"Experience in ED"

Absolutely disgusted in the state eastern health ED seems to be in. What a disgrace in my opinion 😞. Recently I attended the ED with my child experiencing left abdominal pain. We were quite concerned as at home they were crying crippled over pain. Being a child that never complains and has been to the ED on only one other occasion at 11 months with suspected measles (which I felt was handled amazingly and we were placed into contact isolation immediately!) 

Well tonight appeared to be a circus.

As I enter I am waiting at triage, and the mental health team walk out to seemingly disappoint another family! Explain that they will not assess the person due to them drinking, and it “exacerbated” the symptoms… what an absolute load of false information in my opinion. I believe, the sooner the mental health team learns that addictions and mental health go hand in hand, the sooner our mental health department will change.

As I am waiting still for triage an older person is wheeled in by their child and spouse, they are very confused and has suffered a fall and have hit their head. I was seen to by triage and was waiting in the room. The older person was left in the waiting room, waiting for a bed. They needed to go to the bathroom, their spouse wheeled them into the bathroom with my assistance of the door. I approached the front counter administration and explained the older spouse has just taken the older patient to the toilet, can they please have some assistance from a nurse (they have already had a fall today) I believe I was given the most disgusting look from one of the staff, replying with, I recall, what do you want us to do? We don’t do that.

I was to say the least flabbergasted and I actually couldn’t believe I was being spoken to this way by the admin staff when asking for assistance with a patient that has a suspected head injury. I said, excuse me? This is a hospital you are supposed to offer assistance!, what will happen if they have a fall in the bathroom.

I then walked away as, in my opinion, this rude staff member was really not the right fit for this position, their apparent lack of empathy is beyond me! They then proceeded to shout at me across the waiting room to, I recall, not be so rude. I approached the desk again and said “excuse me, I asked for assistance you were rude!” I felt they then started to abuse their position of power and stated that if I wanted to continue I would be made to leave.

I wasn’t aggressive, I was approached by aggression when asking for genuine help for another patient! I then continued to sit for more than 2 hours before I approached admins counter to ask when my child would be seen and administered neurofen as we have been waiting hours. I was informed my child wasn’t assigned to anyone, they were quickly assigned to a Dr and a nurse that was lovely. I explained I had been here for hours, what is the treatment plan. The nurse informed me it was up to the doctor but they had a chat with the Dr just before they came out and would ask the Dr about imaging/scans.

I then waited and waited and in this time two patients with gastro presented, one older person and one child, both vomited in the waiting room and the child got it on the floor the poor darling, but this wasn’t even cleaned up for more than 20 mins! These two poor souls are left vomiting in the waiting room. Now sure most have masks but my infant breast fed baby and young child did not. I believe these two cases should have been placed into contact isolation immediately! Not to mention the kids waiting room is now the respiratory symptoms room and the tent out the front is, in my opinion, just a waste of space 🤦🏻‍♀️ 

By this time it had been almost 5 hours. I approached the triage pretty upset at this point unfortunately asked another nurse and asked if they could ask the doctor about scans, I recall they said we don’t want to exposed kids to radiation. I questioned about ultrasound, I felt they laughed in my face and said if you want an ultrasound at this time you can go to a private hospital. In my opinion, this standard of care is disgusting and partly to blame on many doctors becoming privatised. But this apparent sub standard practice is just appalling! I believe covid is not the issue, wth has seemingly happened to eastern health. Never have I had these issues, and have been there my whole life.