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"Poor treatment in the Emergency Department"

About: Royal Perth Hospital / Emergency Department

(as the patient),

Going into Emergency at the Royal Perth Hospital to treat nerve pain at my left ankle and up my left shin bone. The pain was unbearable and once walking in to talk to someone, the nurse allocated to me I felt was very unprofessional, having social chats with other staff while not attending to me. They then told me to go into the next entrance over for assessment.

Once there, I waited to see a doctor, the staff member who assessed me, I believe wasn't a doctor or a nurse, I felt they were very vague in the way of assessing me. After this, I notice plenty of other people, in my opinion, were receiving special treatment, been allocated a bed and the nurse would wait on them - I was left seated on a chair waiting over 30mins for the staff member who assessed me to come back.

The pain was getting worse and tried to get the staff member's attention but nothing. The people who I believe received the special treatment were Caucasian, I have private health cover/hospital cover and could not understand why I was left alone, waiting for a long period of time and I told the staff member about the pain. 

I left very upset and told the staff how I felt and, in my opinion, it was easy to see why I wasn't attended to, I wasn't the right colour. I was with my parent and we both never left so upset before, seeing this poor treatment and being dismissed from staff. 

I will never go back to Royal Perth Hospital ever again and will notify people in my life and professional circle on how bad I felt the service was in this toxic place.   

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Responses

Response from Lesley Bennett, Chief Executive, East Metropolitan Health Service 3 years ago
Lesley Bennett
Chief Executive,
East Metropolitan Health Service
Submitted on 21/12/2020 at 10:43 AM
Published on Care Opinion at 10:44 AM


picture of Lesley Bennett

Dear triangulumzr99,

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience regarding the challenges you faced when accessing treatment at Royal Perth Hospital. I am concerned to hear of your experience during what must have been a stressful time for you.

It is extremely disappointing to hear you felt the communication from staff was inadequate and that it lacked professionalism, as this is not the standard of care we aim to provide.

Please be reassured patients are assessed in the Emergency Department by clinical priority and not necessarily in the order they present. Without specific details, it is difficult to ascertain why you were left unattended on a chair for over 30 minutes and were not able to catch the attention of staff. I apologise that this situation left you feeling dismissed by staff.

I would like the opportunity to follow up with your care journey personally. To do this I would need some further detail. I encourage you to contact our Consumer Engagement Unit on (08) 9224 1637, 8 am to 4 pm or email RPBG.feedback@health.wa.gov.au. I respect you may like to remain anonymous, so please be assured that the Head of the Emergency Department has been made aware of your story and will be reviewing your experience with the team.

I hope we are able to be of assistance in resolving your concerns and hope you are recovering well from the nerve pain.

Kind Regards,

Dr Lesley Bennett

Executive Director

Royal Perth Bentley Group

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