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When I was discharged from hospital

Posted By disinfectantqy76

"When I was discharged from hospital"

About: Bunbury Hospital / Emergency Department Bunbury Hospital / Medical Ward

(as the patient),

A few months ago I presented to the emergency dept at bunbury regional hospital with severe chest pains. I was taken care of extremely well from the moment I came through the doors. All the drs and nurses were very thorough and worked fast while keeping me informed the whole time and kinda calm

The CT scan picked up I had bilateral pulmonary embolisms and large amount of blood clots in both lungs. At this point as I have private health, I was asked to sign a waiver to be admitted into regional and not go over to st johns. Bear in mind the traumatic time/day I’ve been experiencing and that I have no idea what it is that they have just found in my body. The staff member is asking me to sign it as I won’t be in for long and it helps regional get more funding from government. Totally inappropriate I think. My head was spinning and I sign the paper 

I got moved to the Medical ward and was in a room with 3 other patients which was fine, they were lovely. My stay was fine I was taken care of wonderfully. 

I did have to question one of our nurses why they were refusing to take one elderly patient to the toilet when they were begging for 24hrs and the nurse was telling them to do 1 and 2’s in a diaper…. A elderly patient whom had a fall and broke their hip…. I believe they were of sound mind… but stuck in that bed and the nurse refused to take them to the toilet, seemingly cos they had a bad back. I asked why the nurse couldn’t just get someone else to help but No. So degrading in my opinion. 

Up til then my stay was fine I was taken care of wonderfully by the nurses and Drs.

What happened on the day the Drs decided I could go home was totally unacceptable in my opinion. 

The Dr saw me last on their morning rounds about and we decided I could go home but they were busy for a bit so wouldn’t have my paperwork ready til mid/late afternoon. 

My nurse came in after the Dr left confirming that I was going home later that day also. 

Then as the lunch trolley was coming around a patient care/transfer staff member came in to pick me up? I wasn’t ready to leave as I was expecting to be going at 3ish. I hadn’t showered, gotten in going home clothes, brushed my teeth. I hadn’t packed my stuff….nothing. 

And my lunch had just been dropped off. The nurse told me to keep eating my lunch, so I did. 

The patient transfer staff member left and then 5 minutes later came back with another patient transfer person and proceeded to start pack all my belongings. They went through the cupboards draws etc. they said they need the bed and there was a lounge that I could b taken to to eat my lunch and wait for my paperwork. 

I wasn’t given time to shower, to get out of my pjs, to brush my teeth or even put underwear on. 

To have your patients be one minute staying in hospital and be in such a vulnerable unknown scared state and then next minute you are turning around and literally, I feel, kicking them out the door is absolutely disgusting. 

To think I was a private patient that as I understand it, should not have been staying there in the first place and I walked out of that room crying because of how I felt I was being treated, just a number, no empathy at all, no good luck with everything.. 

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Responses

Response from Nicky Duncan, Nurse Unit Manager, Medical Ward, Bunbury Hospital 7 months ago
Nicky Duncan
Nurse Unit Manager, Medical Ward,
Bunbury Hospital

Submitted on 5/09/2023 at 11:33 AM
Published on Care Opinion at 1:31 PM

Good morning disinfectantqy76,

It sounds like some of your stay was positive but other areas not so.

I am sorry that your whole stay was not of a positive nature.

I can only address from the medical ward aspect as I work on the medical ward.

Your comment around the nurse refusing to take the patient to the toilet, I was not pleased to hear but without knowing the full details of the other patient, I am unsure why this occurred. Though this is something that should never be said to a patient, and it is something I have already addressed with staff. In your email you indicate that the patient had a fall and a broken hip, which may have indicated that the patient was rest in bed until further review from the teams and physio. With that in mind the staff may not have been allowed to ambulate the patient but there are other methods of toileting rather than just a continence aid.

I understand that your discharge was very quick and sudden and you were not prepared and I do apologize that this left you feeling like we did not care. This is not how we ever plan for a discharge and they should go nice and smoothly with patients transferred to our discharge lounge. We utilise our discharge lounge so that our patients are safe on discharge, have their paperwork and scripts and sometimes they have their final medication administered. It is a safety net to ensure that patients have everything they need on discharge and they have a better understanding of their stay. It appears we could have done better in your discharge.

With regards to your private health there are a lot of reasons why patients who have private health are admitted to the public side and most of these are due to doctor acceptance. I have never heard of the funding to the public section before and I will have others respond to that.

I would really like to speak to you about your admission so if you could call me on 97221355 and I can address some of your concerns.

I thank you for taking the time to provide feedback and I hope to chat soon.

Kind Regards

Nicky Duncan

CNM Medical Ward

Bunbury Hospital.

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Response from John Brearley, Co-Director Stream A, Bunbury Hospital, WACHS - South West 7 months ago
John Brearley
Co-Director Stream A, Bunbury Hospital,
WACHS - South West

Stream A includes: Medical Ward, Medical B, Subacute, ICU, Emergency Department and Ambulatory Care at the Homemaker

Submitted on 5/09/2023 at 3:07 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 4:51 PM

Dear disinfectantqy76,

I'm glad Nicky was able to make contact with you. I trust this helped explain the use of the discharge lounge as a mechanism to coordinate an effective discharge process for the patient, whilst also allowing us to prepare the room for the next patient. My only regret is that on this occasion we did not coordinate this better with you to ensure you had a better, more planned experience of discharge.

On the matter of private health insured patients, whilst we gladly accept private health insured patients regularly, it is our intention to ensure that all patients - whether public or private - receive the best admission experience possible. To this end, it sounds like many aspects of your admission went well, however we really could have managed your discharge much better.

I do wish you well on your recovery.

Regards,

John Brearley

Service Co-Director

Bunbury Hospital

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