"Orthopaedic follow-up"

I am surprised that even our previous disappointing experience with PCH Orthopaedics telehealth and being subsequently promised that system changes will occur by the Nursing Co-Director, Surgical Directorate, CAHS, PCH three months ago, an unfortunate accident to my child (broken radius) has resulted in a similar experience. I have been told that I should report my experience through Care Opinion by a number of employees, which I feel illustrates that PCH has a systemic issue with telehealth and the support of remote clients. While living remotely is our decision, I believe that WA Health and PCH in this instance, has a responsibility to provide adequate and coordinated services across the state.

In our most recent experience, after a review by PCH Telehealth Orthopaedic Doctor, the information about recasting was not conveyed to the outpatient nurse or Department of Emergency Medicine resulting is a 4-5 hour wait, only to be told by DEM staff that they are very sorry, but they (the local rural health campus staff) where unable to contact the appropriate PCH staff and we just had to wait. I am surprised that no clinical notes appear to have been written that could have been conveyed to our local health campus. Waiting is not the issue and I understand emergencies do occur, but I feel the lack of communication is a system issue and should not affect the patient journey. When the local Physiotherapist and Doctor finally received the instructions from PCH, they apologised for the wait and advised that it may be better to return on a Fracture Clinic Day to prevent delays.

Recently, I was contacted by PCH Telehealth to be advised of my child's next appointment (which clashed with their exams) but I advised the staff what I was told by the local health campus’s staff. I then received a text clearly outlining the appointing on a certain time and date. About 15 minutes before the appointment time (while in the car making my way to the scheduled appointment) on the appointment day I received a call from PCH telling me that my child’s appointed has changed. When I questioned why, the operator said that they couldn't see the original booking but could see an appointment on the following day but that is now rescheduled to the day after. When I asked why, I received little information and felt I was treated as if I was the person in the wrong.

When I attended the local health campus’s outpatients, then couldn't see the previous cancelled (by PCH Telehealth) appointments. The staff where (as usually very helpful, but did say that they can only see limited information from PCH. While I still have not received an SMS notification from PCH, I now have the revised details and will attend the appointment again. It appears that PCH is happy that their telehealth clients seemingly waste time navigating the health system. I commonly receive letters in the mail days after the appointment time (due to delays in mail between Perth and where I live). I wonder why PCH and WA Health are unable to use the numerous modern communication channels to confirm appointments. In my previous issue, I was assured of change and action, including incorrect documentation that was to be redacted by the Orthopaedic Surgeon. This has not occurred and I am disappointed that WA Health and PCH appear to be happy to continue to provide substandard follow up service to the rural and remote WA community.

In my opinion, something needs to improve immediately to improve quality and client safety and reduce risks to the community of a major event. The Rural and Remote community deserves better and should be assured that their health is as important as those in larger centres. I feel that maybe WA Health should require all staff to work in rural and remote WA to experience the reality of poor systems and lack of communications. I am only pleased that our local hospital campus and staff provides excellent service.

Thanks