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"Excellent service, but terrible environment"

About: Armadale Hospital / Medical Admissions Unit

(as a carer),

I am elderly and was recently admitted to Armadale Hospital in WA. I received excellent care by the nurses, doctors, allied health and support staff and warmly thank them for the wonderful care they gave me. 

However, I was in the emergency department on a small trolley for nearly 24hrs before finally being moved to a ward. Fortunately, they moved me to a small area isolated from the main emergency department area, so this was a little quieter. When I was moved to the MAU I was initially in a single room which was lovely. And whilst I am aware this was a privilege and a necessity as I was needing close monitoring, they then moved me to an area where the cubicles where barely wider than the bed and only just deep enough to contain the bed. There was a curtain that could be moved across, but these cubicles were smaller than those in the emergency department and provided very little in the way of privacy or an environment conducive to healing or recovery. There was a constant flow of foot and equipment traffic all day and night long, additionally the door to the medication room was just across from my bed (barely 5 metres away) and slammed every time someone went in or out. I could not get any sleep or rest at any time during my stay in this area of the MAU. I feel this environment is appalling for an inpatient area and needs to be re-configured to make it less distressing for people having to stay here.

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Responses

Response from Neil Cowan, Executive Director, Armadale Kalamunda Group, EMHS 11 months ago
We are preparing to make a change
Neil Cowan
Executive Director, Armadale Kalamunda Group,
EMHS
Submitted on 8/05/2023 at 4:03 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 4:34 PM


picture of Neil Cowan

Dear Embarrassed,

Thank you for getting in touch, and for your kind words about the excellent care by nurses, doctors, allied health and support staff. I shall ensure they are thanked accordingly.

I am very sorry that you spent too long in our emergency department on a trolley. In March 2023 we implemented changes in our hospital which have seen an overall improvement in delays transferring patients to inpatient beds, but regrettably not so with your admission due to an increase in the amount of patients requiring admission at that time.

The current configuration of our MAU hospital ward does sadly mean we do not have as many side rooms as we would like, and whilst the re-configuration of MAU has been considered, we should have done more to reduce noise and in particular out of hours when you, and indeed other patients were trying to get some much needed rest. We are reminding our staff to continue to be mindful of making as little noise as is possible to allow our patients to rest, and we will continue to work on plans for reconfiguration of MAU ward to make this area better for all the patients we serve.

I do hope that you are recovering well after your admission to Armadale.

Kind Regards,

Neil Cowan

Executive Director

Armadale Kalamunda Group

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