"Patient care with COVID"

Hi there,

I am raising this complaint in regards to the care of my ill parent  who is currently in the care of St George Hospital on Level 5 West.

My parent was brought into emergency by ambulance to be treated for a very low heart rate. During testing it was found that my parent tested positive for COVID and was isolated in the emergency section. We have been advised that their Metoprolol medication and Covid together were affecting their heart rate.

Anyway cut a long story short my parent was moved into a ward on Level 5 West and was in the care of the Cardiology Team to monitor their heart rate in an isolated ward due to the Covid.

In the meantime my parent has developed a high anxiety and depression due to being so isolated in the hospital with no visitors allowed at all. I spoke to a nurse a few days ago and they said my parent is feeling quite depressed and cries a lot and that staff avoid going into the room and only go in there if necessary.  This comment alarmed me as it appears there is no care for my parent's mental health at this point.

I have offered to go in and cover myself up in PPE with mask and gloves to give my parent some peace of mind and reassurance that all will be OK but have been rejected even though I am double vaccinated (I only got vaccinated so that I am able to be with my parent when she often gets admitted into hospital). At the time of writing this story, it had  been exactly 7 days and my parent is still isolated and I was advised they won't do another Covid test on them till the end of the week.

I can hear over the phone my parent's breathing is not as it normally is and with the nursing staff only going into their room if its only necessary, I believe they will miss something that could affect my parent's life that they have so strongly been able to keep living with all the illnesses they have.

All I am asking is that myself and my sibling who are both vaccinated are able to visit my parent in hospital asap so that we don't let the depression and anxiety carry on once they are better. My next move will be exposing what I feel is the neglect by St George hospital to the media news channels.