"Hospital ED above and beyond"

My specialty team advised I present to the ED for a different presentation of symptoms possibly stemming from my aggressive brain cancer and its management that is being led by Charlie's. The department was heaving with ambulances ramped up and many distressed patients and family members in the waiting room either waiting to be seen or waiting to be able to go in to see their loved ones.

Given the circumstances, including clearly, in my opinion, exhausted staff members, I felt my care was as quick as it could have been. It was unfortunate that I sat in the waiting room with a cannula and was called from and returned to the waiting room after a CT contrast. Despite this, invasive care and results were conducted in a room within ED itself- not the waiting room.

As a person with terminal brain cancer, my care is primarily managed by Charlie’s but when I need urgent care, I present to ED at Fiona Stanley. I understand there are specialist hospitals for certain care, but you may sit as a patient in a different catchment. I have experience working in hospitals and understand that the issue is that Fiona Stanley and Charlie’s use different methods for documenting patient care leading to significant delays in teams within and across sites obtaining information vital to quality patient care. Further, I have noticed many senior clinical staff are not aware of the methods to navigate the various databases they can access to obtain some of this patient care detail. I believe a single method of documenting all care and decisions regardless of where a patient presents to hospital would improve communication on all levels, including improved efficiency.

In terms of the business of the hospital, I believe it would be beneficial to have an urgent GP service available. This way, when the ED gest busy, staff can redirect people who require urgent, but not life-threatening care (such as broken bones, vomiting/diarrhoea), to the Urgent Care GP for timely assessment and triaging. This would, in my opinion, reduce ramping and bed block.

What was good, however, was that Fiona Stanley ED staff liaised with their Neuro staff. The Fiona Stanley Neuro staff liaised with Charlie’s Neuro staff.

While I was waiting in the ED, some people waiting were eating strong-smelling fast food. Some patients were vomiting and nauseous. I believe people should not be allowed to bring strong-smelling food into the waiting room to reduce the risk of making other patients feel more ill.

My only other concern was that I saw people with runny noses and coughing who were not wearing a mask. I understand that COVID19 restrictions have been eased in the area, but flu-like symptoms are still problematic for some patients, particularly when there is a nasty flu virus that has recently been going around.

Overall, I was incredibly impressed by the way all staff and volunteers attempted to manage patients in the waiting room. Some of what I witnessed was rather distressing, but personally believe the staff are going above and beyond within the resource restrictions I think they must be working.