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Wait times at the ED

Posted By browserkn99

"Wait times at the ED"

About: Fiona Stanley Hospital / Emergency Department

(as a relative),

My elderly parent had severe stabbing back pain. They took panadol which took the edge off but said their pain score was still 8. They had the pain for 10 days recently but had been pain free for about 4 days. They have had the pain about 4 times in 4 years with the previous bout being 18 months ago. Drs do not know what is causing it.

My parent managed the last bout with 2 panadol 6 hrly and twice daily Celebrex.  One night in desperation the pain was so bad they called an ambulance that turned up after about an hour. However they decided not to go when they found out they might have to wait hours.

More recently my sibling drove my parent to the ED at Fiona Stanley as my parent had been in pain for nearly 24 hrs. They had been in the waiting room unassessed for 5 hrs. At my sibling's request they gave my parent another 2 panadol.

They are in pain, depressed and fed up and at the time of writing this, wants my sibling to take them home where they will self-administer Celebrex (which they have been told by their GP not to take for longer than 5 days) and a sleeping pill.

I believe it is likely they will still be in pain and won't sleep. I'm worried that the pain and their depressed mental state will end up with my parent taking whatever they can to stop the pain. They talk about wanting to die because they can't cope with the pain. My parent's GP is monitoring them and they have an outpatient appointment next month in haematology because their bloods have been out for at least  2 months and their GP doesn't know why. How is it that in Australia we can seemingly treat our elderly this way?

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Responses

Response from Kellie Blyth, A/ Executive Director, Peel Health Campus transition, South Metropolitan Health Service about a year and a half ago
Kellie Blyth
A/ Executive Director, Peel Health Campus transition,
South Metropolitan Health Service

Submitted on 21/10/2022 at 11:08 AM
Published on Care Opinion at 12:03 PM

picture of Kellie Blyth

Dear browserkn99

I am sorry to hear of your elderly parent’s pain, and I can understand how concerning this must be for you.

Our services are experiencing unprecedented demand, and we are working hard every day single day to improve access to care. Although the waiting time your parent experienced was longer than we would like, we have a triage system on presentation to ED that ensures all patients are seen in order of clinical priority. Please convey to your parent that if they are in any ED again, they can re-approach the triage desk, or if they are worried they are getting sicker, they can use the dedicated phone in ED to make an ‘Aishwarya’s CARE Call’. You can find more information about this here

https://www.fionastanley.health.wa.gov.au/For-patients-and-visitors/Aishwaryas-CARE-Call

I hope your parent’s upcoming outpatient appointment sheds some light on their health concerns. It is good to know their GP is monitoring them in the meantime.

Kind regards,

Kellie Blyth

Executive Director

Fiona Stanley Fremantle Hospitals Group

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by browserkn99 (a relative)

Thanks - my parent ended up calling an ambulance a day or two later and has since been admitted. My parent is receiving excellent care despite them being really busy. My comments are about capacity in the system, not the staff themselves. Hopefully if we all give feedback it can help you when you are demonstrating to government that our hospital system needs more support.

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