"Breaking the rules"

At the time of writing this, my elderly spouse had been in Charles Gairdner hospital for over a month after major cancer surgery and was still there. Family visits are very important for their mental health as they become quite depressed. Since the COVID restrictions for visitors which have been put in place, I was told no children under 12 yet have seen toddlers on 2 occasions and my spouse has heard them on the ward.

2 visitors per patient and yet I have seen 4 family members in 1 room.

What rules? I believe the hospital staff that checked me in before I can see my loved one can’t get their facts right. When I have questioned them on several occasions, I felt they come up with vague answers. I recall they just keep saying no children under 12.

My child tried to visit my spouse with a baby and a toddler, having to travel far and on a very hot day and was turned away. This upset them and my spouse for they were unable to see their grandchildren. Yet after this incident, I saw very young children in the hospital. I question what would happen to my spouse, a high-risk patient, if they got by Covid because visitors are not checked properly. I visited regularly so I know how casual some of the check-in staff seem to be. I believe visitors could lie when entering the hospital. In my opinion, we should show proof of vaccination at least and get our temperature checked.

This has been a very distressing time for me and my children as my spouse had been in hospital so long, over Christmas, and there is no end in sight. My spouse desperately wants to come home but after major cancer surgery for the third time, they still have a long recovery time ahead of them.

Also, not previously mentioned, my spouse had several appointments they had to attend before their surgery, while they were in a lot of pain, at the hospital, where I remember their appointments ran very late and were doubled up. We had to go to the hospital on 3 separate occasions.

The first appointment was to see the surgeon which I recall was over 2 hours late which they apologised for.

The second appointment, on a different day, we had with the anaesthetist which we waited about 30 minutes.

Then afterwards, we saw the appointment’s nurse after another wait. During this time, it seemed to me other patients in the waiting room (for the morning appointments) had been and gone. Around 2 hours later, I believe as the afternoon patients arrived (and my spouse now in a lot of discomfort), we were called in to see our third appointment with a junior doctor that I felt basically repeated everything the admission nurse told us.

Then after being at the hospital for over 3 hours we get a phone call, while driving home, from the stoma nurse asking where we were and why we had not turned up for another appointment. We told the nurse that we were not told about seeing them. Because of this, we had to make another appointment to go back to see them. This was our third time back to the hospital.

So it seems to me, communication is a big problem. It was hard for my spouse having to wait for appointments going over several hours. Also again, lack of communication with the appointments was also an issue. I am under the impression the hospital is understaffed and they are under a lot of pressure, in my opinion.

I wish to state that my spouse’s care was of a high standard, however, communication seems to be an issue in the hospital.

Regards, velans59