"Care at the hospital"

A close family member was recently admitted to Eastern Health for an admission which resulted in a brief (thankfully) stay on 9.2 and 6.2.

I wanted to highlight the importance of good communication and allied health, particularly when patients are elderly, in isolation and are at high risk of developing respiratory infection through lack of mobility.

I appreciate there is a high risk of staff entering isolation wards and recognise this must be balanced with the risk of deconditioning. However, due to multiple comorbidities, my family member almost developed a chest infection which I believe would have been further minimised with chest physiotherapy and mobilisation within the room.

I hope the importance of physiotherapy in the acute setting can be further recognised during this COVID situation as we begin to learn more.

Thankfully a proactive male nurse did teach my family member 'how to breathe properly' which helped ease the anxiety of the situation and wean them off oxygen. My own experience and knowledge of being a healthcare worker meant we could swiftly access allied health on admission to the general ward - thank you AH team!

I feel communication on discharge day could also have been improved as discharge times and instructions were not made clear.

However, I would like to take the opportunity to thank 2 nurses on 9.2 who kindly were able to facilitate communication with family via phone (Caroline and another a young female nurse) during this scary and busy time.

I would also like to send a shout out to the PCA/porter on 6.2 who facilitated contact with me when my family member was left waiting at discharge and chased down the busy nurses so medication could be taken pre-discharge.

Overall, we had a positive experience at Eastern Health.