"Consideration for my friend"

I was visiting a patient friend of mine in the surgical ward, WACHS Bunbury. They had initially been admitted to, and held in, Surgical in Fiona Stanley Hospital. When no operating facilities i.e. surgical staff etc. were available, they were transferred by ambulance down to WACHS Bunbury, and placed in a surgical ward there for a day, pending removal of very painful stones in their bile ducts.

There was no operation able to be scheduled here either for whatever reason. It was then decided that my friend should be transported by ambulance, back to Perth to a different hospital. Being informed of this potential relocation, their spouse decided to drive to Perth to be close to that hospital.

Halfway to Perth, their spouse was told that they would not be taken to the other hospital, but would be kept in WACHS Bunbury until an expected surgical availability would be scheduled.

This whole saga started with my friend’s initial admission to FSH. I think that a patient presenting with the highly painful, and concomitant vomiting symptoms should have been treated in a more medically professional manner in my opinion, befitting the seriousness of the problem.

It seemed obvious that at all times the staff who attended them were sympathetic and cognizant of the serious nature of the patient's symptoms and the presenting health problem.

I take from this series of bungled procedure, notwithstanding that the staff in contact with the patient demonstrated a high standard of efficiency. However, I cannot support the fact that the systems within which the staff are operating, are in any way conducive to good health outcomes.

I have lived in third world countries, where it seemed to me the hospitals function at a higher level overall than I feel ours do here in Western Australia.