Nearly two weeks later, I received an SMS from Maroondah Hospital advising me that my surgery was booked for the following week; this SMS also contained a surgery number but no time was given.

Five days before the date of my surgery, I called in, to the Pre-Admission Office, in person, at Maroondah Hospital to find out the time for my operation. After showing the staff member my SMS, they brought up my personal details on the computer and gave me a hospital arrival time.

The day of my scheduled time, I arrived at Maroondah Hospital at the time they had told me, only to be told I wasn’t on the list because my surgery had been cancelled due to a toe infection. My toes were then inspected by a triage doctor and were given the all-clear. Approx. an hour or so later, a surgeon also inspected my toes and was happy with them and told me to wait around and hopefully the surgeons would be able to fit me in. Unfortunately, after a 9-hour wait, I was sent home.

I do understand things can happen that prevent surgery from proceeding, but I believe in this day of computers, emails and mobile phones, a lack of, or a lapse in communication, in my opinion, should not be one of them. I had to organise time off work and my place of employment had to organise replacement staff. My spouse also had to rearrange their work schedule, because of a clerical error, I believe on your behalf.

We’ve had to cancel all these arrangements just to go through it all again at a later date unless of course, my surgery is cancelled indefinitely due to the current health system circumstances. I’ve actually been waiting over 8 months for this operation and am reliant on codeine-based pain killers to allow me to work.