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Exposed wires and staff support

Posted By filingcx36

"Exposed wires and staff support"

About: Perth Children's Hospital / Ward 1B - Burns Unit Perth Children's Hospital / Ward 3A - PICU/HDU

(as a parent/guardian),

My toddler had surgery recently, the ICU nurses and drs were amazing, could not fault them.

But on ward 1b, 2 obs machines had cracked leads which had exposed wires, (the lead that attaches to the foot probe) which they had on my toddler for a few hours before I noticed and requested to change.

One set of blinds don't work, have looked up and noticed other exposed wires hanging out from the top,

In my opinion, the room was clean, not too bad clean, but the bathroom mirror and sink were not clean.

I feel there were very long call wait times with the nurse-to-patient ratio being 1:4 - I don’t think it's too safe.

Last appt with EIP and social worker, the social worker said they would come in and see us to supply us with food vouchers and any support needed. We asked if we could see them again but I believe another social worker then contacted the person we had seen. The new social worker then came back and said we are not under our original social worker now, who didn't even come up themselves or let us know.

Was hoping for a bit of extra support as we did not expect to be here this long.

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Responses

Response from Jaan Turner, A/Nurse Co-Director – Surgery Division, Child and Adolescent Health Service - WA 3 years ago
Jaan Turner
A/Nurse Co-Director – Surgery Division,
Child and Adolescent Health Service - WA

Submitted on 8/01/2021 at 5:27 PM
Published on Care Opinion on 12/01/2021 at 10:28 AM

Dear filingcx36

Thank you for contacting Care Opinion raising concern about your recent experience at Perth Children’s Hospital. I am very sorry to hear that the service did not meet your expectations on this occasion.

Thank you for identifying the issue with the damaged lead on the patient observation machine. Our equipment is regularly serviced and maintained; however, there are times when minor damage is not identified by the staff. I would like to reassure you that whilst not ideal, this was at no stage a danger to your child. As was the case on this occasion, once identified to staff, there was a replacement lead readily available and the damaged one has since been replaced.

Thank you also for pointing out the damage to the blinds in your patient room. As you can appreciate, the patient rooms are high traffic areas with multiple families passing through them each week. Wear and tear does occur and at times, damage to the facility is not noticed by staff until pointed out by families or visitors. I have been advised by the Clinical Nurse Manager on Ward 1B that a contractor has been arranged and will attend the site to rectify shortly. In the meantime, the site electrician has reviewed and put measures in place to ensure the room is still safe to use.

The standard nursing to patient ratio is, as you mentioned 1:4, unfortunately at times staff do become busy and may take a little longer to respond to call bells; however, please be assured that should you or any other patient require urgent attention nursing staff will be available.

Should your child require admission to PCH again in the future, I encourage you to reach out to staff with any concerns you may have. Excellence and Compassion are two of our core values at the Child and Adolescent Health Service and staff constantly strive to provide the best care possible.

I am regretful to hear that the cleanliness of the bathroom was not up to standard, the Manager Environmental and Logistics Services has been made aware and will ensure attention to detail among cleaning staff.

I understand your concerns associated with the change of Social Work staff, please be assured that the Social Work department attempts to involve families in the handover between clinicians whenever possible, unfortunately sometimes this isn’t possible. Should you ever require additional support, I would encourage you to discuss with your treating team and we will do the best to accommodate your needs.

Thank you for bringing your concerns to my attention. Staff strive to continually improve the services provided by CAHS and your feedback is invaluable in assisting us to achieve this goal.

Yours sincerely

Jaan Turner

A/Co-Director Surgical Directorate

Perth Children’s Hospital

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