"Terrible customer service"

Hi,

I had come to Prince of Wales Private Hospital to the Billington Centre recently for a Endoscopy and Gastroscopy procedure that was booked as priority due to having serious symptoms such as blood in my stool and other painful symptoms. I had been through the very painful procedure prep the day before and I could not sleep the whole night.

This is in addition to the amount of severe pain I have been having for a very long time. Before I went to the hospital, the senior staff member told me on the phone that I will need to do a RAT test on the day of my procedure when I come into the hospital.

I came in and they refused to allow me to do the procedure, as I was a close contact. They did not mention any information previously on what to do when being a close contact. I tested negative the whole week before, as my family member was positive on the about 5 days prior to my my procedure date. All they said was come in and do a RAT on the on that day. If they told me close contacts will need to do a PCR test or just any information regarding close contacts, then I would have done that. However, I recall they gave no information whatsoever regarding close contacts, so I thought there would be no issue.

I believe this is clear miscommunication. Why do you seemingly not tell the patients the policy? Why make them come in for an essential procedure and say sorry you have to wait another couple of months, when you hadn’t communicated to the patient what must be done.

I had talked with the nurses and my specialist, and my specialist said they would do the procedure on the spot, but it was a senior nurse who refused. I believe this nurse does not know my symptoms, circumstances, or the seriousness of my symptoms and I felt did not have the decency to come out and speak to me to understand the situation. My symptoms affect my health significantly and hence my ability to perform at university or work.