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Care Opinion

Poor staff attitude

Posted By Bananabomb

"Poor staff attitude"

About: Patient Assisted Travel Scheme - WACHS Goldfields

(as a service user),

A staff member at PATS made me want to cry. 

I went in to sort flights for an upcoming appointment in Perth. This is the first appointment I haven’t driven down for, as we recently were upgraded to flight by our specialist in Perth. A stressful time for me! 

I felt the staff member who served me was rude, and was not listening to me. They told me we weren’t covered for flights, even though I knew we had been upgraded. I was trying to explain to them that although it wasn’t on the original referral that a letter/email had been sent through from my child's specialist. 

I felt they didn’t want to look and it seemed like they didn’t actually care. 

But when they looked a little further they saw that we had been upgraded to flights. 

In my opinion, a little empathy goes a long way. 

They made me want to cry. It’s stressful having to organise everything and they just added to my stress.

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Responses

Response from Peter Tredinnick, Executive Director, Regional Office, WACHS Goldfields 3 years ago
Peter Tredinnick
Executive Director, Regional Office,
WACHS Goldfields

Executive Director WACHS Goldfields

Submitted on 12/01/2021 at 6:47 PM
Published on Care Opinion on 13/01/2021 at 10:21 AM

picture of Peter Tredinnick

Dear Bananabomb,

Thank you very much for taking the time to share your story with us.

I was very concerned and disappointed to read about your experience and, on behalf of the Goldfields PATS team, I would like to personally apologise if we in any way added to the stress you were experiencing when arranging flights to Perth for a medical appointment. The role of our PATS team is to provide support and help our patients and their families living in country Western Australia to access medical care and I am very sorry for how you were made to feel on this day.

I would like to assure you that Margaret Smillie, our Regional PATS Coordinator, has spoken with our PATS team in both Kalgoorlie and Esperance offices and has reiterated the importance of providing professional and, most importantly, empathic support to people each and every time. I would also like to let you know that as a result of your feedback, we will be looking into arranging additional training for our staff to ensure that this kind of situation is not repeated.

I am very keen to understand more about what happened and would really appreciate it if you would contact Margaret Smillie on 9079 8071 at a time of your convenience.

Again, thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us and providing us with the opportunity to improve the service we provide to people living in country communities.

Peter Tredinnick

Regional Director

WACHS Goldfields

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