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Care Opinion

Lack of care

Posted By Lackofcare

"Lack of care"

About: Albany Health Campus / Emergency Department

(as a parent/guardian),

I took my child to the emergency department recently for concern over sore throat, tonsil swelling and high temp. I was told it would be a long wait which I said I was happy to wait, as I understand a busy department takes time. My child was given Panadol and nurofen at triage and their throat was checked by a student nurse.

Then we were in the waiting room and within 5-10 minutes was told by a nurse that a doctor thought my child would be fine and we were discharged. I had concerns over my child's throat swelling and we were not seen by a doctor at all, but told we could go.

At the time of writing this, my child is quite unwell, sleeping, high fever and I took them to ED for them to be seen, only to be sent away without seeing a doctor at all. I’m quite upset about the lack of care and feel my child was placed at risk. 

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Responses

Response from Wendy McKinley, A/ AHC Director, WACHS GS 4 months ago
Wendy McKinley
A/ AHC Director,
WACHS GS

Submitted on 19/12/2023 at 1:11 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 2:47 PM

Dear Lackofcare,

We are very sorry that you did not feel you received an appropriate level of care at the Emergency Department. We value feedback from our community as it helps us to identify opportunities for improvement or to celebrate and share when things went well for our patients.

Patients in the Emergency Department are prioritised based on clinical need, rather than in the order that they present to the department. It is possible that on the day you attended, there were a number of very unwell patients who needed to be assessed before your child. We strongly recommended that you make an appointment with your GP or return to our ED for further assessment if your child is still unwell and is not improving.

As we support student nurses during their training, we often have students in our hospitals. We also run highly regarded education programmes for doctors and allied health staff. Whilst a student nurse may have been involved in your child’s care the initial assessment of our patients is always carried out by an appropriately trained and experienced Registered Nurse. It is alarming to hear that your child did not see a doctor as this is required as part of our routine process.

We are very keen to investigate your experience in more detail so that we can better understand exactly what happened and follow up on any gaps in our service. If you are happy to discuss with us, please contact 9892 2586 or via email ahc.feedback@health.wa.gov.au.

Wendy McKinley

AHC Director

Albany Health Campus

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