"Sub-Acute Care"

My elderly parent was in another Wheatbelt hospital recovering from pneumonia. They deconditioned and, as I understand it, were not able to be attended by a physio and the nursing staff were too busy to attend to basic nursing care, let alone ambulate my parent. The family were told there wouldn’t be a physio for 6 weeks, we were advised my parent needed to go into respite.

I contacted the rather fabulous Joel, coordinator of the sub-acute unit in Northam. Joel arranged an allied health review and my parent was deemed suitable to go to rehab and thankfully they did. The Northam subacute unit staff, (allied health, clerical and nursing staff) were all brilliant at getting my parent on their feet. My parent did so well and is now home. That family are very grateful for my parent to have been given this opportunity after seemingly being blocked at the original hospital. My other parent is still upset by this treatment.

The only issue, I feel worth commenting on, at Northam, being the nursing staff and doctor attempted to discharge my parent on the weekend. I believe they can’t have been aware they were a sub-acute patient, they were not an acute patient.

My parent needed to be discharged by the sub-acute unit not the front of house staff! That was a bizarre situation, fortunately, resolved. Thank you so much to Joel and his team for getting my parent back home, it was a great effort.