"Pre-surgical assessment"

My spouse got very sick with vomiting and chest and upper abdo pain when we were in the bush. After initial treatment at a country hospital, it was decided to send my spouse to Perth. We couldn’t get ambo until the next day, a bed was organised for my spouse in Joondalup hospital so I conveyed them down, because I had my van, my child met us and took them across to ED where we were told to go. My spouse was still waiting in ED to be seen 3 hours later. I rang ED and asked what was happening, they said they hadn’t been assessed, I explained they’d spent 4 hours in a country hospital being assessed and spoken to Dr, all paper work was with them. That my spouse was there for a booked bed, I believe they said that talking to a doctor on the TV and 2 nurses in the country hospital wasn’t considered an assessment.

The pain medications were wearing off so I recall my spouse was very uncomfortable.

My spouse was eventually seen and diagnosed with pancreatitis, a week later my spouse was still in Joondalup hospital waiting for temp and test to normalise before surgery. I think it’s a slur on our country nurses and teleconference doctors, that they seem to have that opinion of them. The nurses up there had palpated my spouse’s abdomen and had drips up and spent a lot of time on them, in my opinion, my spouse got better treatment in the country than in Perth.

I know it’s a problem with waiting times in ED everywhere, but I feel why cause a bigger waiting queue than necessary, my spouse had a bed booked, they had all paper work with them. I also experienced people, especially staff, smoking around hospital, even spitting on the ground under no smoking signs.