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"No internet access and food options for diabetic"

About: Rockingham General Hospital / Operating theatres and recovery

(as the patient),

I returned from hospital recently and I have researched internet access at hospital. Because I was told we don't have internet access here each time I asked. Full stop end of story. 

As it looks like I am heading back to hospital I am arranging all these aspects for myself now. I feel it's helpful for all patients to be aware of their technology options in this area.

Daily living support

Daily living support

So I turn in bed for days on end as a private patient in a ward without even TV. Oh My goodness the poor individual in the beside cubical, fiddled with their tablet striped down to a card game for days on end, as we both looked at each other helpless. What is life in this modern age with our internet especially if I'm bed bound tethered to an IV tube. Shame on you is all I can say.

I needed to do research about my condition and medications. I needed to keep track of my online training courses etc. I needed to update my drivers so that my Bluetooth earphones would work and not disturb others. But I ended up doing nothing but rolling in bed with claustrophobic frustration.

Please help me achieve the following.

1) Inform patients that they can buy a mobile phone type USB connector to obtain their own internet access. Or as I have discovered some mobile phones can be tethered to provide internet to a laptop. I believe most people don't need these things, they just connect to the wireless hotspot these days. So I feel they have no idea of what to do, or how to do it, in order to find a workaround for obtaining internet access when it seems the hospital wont help. Sorry, that's a presumption the word "won't"! I just presume that it's a conscious choice as so blatantly obvious to me as a modern patient's need. I don't know I would need to read the hospital's sustainability social policy.

2) Inform patients that they need wired headphones or even Bluetooth ones these days for their devices so as not to disturb others.

The other thing I have done is research on the internet about the ways I could promote positive change as my experience was so horrific.

I am full of infection and on antibiotics as that is the plight of a diabetic. 

It seemed I was not privy to any menu choice, food was just given. I am speechless there is only white bread, no complex carbohydrates. This white bread come with honey, jam, orange juice, pudding and sprinkle sugar for the porridge. I only had the bread and porridge, nothing else (all was waste) and exclaimed in horror when my diabetes blood sugar spikes a few hours after.

Is it not that Dilatation a medical term? I mean, I believe everyone knows that hospitals have terrible food that's a given in my opinion, but at least fashion that terrible food to the non-optional needs of an inflicted patient. 

Options on the back of the menu are :-

vegetarian, soft and bite sized, minced and moist, purees, gluten-free.

Diabetic, well return to the waste bin everything you cannot eat. 

Honestly seriously I am telling you the truth please have a look see for yourself. I begged the nurses and based on my experience, they say that's what the kitchen gives and shrug their shoulders.

Myself, I need lots of fresh salad and very little else as discovered through my diabetic affliction. I feel going to hospital make my diabetes unmanageable.

Well what the paradigm here? Inject insulin to offset BGL and forget about diet?

I am going back to hospital. I hope my family can bring my food. But I am probably going to run into problems there aren't I? Not controlled to bring in external stuff. So proactively what am I to do. I feel that perhaps shame may work so I have written this.

Only choice I was given was white bread and cheese = Truth

Goodness, how am I going to be heard when I feel I am an irrelevant patient amongst the godliness of higher educated medical staff. Whom evidently in my opinion, view diabetes as an affiliated clinic across the road. And to add insult to injury, a Dietician as patient home advice service not applicable to in-house medical practice.

Now I have written scathing reviews and I don't want to. I am a quiet person who normally says nothing. Rockingham Hospital has saved my life, and my mother's, and my father's more than once. My father's end of life was there, my step father's end of life was there. I believe there is a certain type of loyalty that comes with such a bond for community residents. But there is only so far one can push it, seriously. If you cannot be world's best practice at least don't be its bottom of the ladder practice, I implore you.

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Responses

Response from Kath Smith, Executive Director, Rockingham Peel Group, South Metropolitan Health Service nearly 2 years ago
Kath Smith
Executive Director, Rockingham Peel Group,
South Metropolitan Health Service
Submitted on 29/04/2022 at 4:10 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 4:29 PM


picture of Kath Smith

Dear SurprisedToBeDiabetic,

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback about your recent experience as an inpatient at Rockingham General Hospital (RGH). I am so very sorry to hear that your options regarding internet access were not explained prior to your admission. Unfortunately RGH, like many other metropolitan hospitals, are not provisioned for patients to access a site based internet service. I do acknowledge the convenience this would provide to patients if it were available.

All food at the hospital is prepared to hospital nutritional standards with a menu to accommodate patients' varied needs. This includes options for diabetic patients and vegetarians, and differing textured food options. I apologise that the hospital was unable to meet your diabetic needs during your stay at the hospital. I am concerned that some aspects of your care, particularly around your diet, did not reflect the high standard of care which we pride ourselves on at RGH. I would like to reassure you that I take the issues you have described very seriously. To enable me to investigate further, I would encourage you to make contact with the consumer liaison office directly on 9599 4323 to provide details of your admission. This will allow us to investigate your specific concerns. Once again I am very sorry for the distress this may have caused you.

Kind regards,

Kath Smith

Executive Director Rockingham Peel Group

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