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Ambulance Officers

Posted By bargainpr77

"Ambulance Officers"

About: Albany Health Campus / Emergency Department

(as the patient),

I believe Ambulance Officers should be respected and acknowledge when transporting patients.

I was a patient transported from a district hospital around midday. Arrived in Albany Hospital Albany a couple of hours later. This is how long it took to handover from Ambulance Officers to one of the staff of Albany Hospital. Knowing that it was a busy day in almost all hospitals, the acknowledgement of the ambulance officers in this hospital on this day I felt was a disappointment. The ambulance officers are volunteers who travelled a long distance, for me these ambulance officers are also important as any other medical people.

Albany Hospital should have in my personal opinion have a medical concierge in between that does the handovers if there's a transfer of patient/s from one regional town to another in between patients.

What I have observed on this day was a lot of people walking back and forth, not acknowledging the ambulance officer that was waiting patiently inside the cubicle where I was put in with the curtain closed.

This is a busy hospital, I understand that. I believe a handover takes less than 5 mins if that rather than more than 20 minutes.

I would like to acknowledge and thank you for the attending GP and medical staff of Albany Hospital WA

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Responses

Response from Jennifer Thompson, A/MPS Operations Manager, Regional Office, WACHS 9 months ago
Jennifer Thompson
A/MPS Operations Manager, Regional Office,
WACHS

Overseas the operation of the smaller hospitals in the Great Southern

Submitted on 18/07/2023 at 10:47 AM
Published on Care Opinion at 10:50 AM

Dear bargainpr77

Thank you for taking the time to share your story on Care Opinion. We are sorry to hear that we gave you the impression that we do not value the work of our volunteer and career colleagues at St John’s Ambulance (SJA) as they are indeed, highly respected and valued by our team. Emergency departments (ED) are very busy and complex environments and patients are prioritised according to clinical urgency. Whilst this sometimes means that the handover process between Ambulance Officers and ED staff can take a little longer, we always try to free up our SJA colleagues as quickly as we can. The handover of patients between staff and services is a critically important aspect of keeping our patients safe in hospital so we do sometimes need time to complete this activity. Thankyou for your suggestion regarding a concierge. Due to the governance required by the healthcare standards, the number of times handover occurs for a patient is required to be kept to a minimum to preserve and ensure safe, consistent communication.

Your story has been shared with our colleagues in the ED as well as the hospital’s leadership team. Thankyou once again for the opportunity to improve our service.

Yours sincerely

Jenny Thompson

Director, Albany Health Campus

WA Country Health Service Great Southern

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