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The care of my young child

Posted By composerzm43

"The care of my young child"

About: Margaret River Hospital / Emergency Department

(as a parent/guardian),

My young child had split their lip so I took them to our local hospital (Margaret River hospital) with my newborn to get it looked at. It needed stitches or gluing but we felt gluing would be best suited for my child.

But there were 2 nurses I would like to put a formal complaint about. We knew my child wouldn’t like getting the glue done so I was all for the nurses to hold them down since I had my newborn strapped to me. I knew my child would protest and that they would wrap them in a blanket and that was fine. What I wasn’t ok with was the fact that I felt the two nurses forced my child on the table with no encouragement or explanation that I saw. And wrestled my child while they were eating a biscuit. When I realised my child has food in their mouth, they didn’t stop until I made a point of it again. A lovely nurse offered to hold my baby so I could get a hold of my child and calm them. I had to say, can you give my child 2 mins to let them finish what they are chewing and I calmed my child. I then realized later that they didn’t clean the wound at all.

There were another 2 nurses who were lovely, even one of them stepped in to, as I understand it, get the other nurses to back off. The Doctor was nice and tried to help the situation not hinder it. Next time I will drive 50 km to a different hospital. I feel they could have handled things differently and we were all very shaken up afterwards.  

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Responses

Response from Sally Shaw, Acting District Manager Leeuwin, WACHS-SW 2 years ago
Sally Shaw
Acting District Manager Leeuwin,
WACHS-SW

Submitted on 30/08/2021 at 4:12 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 4:13 PM

To compsoerzm43,

Thank you for taking the time to share your story with us. It must have been very worrying for you to bring your young child into the Emergency Department at the hospital. We want all of our patients and their families to feel confident in the care they receive and I sincerely apologise if the approach of our staff left you and your child feeling shaken.

I am pleased to hear that you have spoken at length with the Clinical Nurse Manager at the hospital and I hope she has reassured you that your feedback is being taken seriously. We know that parents and families know their children best and your feedback will be shared with our teams to reaffirm this, along with our commitment to providing professional, compassionate and kind care at all times.

If, in the future, you have concerns about yourself or your loved one’s medical treatment when you are in hospital, you can call our free CARE Call number. CARE call empowers patients and their loved ones to escalate any concerns they may have regarding their care to a senior member of the health service who will take action to address the concerns. The CARE call number 1800 744 059 and is available at all Southwest hospitals.

If you would like to discuss your experience or if you have any further concerns, please feel free to call or email me at a time that is convenient to you. My mobile number is 0427 913 711 and my email is sally.shaw@health.wa.gov.au.

Thank you again for sharing your story with us and while I hope your family remains healthy and well, I genuinely hope you will feel comfortable to return to Margaret River Hospital if you need to.

Yours sincerely,

Sally Shaw

Acting Leeuwin District Manager

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