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"Treatment"

About: Armadale Hospital / Emergency Department

(as a parent/guardian),

Recently I took my child to the Armadale Hospital late in the afternoon as we felt three wood splinters stuck on their foot and the area where the wood splinters stuck became red and with visible mild puss formation.

As it was a busy day, we were attended after an hour and was questioned about bringing our child for a non-emergency condition to the ED. We were asked to wait to get an X-ray to check if any glass was present. We were attended to almost 4 hours after arrival and the consultant quickly confirmed that my child has warts and it will go by itself in a few months. We felt they were very quick to dismiss us as I believe they felt it was not a serious issue, compared to the other patients arriving at the ED.

We believed it is warts as the doctor advised us and again, the following evening we observed that my child's feet becoming more reddish and we took our child the next day to the GP. The GP confirmed the presence of a foreign substance and removed three wooden splinters from their foot.

Based on my experience, I am really disappointed by the service received at Armadale ED. We completely understand their frustration on a busy day but I feel that the treatment that we got from the nurse who attended us was not satisfactory. Whatever the issue is, I would like us to be given attention as required and not be dismissed easily.
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Responses

Response from Diane Barr, Executive Director, Armadale Kalamunda Group 3 years ago
Diane Barr
Executive Director,
Armadale Kalamunda Group
Submitted on 7/10/2020 at 5:54 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 6:05 PM


picture of Diane Barr

Dear pelicanen47’,

Thank you for taking the time to share your story with us. I was disappointed to read about your experience at the Emergency Department (ED) at Armadale Hospital, and I would like to apologise for the issues you have raised, specifically that the communication you experienced led to you feeling dismissed.

I understand the Nurse Unit Manager of the Emergency Department, has contacted you to discuss the concerns raised in your feedback and more importantly offered our apologies for your experience on this occasion.

As a Health Service, we are constantly striving to meet the needs of those in the community, this includes ensuring that we are proactively reviewing our processes to monitor our ED capacity. In line with this work, the Department of Health WA recently introduced GP Urgent Access clinics which are local surgeries designed to provide immediate and accessible treatment for members of the community requiring treatment for urgent but non-life-threatening medical conditions. These clinics, if required, also have the ability for Doctors to perform minor urgent treatment care, alleviating potentially lengthy wait times for patients and their families in Emergency Departments.

I have provided a link for you if you wish to access further information in relation to this new health initiative: https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/australian-health-services/urgent-care

I understand that coming to hospital can be a distressing time, particularly for children, and I am genuinely sorry for any additional stress the communication you experienced caused for you or your child. I can confirm that following your feedback, it will be reinforced with staff the importance of respectful and empathetic communication at all times with patients and their families.

I am glad to hear that your child received effective treatment from the GP and I hope they are now recovering well.

Kindest regards,

Di Barr

Executive Director

Armadale Kalamunda Group

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