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Care Opinion

What can be done better

Posted By Mumof22022

"What can be done better"

About: Seymour District Memorial Hospital / Urgent Care Centre

(as the patient),

My experience was horrible, In my opinion, the nurses that cared for me had no compassion for my situation.

I have provided this feedback to the hospital and hope to see changes made as I have heard from others who have experienced the same since then.

I arrived with ambulance with my 2 children (an infant and toddler) to first be, I felt, told off for having them with me in urgent care when I had no one to look after them due to posting to military base.

The nurse at one stage asked if I needed an oxygen mask to breathe but never returned with one when I said yes.

I couldn’t breastfeed my infant child due to my significant pain and when asked if they had formula I recall a blunt response was given, no we do not. In my opinion, this is not ok, the hospital should have a small supply for any situation that a young baby requires formula.

I checked myself out early not feeling like I was getting the right care needed.

A few days later arrived at urgent care in a wheelchair, severe vomiting thinking it was my appendix for person at the front desk to say all they could give me was anti-nausea drugs, there are no scans here for that and would need to go to another hospital. To take a seat as no doctor was at the hospital.

As an urgent care to not have a doctor there I believe plays a significant role, no stage did I feel I was being cared for or felt safe that my health was priority.

I recall I have heard several stories from others with similar experiences from here. I understand nurses are working harder then ever, but a little compassion goes a long way and when someone thinks they need urgent care they want to feel like they have come to the right place for care as it’s such a scary time

Please stock baby formula and bottles in your hospital for situations that may require it like mine. I believe this is a must!

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Responses

Response from Vickie Callaghan, Director of Quality, Risk & Safety, Seymour Health nearly 2 years ago
Vickie Callaghan
Director of Quality, Risk & Safety,
Seymour Health

Submitted on 20/05/2022 at 2:56 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 3:09 PM

Dear Mumof22022,

Thank you for your feedback provided on 18 May 2022 regarding your experience in our Urgent Care Centre.

I am sorry that you did not have a positive experience with that department within our health service.

It is disappointing to read your story, as we often receive very positive feedback from our consumers in regard to the professionalism, knowledge and skill of our Urgent Care Centre staff.

Please be assured that your complaint is being investigated. Once we have more information, we will provide you with further details of how we will address the matter.

Again, thank you for your feedback as it gives the organisation an opportunity to learn and improve for our consumers going forward.

The relevant Nurse Unit Manager will respond to you after further investigation has been completed.

Kind regards,

Vickie

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Response from Cindy Newman, Acting Nurse Unit Manager Acute & Nurse Unit Manager, Urgent Care Centre, Seymour Health nearly 2 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Cindy Newman
Acting Nurse Unit Manager Acute & Nurse Unit Manager, Urgent Care Centre,
Seymour Health

Submitted on 15/06/2022 at 3:15 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 3:37 PM

Dear Mumof22022,

My name is Cindy Newman and I am the Acting Nurse Unit Manager of Acute Services at Seymour Health. I have completed the investigation relevant to your experience in the Urgent Care Centre.

I wish to thank you for posting your feedback and apologise that your experience was not a positive one. Your experience has highlighted a number of areas of concern and areas for improvement, which I will address in the following correspondence.

I am concerned that you felt that the nurse caring for you had no compassion in an already stressful situation that must have been very frightening for you. I would like to thank you for recognising that nurses are working harder than ever, however, I do agree that compassion and communication is of the utmost importance and would like to assure you that this has been fed back to staff working in the Urgent Care Centre.

I would like to take this opportunity to explain how our Urgent care Centre is staffed and supported. As with many regional/rural Urgent Care Centres, it is not uncommon for a doctor to not be on site. Here at Seymour Health we have a number of local GP’s and Nurse Practitioners that offer an on-call service and are able to be contacted 24/7 and after an initial nursing assessment would be called in to assist if required. The nursing staff that are rostered to work in Urgent Care are highly skilled and many have obtained extra endorsement to work independently in rural health. We also have a number of Nurse Practitioners that are rostered for a variety of shifts. Due to the ongoing shortage of Doctors in many rural/regional communities, Seymour Health has engaged with the Northern Hospital Virtual ED programme which offers another level of support to our consumers, nurses and community.

Not being able to breastfeed your infant must have been very stressful to both you and your child and I am sorry that we were not able to provide formula, I would like to advise that this is in the process of being rectified following your experience. I am putting together an emergency supply box that will be kept in the Urgent Care Centre which will keep a limited supply of formula, bottles and nappies etc. and hoping this will be available in the not too distant future.

Yours Sincerely

Cindy Newman

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