"Experiences at the hospital"

For some years I have been writing to the WA Health Minister, the WACHS Administration and anyone else who might respond regards what I believe is the deteriorating state of the Plantagenet District Hospital. In my opinion, staffing is also an issue and over the time that I have had to have dealings at the hospital, I believe staff levels have diminished markedly.

I want to give some examples of my experiences at the hospital over the last several years.

Three years ago my elderly parent broke their ankle. Initially, they were sent home without treatment and five days later, when they went back to the doctor, they were hospitalised. However, they were sent home in a moon boot two days later in spite of the fact that they live on their own and had no assistance to be at home. I live out of town and had to travel in daily to ensure that my parent was able to shower and get their routine daily chores done for the first two weeks.

They also suffer from GORD and at times it is so severe that they are in extreme pain and are unable to swallow. I attended with my parent at Plantagenet Hospital ED earlier this year. We waited in the lobby for over 1 1/2 hours in which time my parent's details were taken. Another patient arrived just after us with severe dog bites to their arms and, as I understand it, in shock and I believe they waited about the same amount of time.

Some months ago, my partner fell ill and had a high fever reaching 40C. I took them into the ED after calling to enquire what was the correct procedure in light of Covid protocols. My partner was placed in an isolation room and waited approximately 3 hours before being attended to by, as I understand it, a trainee doctor. I believe their vital signs were all compromised significantly, but the doctor was unable to diagnose their condition. A supervising doctor did not enter the room but advised from a doorway that my partner had bacterial pneumonia and gave a prescription for two antibiotics. We returned home after six hours in a cold isolation room.

We have repeated this process twice more in the following two months - each time waiting over three hours to receive attention. The last time, when my partner was again running a temperature of over 39.5C, we waited in the public waiting room from the morning for four and a half hours before - at my insistence- my partner was again placed in the isolation room. During the preceding hours I had had to go to the chemist to get medication to try and keep their temperature down, but they were so ill they were unable to hold the tablets to take them. A nurse did an initial assessment in the anteroom of ED around 1 1/2 hours after we arrived, and a doctor spoke to my partner around the middle of the day. We were finally seen by a doctor 3 hours later and left the hospital 2 hours after that.

I am in no way critical of the staff - they do an amazing job in what I believe are very challenging and difficult circumstances in sub-standard facilities. 

The ED at Plantagenet  District Hospital consists of two beds in a room that I believe hasn't been redecorated in over 20 years. There are open holes in the walls where equipment has been removed and the isolation room is sealed with plastic sheeting and gaffer tape. My understanding is that everything has been repurposed and there have been occasions when I have witnessed what I believe to be the frustration of doctors and nurses when they are unable to get equipment to function adequately and when, as I understand it, they have had to make do or improvise.

Our hospital serves a wide area from Cranbrook in the North to Narrikup in the South to Rocky Gully and Frankland in the West and Borden and South Stirlings in the east. it is over 70 km to Denmark and 50kms to Albany.

In my opinion, we deserve a better hospital and a better service.