"Not listened to"

My parent has a long history of health issues including cancer, lymphatic infections and sarcoidosis. On advice from several doctors they took a detailed medical history including summary letters, reports and pathology results in a file when they traveled the state recently.

As my parent arrived in Onslow, they were suffering a sarcodosis flare up and was continually coughing and choking, so they presented to the health centre to provide their history and request a prescription for steroids that they had been provided previously. It seemed the medical intern was eager to help and consider my parent's history, however, the supervising medical staff there seemingly disregarded their printed medical history and questioned their diagnosis of sarcoidosis.

My parent requested that they call their current oncologist who has been treating them for the past seven years and is the most experienced in their care. The medical staff argued and declined to call the oncologist for 2 1/2 hours, all while my parent was still coughing and in significant discomfort.

The oncologist of course recommended steroids which they finally prescribed, but at that point my parent was quite distressed at not being listened to, despite having a complete medical history to provide. They were in the health centre for a total of 6 hours without any relief of their sarcoidosis symptoms.

When my parent finally left they found the local pharmacy did not stock the medication they were prescribed, but luckily a nurse at the health centre provided them with enough to get them to a larger town.

Several days later someone from the health centre called my parent to request them to present to Onslow for a follow up, despite the fact they were 700km away and almost back to Perth and their specialists.