"Emergency Department care"

I visited my 93 year old neighbour and found her in some distress with a painful, bruised wrist. She had not fallen and could not account for the pain and bruising which had worsened over the past few days to the point where she could not move her fingers. I took her to the Emergency Department at Bunbury Hospital. She did not want to go because of the perceived wait time. How delighted she was when the triage nurse called us within minutes of our arrival and put us on a fast track to see the doctor. We waited for no longer than 15 minutes for Dr Grace to examine my friend. She was so kind and gentle and listened to my friend's story. She let us know the options for treatment depending on the results of an x-ray. Dr Grace took us to the x-ray department. We had a long wait for an x-ray (1 and a half hours) because of a backlog of hospital requests. I appreciated knowing the reason for the delay. Dr Grace did some blood tests for my friend while we were waiting so we would not be delayed after the x-ray.

The results of the x-ray showed a tiny piece of bone which had broken off. Dr Grace applied a compression bandage and a wrist splint to ease the pain and suggested a follow up visit to the GP.

The next day my friend phoned her GP and had an appointment with him that very morning. My friend was most impressed that her GP had the hospital x-ray results as well as an orthopedic referral. Thank you Bunbury Hospital for your excellent service and the skill and compassion of all your staff in the emergency Department. A special thank you to the staff member who provided warm blankets to everyone waiting for x-rays.