"Paediatric ultrasound"

Our family lives remotely in the Goldfields of WA. My child had been waking up crying in pain complaining of stomach pain. After taking them up to the local hospital 2 nights in a row, telehealth doctors were unable to determine the cause due to not being able to do an in-person consult and no access to an ultrasound within our town.

The following morning we drove 2 1/2 hours to the next most local hospital and arrived at ED. Doctors there were unable to determine the cause without an ultrasound so we were scheduled in for that afternoon. We took the appointment and were then told our child wasn’t allowed to eat or drink until then - this would mean our toddler was expected to fast for 24 hours as they had not eaten since the day before.

We were told we could leave the hospital and wait in town for the next few hours as they could then use the bed for another patient in ED. We then left and began waiting for the appointment. Our child soon got hungry and was screaming because they wanted something to eat.

We received a call that we could go in for their ultrasound an hour and a half early. Once we arrived, we waited 30 minutes before getting in. Once in the room, the ultrasound technician told our child to hop onto the bed. My child replied ‘no’ as they were tired and cranky. The technician told us we had 15 minutes to get our child on the bed as they had other patients. My partner and I lifted our child onto the bed where they began crying. The technician tried to ultrasound our child for approximately 2 minutes then stated that our child needs to stop crying or they can’t do it. My spouse sat our child up and began trying to calm them down. At this point the technician told us we needed to do this outside in the waiting room as they had more patients to see, even though we had only been in the room for about 5 minutes. When we said we had been waiting all day for this I recall the technician replied well, we left ED and I felt they hinted that it couldn’t have been that bad if we discharged ourselves. I then explained to them that we didn’t ask to leave, we were asked if we would mind as we were taking up a bed when there was nothing they could do until we got the ultrasound.

We left the room and went back to ED where the doctor saw our child again and gave them an icy pole to calm them down. This, however meant that no ultrasound could be performed. The doctor was helpful but explained that without the ultrasound there was nothing they could do.

We then left and drove the 2 1/2 hour drive home with no more answers then what we came with.

The main issue with the service received was that with the lack of health care available in our town and the distance we needed to travel to access basic healthcare we find it unacceptable that a toddler child was expected to fast for that long (the length of time since their last meal was explained to the hospital staff) and what I believe was the attitude and dismissive nature of the ultrasound technician giving a young child 5 minutes of their time then kicking us out to be a poor reflection of the care requirements of a hospital.

Staffing issues can be taken into account and a level of understanding can be given on our part, but also needs to be reciprocated by hospital staff.

Our child was still unwell a week later and our family then had to drive 6 hours to another healthcare provider in order to access the same treatment we were unable to receive in Kalgoorlie.