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Care for my elderly friend

Posted By snowwd78

"Care for my elderly friend"

About: Fiona Stanley Hospital / Emergency Department

(as a friend),

My elderly friend had a phone call from the GP that the a Hb blood was very low and to go to Emergency as soon as possible. We waited for several hours from the evening until the early hours of the next day no one came to talk to us. I went and asked a Nurse how long we had to wait as my friend had a hip replacement 12 months ago and was in pain. I recall I was told that they were short of staff and they didn’t know. The nurse gave my friend 2 Panadol tablets. In the early hours of the morning a Dr  insert an IV line. During the whole time no one came to talk to us or to see if we needed anything. Terrible experience in my opinion.

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Responses

Response from Neil Doverty, Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group, South Metropolitan Health Service 8 months ago
Neil Doverty
Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group,
South Metropolitan Health Service

Submitted on 23/08/2023 at 2:32 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 2:38 PM

picture of Neil Doverty

Dear snowwd78,

I am very sorry for the long wait you and your friend experienced in ED. We do not ever want our patients (or their family/friends/carers) to feel as though they are invisible or being ignored in the ED wait room.

Last year we did employ ED wait room nurses, who observe people in the waiting room and quickly escalate if people waiting appear to be deteriorating rapidly.

I’m not sure if you are also familiar with Aishwarya’s Care Call – a number displayed on posters in our ED wait rooms that family/friends/carers can call if they have concerns about themselves (or their loved one) and feel those concerns are not being listened to.

All patients who attend ED are triaged according to the Australasian Triage Scale (1 is life threatening emergency and 5 is non-urgent). At times, we may experience a surge in critical patients, which means that some patients who are triaged as 4 or 5 may have to wait for longer periods while the ED cares for much more unwell patients. I would like to reassure you that our ED is not under-staffed, it is almost certainly the best staffed Department in WA State.

Our Patient and Family Liaison (PFL) team have informed me that you have contacted them and lodged a contact – thank you for this. Once PFL have obtained your friend’s consent they will be able to provide more specific details to the ED who can use your experience as an opportunity for improvement. Like I said, we don’t want anyone in the ED wait room to ever feel invisible or ignored.

I hope your friend is now recovering well.

Kind regards,

Neil.

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