"Disappointing wait time and service"

Recently, I took my spouse to E.D. as they had severe back pain from sciatica. Went to Fast Track wait area and saw fresh blood drops across the floor. I recall no cleaners came to clean it up. Spouse was not seen by a clinician until at least 3 hrs later even though I believe only 2 other people were ahead of us. The clinician got my spouse’s last name wrong. My spouse was given pain meds which did nothing to help, then the clinician asked spouse to stay in overnight for pain management so I left and went home.

5 mins after I got home, my spouse calls me to say collect me because it seemed the hospital changed their mind and are sending my spouse home. My spouse did not get any actual relief from their pain until we arrived home just before midnight and the medication started to work. It was gut wrenching to go there for help, saying your pain level is minimum 7 maximum 9, and you wait for so long before you are seen by a clinician and given pain medication. I recall the clinician said they booked MRI for my spouse- I found it was not booked at all. The clinician also did not do separate scripts for 2 types of pain meds, one scheduled, so the pharmacist would not process the script and we had to go to our GP to get two scripts and go back to the pharmacy. We only went to E.D. in the first place as our GP practice was closed at that time. The triage nurse was helpful, respectful and did everything she could to help. The rest of the visit I felt was a fiasco.