"Listening to concerns"

Disappointed. My parent was in the late stages of their cancer and has been in and out of the hospital (twice) in the last month. They weren't feeling well (suspecting Atrial Fibrillation (AF)), so we had called up the hospital, speaking to both the on-call oncology and ED doctors. As they have requested my parent to come in and are aware of their condition, in my opinion, one would have thought we could have seen a doctor almost immediately.

We were triaged on arrival, and despite me telling the nurse we were expected, we had to wait almost 2 hours. During this time, my parent had 5 attacks of AF. I requested the nurse to check their BP and was only told that we were next and to go back and wait. This was another 20 mins or so before we got in. I felt there was no point in calling ahead. In my opinion, the system have picked up my parent's medical history (they are a patient of Box Hill) and put 2 & 2 together.

I understand that this is a public hospital, and that there is no preferential treatment. However, I would expect the triage nurses to be a little more understanding of the situation, rather than saying I do not have any information in front of me. If only they had checked with the on-call doctors. My parent passed the next day. I could not help thinking, if we were seen earlier, I believe my parent wouldn't have to suffer as much as they did before their passing.