"The Good and Bad of Hospital Emergency Department"

As I understand it, our GP had exhausted all avenues in investigating my partner's recent health issues. They have many immune system issues and currently are suffering from an almost constant bout of infections (chest and urine). Our GP was concerned enough to request that my partner be admitted to Bunbury hospital for a "full workup", as our GP felt that they had gone as far as they could.

We got to the ED at around noon and there was no indication that ED was full of emergency cases - I feel they need to notify patients on their arrival or have an LED board announcing wait times - this did become apparent after waiting over an hour to be seen.

This started the good part of our visit, we were seen by a couple of doctors who started the investigations and took blood (a very difficult case with my partner usually needing an ultrasound to find a vein). I feel the Doctors involved were excellent, after approx another hour we were taken for an x-ray of my partner's chest, again the radiographers (one a student) were excellent.

We then had to wait again for an ED doctor to arrive and this is where it went downhill fast. The doctor looked through the notes provided by the GP and asked questions about what had occurred resulting in our GP's request. Following this, they listened to my partner's chest and said that they could hear a little crackling.

My partner asked about some water tablets they were on and this ED doctor said that this was for heart failure (first we had heard of any heart issues). The doctor also pointed out that the swelling of my partner's legs was also a symptom of heart failure. No mention of the seriousness of this issue, in fact, I felt it was ignored by them. Surely if there was, in fact, heart failure should my partner not be admitted?

The doctor then went to see their boss and came back stating that there was nothing they could do, they wouldn't organise the necessary CT/echocardiogram as this was the responsibility of an upcoming visit to a Gerontologist (my partner is only in their 60s but is being investigated for Parkinson's) or our GP.

They then had, I feel, the gall to say that they would be writing to our GP and giving our GP a slap for the actions the doctor had taken with the GP request. We said the doctor had better not. In my opinion, how unethical is this and why would they suggest this when our GP was seemingly doing their job (unlike, I believe, this ED doctor and their boss). They also stated that as my partner's oxygen stats and BP were perfect that there was no medical reason that the ward doctors would admit my partner.

In my opinion, what sort of hospital are they running when a GP was worried enough to request a patient was admitted only to be rubbished and then we essentially get turned away, basically we felt that my partner fell into the too hard basket.