"Treatment from Emergency"

I'm telling my story here as I tried to tell the hospital but it seems they aren't interested. 

Towards the end of last year, after a family event went wrong, I'd lost all of my medication. I have very complex health issues so presented to Northam ED for help. I had up to date paperwork from my specialist, local GP & Police report number.

Once in the ED, I felt I received nothing but judgement, called a liar, called 'difficult', & humiliated by what I felt was an accusatory nature of questioning in front of other patients who were only a couple of feet away in the temp ED area.

I was given 1 tablet & told I would have to keep returning 6hrly for more & given 2 scripts when I had lost everything (about 10 medications), including an epi-pen, which had an incorrect authority on it. No chemists open anywhere & I'm missing tablets for my heart & for breathing plus others.

I went home (30ks away) & when I couldn't cope anymore I returned there 12 hrs later. When I was called by the clinical nurse, I explained I was having trouble walking & could I have a chair. I felt they snapped at me & said I looked fine & they said they had read previous notes & didn't know why I returned as I was wasting staff's time when they had sick people to treat.

This upset me immensely & I didn't understand as I was doing as the Dr had told me, yet, again, I had to explain myself as this Dr said they weren't going to waste their time reading all the previous notes, nor would they look at any papers I had with me. I felt they questioned me like some criminal & kept telling me they didn't believe me.

I felt the doctor refused to give me any treatment, told me I was wasting everybody's time & gave me a script for 10 tablets @ 8 per day & told me not to return to the hospital again.

In my opinion. the doctor & the clinical nurse spent a lot of time insisting/bullying me into agreeing to attend another GP practice the next day, despite me and that GP practice telling the Dr they wouldn't see me because of my complex health, having no access to any of my medical files & my regular GP being closed until the new year. But the ED Dr & ED clinical nurse, I felt, continued the insistence/bullying over this particular Drs surgery & telling me to go there because I can't come back here.

I went looking for a chemist for my script & all were closed, I returned to the hospital & no one could find chemist roster list for the holidays & I felt ED staff got mad at me for asking for medication to be dispensed by them. It seems a clinician had to step in to help get me the medication.

The following morning I had deteriorated so much I was unable to walk, I phoned the hospital & reception put me through to ED. I asked would they see me & I felt I was rudely told no! I hung up & cried & cried.

Through tears, I called Health Direct who didn't seem to know what to do with someone from the country who believed they had been banned from their nearest hospital. I live alone on a farm with no one close by to help me. I was distressed, in tears & helpless at this point.

I finally found a Dr in Perth who could access my specialist's file & who gave me an appointment that afternoon. I had no choice but to pay for a ride service to take me to Perth. The cost of which, including medication, left me little money for next 2wks from my disability pension.

So, imagine my dismay the following week after I'd been bitten multiple times on the face by whitetail spiders & then having my face, tongue, lips swell up & breathing was getting difficult - ringing in my ears was the Dr's words that I recall being don't come back here. I'm now too scared to call 000 because they will take me to Northam ED & I believe they will turn me away.

Terrified, I sat at home alone & used both my EpiPens & Asmol & hoped for the best. The following day, still swollen, I went to my local GP practice over the bites & after they read what the hospital had sent them and called the hospital ED, it seems that all of a sudden they are now treating me differently.

I asked for a copy of the paperwork the hospital had sent the GP surgery for my last 2 visits &, as I recall, I was told it was none of my business & the Hospital said I couldn't have a copy either. I believe I've now discovered I've had some label put on me & I don't know what it is or why.

My recollection is that a hospital nurse told me I will have to get to a hospital outside of the Northam catchment to be treated fairly & with respect as I will never get it there again & the same for a GP as, in my opinion, the hospital has ruined my reputation with my local practice.

What distresses me the most is both places have decades of medical info on me &, in my opinion, because of 2 visiting Perth Drs who don't know me & spent less than 5mins with me, I'm now somehow a bad person. Never will I seek any help from Northam Hospital again. I will take my chances to get to a hospital outside their catchment... even with anaphylaxis, which I suffer often.

As I've already stated, I have very complex health issues & many drug allergies, my medication has largely been unchanged & at the exact same dose for 15 years. I believe the Hospital has vast records on me, yet I felt I got interrogated like a criminal, judged without anyone looking into my past history, called a liar & time waster, forced to go to Perth for help, left broke with little food for 2wks... for what?

I deserve to be listened to, my circumstances considered, treated with dignity, with respect & not, in my opinion, humiliated & not left in immense pain, fearful of Hospital staff, broke & broken, depressed & suicidal, which is how I am since this happened to me... It seems I've now got no medical professionals I can see locally.