"Need better communication post-surgery for my child"

I took my tween child to the Emergency Department early one morning recently with right testicular pain. They are seen promptly by the triage nurse and taken straight through to the Paediatric area of the Emergency Department where a kind and caring nurse Cam looked after my son and the doctor I think his name was Nick examined him and explained that he thought my son had a testicular torsion and he would contact Urology to review him and organise an ultrasound. The service we received in the Emergency Department was excellent and the nurse and doctor made my son feel at ease and well looked after. The service was very efficient and we headed up to theatres just under 1 hour and 30 mins after arriving to the Emergency Department.

After my son's surgery, the Urology Doctor called me but the call went to my phone's voicemail. They left a message to tell me the procedure went well, no damage and that my son will be going to recovery and that I will probably be with him by the time I got the message, and that they will try to call again or catch up with us on the ward. Unfortunately, I never saw or spoke with anyone from the Urology team who looked after and operated on my son.

As I sat in the waiting room for parents whose children were having surgery, I saw other surgeons I believe, and anaesthetic teams come talk to the parents and I believe update them on their child, but no one came to see me and tell me exactly what they found when they went in to operate. I had to ask the nurse in recovery if my son did have a torsion in his right testis and they were the one who said yes from what they read on the operating report I believe. I'm disappointed that no one from the Urology team came to see me. Is that because my son was not a private patient using his private health insurance but was admitted as a public patient under Medicare? I hope that's not the reason. No one asked me if I wanted to use our private health insurance for the admission. I did step out of the Emergency Department briefly and I know you normally have to sign admission paperwork where the clerical staff ask if you want to use your private health insurance. I didn't even sign any admission paperwork except for the consent form. I know my son needed emergency surgery urgently so as to not damage his testis so I'm grateful that he was able to have the surgery so quickly and there was no delay getting him to theatres.

I know Doctors and surgeons are busy and may have other surgeries or emergencies to attend, but I believe not speaking with the parent directly after surgery but only a phone call is not good enough. The discharge instructions were provided in the Child and Adolescent Short Stay and it included follow up with the GP in 10-14 days for a wound review. I guess his surgery doesn't need to follow up with Urology even if it's Telehealth due to the pandemic but what if I had further questions later that I didn't think about at the time.

I want the staff in the Emergency Department who cared for my son to know they did a fantastic job and thank you.

I would like to thank the Urology team for looking after my son during his surgery and I would like them to improve on their communication with the parent of a child having surgery.