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"Hospital stay"

About: Bunbury Hospital / Emergency Department Bunbury Hospital / Surgical Ward

(as the patient),

Had a very bad experience for almost 5 days.

Went to emergency by ambulance as it was impossible for me to get into a car as I had severe bleeding from the bowel.

Emergency for 3 hours and still no outcome. Had a scan and said they will admit me to a ward. I said I’d like to go to a particular private hospital as I’m a private patient who pays a lot of money for private health. Was told that hospital doesn't like to take patients that are going to the surgical ward on the first day let’s see what happens tomorrow.

I wasn’t told I was having any surgery but thought they know best so just went with it. They put me on a liquid diet that consisted of cold chicken clear broth, pineapple jelly and apple juice for breakfast lunch and dinner. I understand needing to be on it but I found it absolutely awful and I had no direction what was going on.

That day I did a stool sample that was to be sent to Perth for cultures. Also needed bloods and antibiotics.

Upon arrival to hospital, I told them I was hard to access veins due to previous surgery but they poked and prodded and one doctor took 5 times! They got it in but it soon failed so they used ultrasound to access the vein and that took 3 goes which were unsuccessful.

Then told I’d need a port for antibiotics and blood.

That never happened and by the evening two days later, they put me on a low fibre diet, still, no bloods taken on that day or the next. On the following day, was told I’m going on oral antibiotics. I asked about port and doctor said we don't do those for this kind of thing?

I then asked that final morning about stool sample and it seemed a lot of whispering was going on. I said you’ve lost them haven’t you and they said yes. So I had to submit another one.

The night before I let, I asked it to be escalated as a nurse said it was ridiculous what was going on with me. Well actually more than one nurse commented on the ridiculousness of it. So on the final morning, I was hoping to get spoken to by the clinical coordinator or someone but nothing at all.

I asked again to be moved to the private hospital but staff at Bunbury more than once said they treat at John’s like a hotel and they only take easy patients that don’t need looking after!

By now I’m very depressed and horrified about my stay so I asked to discharge myself and then I was told well we need to get a doctor and blah blah blah. So I waited and waited got told it's ok to go.

In my opinion, what an absolute terrible culture I saw there and in future, I shall have to travel to Perth.

Just letting you know not once did I raise my voice or make a scene as I’m not that type of person and have spent many years in Charlie Gardner due to sarcoma.

In my opinion, something needs to happen here as having spoken to people I believe I’m not an isolated case.

I believe Robyn, Mia, Vera and Ciaran are amazing nurses and I can’t fault the nurses one bit but I think the ones above them should be ashamed.

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Responses

Response from Jeremy Higgins, Operations Manager - Inland, WACHS South West 2 years ago
Jeremy Higgins
Operations Manager - Inland,
WACHS South West
Submitted on 14/06/2021 at 10:20 AM
Published on Care Opinion at 10:22 AM


picture of Jeremy Higgins

Dear Tabathat,

Jeremy Higgins is my name and I am the Operations Manager at Bunbury Hospital. I am very concerned to read about your care experience at Bunbury Hospital and I wish to sincerely apologise that you have left our hospital lacking confidence in the care you received.

I can see that you have experienced challenges with the basics of care, for example, good communication, management of your specimens and compassion from our staff. The lack of a clear plan also appears to have been an issue that you, and also some members of our team, were experiencing. This is not the excellent care we should be providing and want to provide for you and every patient and I am sorry this was your experience. I strongly encourage you to contact Dr Sergey Bibikov Bunbury Hospital Director of Medical Services on 9722 1000. Dr Bibikov will help to look into your concerns in more detail, provide you with any support you might need and also identify any improvement opportunities.

I want to acknowledge your concerns about being able to access the St John of God (SJOG) Bunbury Private Hospital. At times we do have concerns raised from private patients who come into the Bunbury Hospital who are unable to get access to the SJOG Bunbury Private Hospital for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it may be related to the level or type of care required. Bunbury Hospital is working closely with SJOG Bunbury Private Hospital to raise these issues and to improve these circumstances for private patients who wish to use their private cover.

I also want to acknowledge your feedback regarding the culture at the Bunbury Hospital. It is true the hospital, like many other hospitals, is under demand and capacity pressure at the moment and this poses some challenges for staff. I want to let you know that along with an expanded leadership team at the hospital, there are many very committed and excellent staff who are also part of the local community, and a team focussed on building on the workforce, which will support us in further developing the services in partnership with the community. We have a planning team that has commenced the early work towards delivering a $200.1 million major redevelopment at Bunbury Hospital, which will include additional beds, an expanded Emergency Department, along with an additional Operating Theatre.

I do hope you are recovering now and want to reassure you that your care is important to us. If you need care at Bunbury Hospital in the future and are concerned about the care you are receiving, we have a system called CARE (Call and Respond Early) Call. CARE Call provides patients and their families and carers with a way to call for urgent assistance when they feel that the healthcare team has not fully recognised their own or a loved one’s changing health condition. CARE Calls are answered by a senior member of our staff who, after listening to a person’s concerns, will take what action is required to address these. For example, they may contact the treating doctor or other members of the healthcare team to ensure you or the person you are concerned about is assessed and any necessary changes to the treatment plan are carried out. The person who receives a CARE Call keeps the concerned person updated about what action has been taken. The CARE Call number for Bunbury and all Southwest Hospitals is 1800 744 059.

Thank you for your kind words about Robyn, Mia, Vera and Ciaran. I will make sure they receive your compliments.

Yours sincerely,

Jeremy Higgins

Operations Manager

Bunbury Hospital

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