"Poor care"

My sibling and I arrived in ED at FSH on a weekday as my elderly parent had fallen and dislocated their hip replacement quite severely.

My parent was taken by ambulance to FSH, the alternative was another metropolitan hospital ( so wish we had gone there).

ED was fine and we were finally transferred to ward 4A.

From the moment we arrived at that ward I feel the experience has been nothing short of horrendous.

The night shift nurses would have to be, in my opinion, the most unhelpful and uncaring people I have ever met.

The lovely person who transferred us up from ED seemingly did all the running around on the ward to get my elderly parent settled, while I felt the 2 nurses just stood around doing nothing. I made a point of thanking that lovely staff member before they left to go back to ED.

After what I felt was a very rough physical manipulation to remove the sheet from under my parent, who was now yelling in pain, they settled in.

We were in a shared room and the patient next door was asking for pillows etc to be adjusted as they were in pain. The same 2 nurses that were helping this patient were, I recall, huffing and seemingly complaining about the patient, saying we just can’t get it right can we.

They then came in to say my parent would now have to be moved to another room so their leg could be put in traction. One of the nurses came in with pain relief medication that would help with this. Four different medications were put down on my parent's table, 2 liquid meds and 4 pills, the nurse left them there and said here you go you can give these to them 😳

Which I did, but how is this even legal? I believe this is their job.

Friday my parent was supposed to have surgery, which we were so concerned about because they are in their mid 90s and a general anaesthetic is so concerning.

My parent fasted all day and was quite unsettled and worried, only to be told in the afternoon their surgery was cancelled. So the next day we started again, more fasting and a whole day of waiting. In the early afternoon my parent was told they was going to theatre, they were upset and told me they’d had a good life and may not see me again. It was a teary goodbye as they were wheeled off.

I went home (north of the river) not knowing how long it would take, worrying my parent may not make it through the surgery.

We heard nothing from the hospital, so three and a half hours later I tried to ring the ward to see if they were back yet. I was put through to the ward 8 times, the phone rang out every time. The last 3 times they said they would put me through to the nurse coordinator, this also rang out. I asked switch to just give me their number so I could keep ringing, no sorry we can’t do that. By this stage I’m getting very worried and I feel no one will help me. I finally got through to someone who I don’t even know was a nurse.

They told me my parent had gone to theatre and then a casualty came in and they were sent back to the ward.

Apparently FSH have 18 operating theatres 🤷‍♀️

The thing that made me angry was the fact seemingly no one thought to ring any next of kin to tell them the surgery had been cancelled yet again, I believe this is actually negligent.

They then said my parent may go to surgery that night, so still wasn’t being fed. That also got cancelled. So now we start again three days later, fasting again and still not guaranteed of surgery happening. 

Every time my poor old parent wakes up they thinks it’s been done, and every time we have to tell them it hasn’t. It’s now been 3 days since this poor old person has had a leg at right angles to the rest of their body and in pain. I feel they may starve to death before this surgery happens. If I could I would wheel their bed over the road to another hospital so they can seemingly get some real care.

I have had several elderly parents in the public health care system at both at other metropolitan hospitals and received great care.

I believe the care (if you seemingly call it that) that we have received at FSH is absolutely appalling.

For our supposedly flag ship hospital I feel this is by far the worst place I have ever been based on my experience.

I feel the nurses we saw on ward 4A are the most uncaring and unhelpful I have ever met. 

I feel they are never around to ask any questions, alarms on machines go off for ages and seemingly nobody checks on them. I could hear buzzers going off for 20 minutes nobody comes. I believe if someone had a heart attack on this ward, that would be the end. I feel it’s like a palliative care ward.

I feel the hardest working people on this ward have Curtin uniforms on ( obviously on prac in my opinion.)

I believe the nurses run these guys ragged while apparently doing nothing themselves.

Meanwhile my poor old parent is still waiting for their surgery. They're tired, hungry, confused and so scared ( as are we).

I and my sibling both work in the public health system and will never come to this hospital ever again, I feel it’s a disgrace.