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Service severely understaffed

Posted By authenticxt89

"Service severely understaffed"

About: PathWest Rockingham Collection Centre

(as the patient),

In my opinion, the Pathwest Collection Clinic at Rockingham Hospital is severely understaffed and in blatant need of greater support/funding/focus from upper management. 

I believe the patient backlog occurring at Rockingham isn’t just putting added stress on staff and patients alike, in my opinion, it’s also a health risk during our current COVID-19 climate. 

I attended the clinic in the morning for a routine blood collection and when I was still in the queue one and a half hours later, there were so many people waiting that they were spilling out the doors and down the corridors, I felt making it almost impossible to adhere to adequate social distancing practices.

In my opinion, if you don’t address the staffing shortages ASAP, I would bet my bottom dollar that you’ll soon have staff walking off the job. 

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Responses

Response from Martin Taylor, Acting Operations Manager, Regional Services, PathWest laboratory Medicine 3 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Martin Taylor
Acting Operations Manager, Regional Services,
PathWest laboratory Medicine

Submitted on 17/06/2020 at 2:38 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 2:48 PM

Hi authenticxt89,

Thank you very much for taking the time to contact me about the staffing situation at Rockingham PathWest. I apologise that you had to wait for a prolonged length of time and that it was difficult to maintain the required social distancing.

I was aware that there was a staff shortage earlier this week due to 3 staff members being on personal leave at the same time. The Medical Scientist in Charge at Rockingham notified my office of the staffing situation and the Branch Liaison officer tried to source some relief staff. We were partially successful but could not replace all 3. Rockingham normally has a pool of relief staff to draw on but due to various reasons they were not available. We will endeavour to increase this pool of casual staff so we can have a better chance of meeting the demand should such incidents occur again.

The waiting time is probably also prolonged because of the recent decision to increase the amount of elective surgery and consequently more patients coming in for pre-op testing.

I again apologise for the inconvenience this staff shortage has caused you and assure you we will do our utmost to increase the available pool of relief staff so such incidents do not occur in the future.

Kind regards,

Martin Taylor

Acting Operations Manager

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Update posted by authenticxt89 (the patient)

Thank you for responding so promptly, Martin.

Response from Martin Taylor, Acting Operations Manager, Regional Services, PathWest laboratory Medicine 3 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Martin Taylor
Acting Operations Manager, Regional Services,
PathWest laboratory Medicine

Submitted on 31/07/2020 at 10:17 AM
Published on Care Opinion at 10:19 AM

Hi authenticxt89,

I wish to let you know about some planned changes to our service at Rockingham. Firstly we propose to employ a receptionist who can do the initial "meet and greet" functions so that the phlebotomists are relieved of that duty.

Secondly, we plan to divert some clients to an alternate site so as to reduce the number of patients presenting at the collection centre.

Thirdly PathWest is reviewing the current staffing levels at Rockingham with a view to increasing the number of staff in the collection centre.

The first 2 changes will occur shortly and the review will be held in this quarter of 2020. Hopefully, these changes will see the situation at Rockingham improve for our patients.

Kind regards,

Martin Taylor

A/Operations Manager Regional Services

PathWest

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by authenticxt89 (the patient)

Wonderful news, Martin. I greatly appreciate how proactive your response has been.

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