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Waiting times

Posted By bravonn57

"Waiting times"

About: PathWest Rockingham Collection Centre

(as a parent/guardian),

I have been taking my child with Crohn's and my elderly parent with early-stage Leukaemia for blood tests regularly over the past few years. 

I cannot believe how hard these nurses (staff) work to try and get through the huge lines of people every day. It doesn’t seem to make any difference what time you go, they are always too busy to get through the patients in a timely fashion. 

I was there with my parent who had been to see the haematologist, they were asked to go and have more blood tests. We waited for an hour until a nurse came out to inform us they were now working on their own. There were still half a dozen people before us. My parent was too tired and we had to leave. 

Please look at hiring more staff in pathology. The demand is obviously there and I believe WA has many nurses/people out of work. 

Thank you. 

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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 30/07/2020 at 12:13 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 1:39 PM

Hi bravonn57,

Firstly, thank you for taking the time to send in your story. I am very sorry that you had to wait so long and then had to leave without having the specimen collected. It is regrettable that your parent was not able to have the test done that day.

The situation at the Rockingham collection centre is being addressed. PathWest has identified an alternate site for some specimen collections to be done at, that will help relieve the pressure on the staff at Rockingham. As for the normal staffing at that collection centre, there have been problems with maintaining full staff due to illness and unexpected leave being taken.

Normally we have a pool of casuals to draw upon but they are not always available. The extra work that COVID-19 has placed upon the Rockingham laboratory has also impacted on the number of staff available to work in the collection centre.

Furthermore, PathWest Executive is aware of the busy-ness of the Rockingham laboratory and have committed themselves to reviewing the current staffing levels at not only Rockingham but other regional PathWest sites.

Again, I apologise on behalf of PathWest for the inconvenience you and your parent experienced at Rockingham and I hope that the measures we will put in place shortly will improve the situation there.

Martin Taylor.

Acting Operations Manager Regional Services

PathWest.

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