"Wait list communication"

I am left feeling anxious around whether I am or am not waitlisted for cardiothoracic surgery (triple bypass) due to my experiences since I was diagnosed.

There’s been a combination of errors that I believe certainly aren’t all on SCGH and considering I was told by two cardiologists over 2 months ago that I needed ‘fairly urgent’ bypass surgery, I’m disappointed I still don’t know when my surgery is or even if I’m on the wait list.

I saw my surgeon a few weeks ago the doctor who confirmed surgery was required (frustrating, in my opinion, as results were pretty conclusive when I had angiogram several weeks earlier) and that I have been classified as category one urgency.

According to WA Health policy I understand I should have been added into system and waitlist (backdated to date referred) within 5 working days and contacted. At the time of writing this story it has now been approximately 3 weeks and I have still not received any notification.

I have tried calling many times to follow up and despite a lovely lady advising that an email / message will be sent to the person coordinating the waitlist for the doctor, and that I will get a call the next day I have still heard nothing. I have also not been given the opportunity to go on the standby list, which I understand is also in the WA policy.

Given I received my outpatient appointment letter by snail mail almost a week after appointment I am concerned I’m either not on the wait list or I have an appointment that I don’t yet know about.

The person who will be caring for me when I come out of hospital has travel plans and I’d really like to avoid having them unnecessarily cancelling them if I’m still going to be waiting for surgery or worse having no carer at all, for when I come out of hospital.

I’d encourage the hospital to look at where the single point of failures are as there only appears to be one person managing this particular process from what I’ve been advised and I’m sure that person is getting flogged with how busy they are.

Can I also suggest that you leverage other methods of communication like email when notifying patients of appointments as I believe it is better than post; especially this time of year.