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Pain on top of pain

Posted By Ghost

"Pain on top of pain"

About: Fiona Stanley Hospital / Emergency Department

(as the patient),

My first serious experience with polycystic kidney disease won’t be forgotten!

I was in a remote location over 1000kms away from home in a truck. I was developing a urine infection and fever etc, passing blood and I was unsure if I had burst a cyst or had a stone or both.

It was incredibly difficult driving back and after showering, I went straight to the hospital. I wish to god l knew then what I now know.

I sat in the A&E covid tent for around two hours witnessing what I recall being the most dysfunctional process yet! Two years of covid and I felt I was watching like it’s yesterday start of training. It seemed each staff member was doing one of three jobs, wandering around, wondering who’s done what. If any person is unable to take 1/details, name, DOB, address, Medicare and then details of the problem and finally allergies 2/ do a RAT test 3/ do the results, then I question if they should be there.

It appeared no one was in charge whatsoever. It seemed people just stood at the door as instructed and left to just stand. I recall one very dramatic patient was seen in record time. Finally, after around two hours, I was allowed inside. Half an hour before anyone sitting there went in (with just one doctor).

After hours and hours I left, with my infection, happy to be away. If you think I’m sitting there all night, think again.

I know nothing about health care, but I know this- I didn’t get any health care. If people just need a prescription, I feel they don’t need an eight hour wait! it's very shameful in my opinion.

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Responses

Response from Neil Doverty, Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group, South Metropolitan Health Service 2 years ago
Neil Doverty
Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group,
South Metropolitan Health Service

Submitted on 21/03/2022 at 3:36 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 5:19 PM

picture of Neil Doverty

Dear Ghost,

Thank you for raising your concern on the coordination of patients through the Emergency Department (ED) tent. The ED is in the State Alert Response status Red. In this status there is mandatory requirement to perform a RAT test prior to entry to the ED on all patients. We are able to perform a RAT test on 40 patients an hour at a maximum. During this process there is staff dedicated to perform a 20 minute RAT test, triage assessment, analyse the RAT result and obtain clerical demographic information. These interventions are performed at various times or simultaneously to assist with queue management.

At times there may be delays for patients accessing the ED depending on the priority level of patients’ triage assessments and the acuity level of all patients in the ED at any given time. During these times we endeavour to provide analgesia and clinical observation with waiting room nurses to check for deterioration or changes in patients conditions. We apologise that these processes plus the volume of people presenting to our EDs resulted in delays for you to access care in a timely way. We hope you have since received the care you needed.

Kind regards,

Neil Doverty

Group Executive Director

Fiona Stanley Fremantle Hospitals Group

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Update posted by Ghost (the patient)

Hi Neil,

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

I was recently in Renal and I had an infection reaching my kidney. I now see I shouldn’t have left that night but I wasn’t myself and I was fatigued on another level.

I was never assessed while sitting for several hours. It seemed to me the other patient who was laughing and messing around directly before going in, clearly wasn’t either.

But there I was in Renal, and the treatment and professionalism was amazing. I had never been sick before, let alone admitted. I consider myself really lucky.

Thanks again for responding,

Ghost

Response from Neil Doverty, Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group, South Metropolitan Health Service 2 years ago
Neil Doverty
Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group,
South Metropolitan Health Service

Submitted on 22/03/2022 at 5:11 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 5:33 PM

picture of Neil Doverty

Dear Ghost,

Thanks for your kind words regarding the Renal team – I have shared your feedback with them.

Good to hear that you received the care you needed – now it sounds like you need to rest up and give yourself some time off to recuperate!

All the best,

Neil Doverty

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