"COVID testing - lack of information"

I feel frustrated the health professionals involved in COVID testing in Kununurra, in my opinion, don't know what's going on apart from their narrow job description.

1. Online information shows the Kununurra hospital (former aged care building) as the only COVID testing clinic in Kununurra. On presenting there, staff said, oh no sorry - they only do asymptomatic testing and I need an appointment. There is no way of making an appointment! I was advised to go to a certain health service or the hospital's ED.

2. Hospital ED - they said oh no sorry - they don't do any testing at all and to try the hospital COVID testing clinic or the same certain health service. I advised them of their misinformation, including at the entry to the hospital. They even have a screened-off area for patients waiting for COVID testing - why?

3. Suggested health service (the day before) - I had been there the day before as I had a caucasian colleague who was rapid tested there. I was advised no - I'm too white, no underlying health issues, not a health professional and not an active customer of this particular health service. I accepted this information and that's why still having the flu-like symptoms, I went to the hospital COVID clinic the next day. As per above, I was redirected back to this particular health service. Frustrating in my opinion.

4. The next day, after attempting the hospital services, the particular health service reception then requested if I was an existing patient - I queried why this was important and were they going to test me or not. When there was no satisfactory response I requested to speak to the manager, who then directed me to the COVID respiratory clinic. 

5. Suggested health service's COVID respiratory clinic - there is nothing online about their service. They undertook the swab. They were not sure if the swabs went on the daily flight to Broome for testing or on the flight to Perth (which I believe is not every day). They queried why I wanted this information. My response was that I wanted to know if my results would be forthcoming the next day (via Broome) or if my swab would sit around for the next plane to Perth and then would it have to wait for a working day to be tested in Perth. This impacts my life, it's also a long weekend.

Eventually, they confirmed it was being sent to Perth. They couldn't respond to the results being available in 2 to 3 days or 2 to 3 working days. They also confirmed the reason the reception was checking if I was a current patient was so that they could print out my details, without this health service's COVID respiratory clinic having to request those details. I believe it would have been useful for the person trying to do their job at this health service's reception to know why they were asking those questions.

6. Still no response or text message with the results. I contacted the COVID helpline - which in my opinion is a waste of time - it seems you can't talk to anyone and when I eventually got through several, press 1, press 4, press 99 etc, I was advised by a standard message that results take up to 3 business days and I should call back during business hours to track where my results were.

In this day and age - this whole process, in my opinion, is a circus of very helpful people who only know information directly about their narrow job but have no knowledge of how to assist a person through the system and provide accurate and reliable information, or why they are doing what they are doing.

Kununurra is a small town, there is a small team involved in the testing - I believe it's not difficult to share accurate information. 

In my opinion, this is not acceptable.