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Emergency Department

Posted By elephantsp88

"Emergency Department"

About: Sale Hospital / Emergency Department

(as the patient),

One late afternoon recently, I dropped my partner off to be seen as they'd had a horrible accident at work and could no longer walk and their knee cap was about 3x the size as the other.

We did everything we needed, checked in at the window, answered covid question, checked in on their phone… I wasn’t able to go in obviously so I went home.

Over a 4 hour period I kept checking in hoping my partner would at least see a triage nurse. Every time I checked in they said no. I then got a message that a patient walked out after 4. 5 hours for not being seen or spoken to and an elderly person was apparently then asked to get out of the wheelchair as the hospital “needed it” - a whole hospital and they had to have this person's. I keep checking in and there was apparently then a child waiting for hours needing stitches in their head.

I then get a message from my partner explaining that you failed to even put on the system that they were waiting to be seen, 4 hours they had been sitting there for. They were not offered pain relief once. A nurse came out asking “is anyone in severe pain” and, as I understand it, walked away before my partner could respond. It took 4 hours for you to notice someone was in there that wasn’t on your books. Mind you it wasn’t you who noticed - my partner went to the window to ask what had happened.

In my opinion, this hospital is getting so much worse. We understand long wait times they’re expected (especially in Sale I think) but I believe 4 hours to not even be on the system to be in line to get seen by someone is a joke And, I feel, most definitely not a covid blame. Do you even care about your patients? We are all workers just like you and I feel deserve for you to be doing your jobs.  

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Responses

Response from Tom Breakspear, Aged Care Services Manager, Maffra Hospital, Central Gippsland Health 2 years ago
Tom Breakspear
Aged Care Services Manager, Maffra Hospital,
Central Gippsland Health

Submitted on 28/10/2021 at 9:32 AM
Published on Care Opinion at 9:56 AM

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Dear elephantsp88,

I am concerned to hear about your partner’s recent experience with us in the Emergency Department.

Thank you for undertaking our new COVID screening process and checking in. This new process is designed to ensure we are keeping both our team and the community safe when attending the emergency department in your time of need. Once screening has occurred patients are then directed onto triage for initial assessment by our triage nurse, who will then direct patients to the waiting room or into cubicles where available. Once directed to the waiting room, it is our triage nurse’s role to ‘check in’ with these patients, re-assess their condition and initiate care where safe and appropriate. I apologise if this hasn’t occurred on your partner’s visit to the department.

We endeavour to see all of our patients as efficiently and safely as we can whilst providing excellent care. Unfortunately at times when we have a high volume of unwell patients in the department, it does become difficult to see all of our patients as quickly as we would like. It is certainly important that we continue to communicate to you whilst waiting as we know this can be a stressful time for both patients and families awaiting care.

It would be beneficial to our department to better understand your experience to help us improve in future. If you or your partner would like to discuss your experience further, please feel free to contact me on 51438160 or by email at Thomas.breaskpear@cghs.com.au.

Thank you for sharing your story with us, I hope your partner is recovering well.

Tom

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