"Disappointing - Hospital Emergency Department"

My grandparent recently visited Canberra Hospital ED for a possible ruptured tendon in their shoulder. 

My grandparent is elderly in their 80s, heard a snap in their shoulder, had significant bruising and was in a fair bit of pain. Still managed to get themselves to hospital without burdening the ambulance system. 

An ex-nurse themselves, my grandparent doesn't frequent the hospital much unless they really need help. They are pretty non-complaining and stoic with pain. My grandparent was in the department for roughly 8+ hours which wouldn't have worried them or our family because we recognise their presentation wasn't an emergency per se or a high priority for the department. 

What isn't acceptable in my opinion, is that during that 8+ hour period, my grandparent was not, as I understand it, assessed for pain or offered analgesia once. Not by the triage nurse, not by a waiting room nurse, not by the doctor who assessed my grandparent 4 hours after they arrived or any bedside nurse or any health professional in that time. My grandparent was not provided with any pain relief, even something as simple as a panadol.

Being an emergency nurse myself, I can understand how busy the department can get and how often we cannot achieve as much as we would like for our patients during our shifts due to multiple systematic factors. However, I believe that's still not an excuse to neglect a patients pain for over 8 hours.

My grandparent was also told they would need an U/S but that couldn't be attended because staff were too busy today. Again, if this was the case, there was still no referral or any opportunity given to return the next day for imaging if it was actually required. 

My grandparent was also told by a nurse they should see an occupational therapist as my grandparent does not receive any home help and, given the disability, this injury to their shoulder had caused, they may require some extra help. However, they will need to sort that themselves.

My grandparent was, however, referred to their GP which they saw and was referred for the scan which cannot be attended for over 3 weeks.

I feel this department did literally nothing for my grandparent. In my opinion, there was no point in my grandparent presenting to the primary tertiary Emergency Department in Canberra because staff could not, as I understand it, assess them properly, they could not treat them properly and they could not refer them properly so what really is the point.

Extremely disappointing to me.