"A distressful situation for our client"

Our client was informed by their Eye Specialist in Port Macquarie that the Cataract surgery they had on their eye in another hospital was unsuccessful as they still had a piece left lodged in their eye. I recall our client was given 1.5 days’ notice that they were required to get themselves down to Sydney (from Port Macquarie) to attend an appointment with Sydney Eye Hospital and would most likely be operated on that day.

Our client is one of our disability participants who unfortunately has no family or friend supports. Our client would not have the capacity nor the money to travel to Sydney alone. Our client of course was quite distressed and teary knowing that they would be unable to attend this appointment, and also knowing that if they didn't, their eyesight may be negatively affected for the rest of their life.

Under normal circumstances, it would not be our role either to support our client to attend this appointment and surgery, but with absolutely no other alternatives available, we went into crisis mode and organised a support staff member to accompany our client to Sydney that day so that they would be in Sydney ready for the appointment.

It seems that the stars were just not aligning for our client at this time and everything that could go wrong, did. Firstly, it seemed to me they were told they were being admitted that day to have the operation and would be out the following day. Then I believe they were told that no, they didn't have any beds, so our client would be admitted the following day and would be out the day after that.

Following this decision, I contacted the Social Worker (Sarah) and found she was absolutely wonderful in her understanding and compassion about this situation. I believe she managed to advocate for our client to be admitted on the original day in readiness for the surgery on the following day and then our client would be out on the third day. At least this allowed the support worker to return to Port Macquarie on the first day to attend to support shifts over the next two days which then made them available to travel back to Sydney to collect our client on the third day to take them home.

But no! There was yet another hurdle to deal with when our client was advised on the second morning that they had been bumped off the surgery list and would not be operated on until the third day and therefore would not be able to go home until day four. This was now very distressing news as we had absolutely no staff available after day three to come to Sydney to collect our client to bring them home.

Once again, I spoke to another Social Worker (Christine) who was again very supportive and understanding and I felt Christine was able to advocate for our client to have their surgery on the second morning, however by the time they were to do this, our client had already been given breakfast and was therefore not able to have it done.

I made another call to the hospital and spoke to a lovely man named George. I found George was fantastic and after several attempts to organise our client's surgery, he phoned me back to advise that the surgery team were willing to work overtime to ensure that our client received their surgery on the second night which would allow them to travel back to Port Macquarie on the third day with a support worker. This could have easily been thrown into disarray also, because luckily I had phoned our client to advise them what was happening, so when the hospital staff arrived with their dinner that night, our client actually told them that they were being operated on and could not eat it.

Although our client didn't finally receive their operation until just after midnight on the third day, they were still able to travel back home to Port Macquarie that same day - so all turned out well in the end. Our client was so appreciative of how lovely the staff treated them at the hospital and how they helped our client to be able to have the operation and be in the company of their support staff for the journey home. I feel our client would have really struggled with their anxiety, mobility and eye sight if they had been placed on public transport for the journey home.