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Hiatus hernia operation

Posted By Hiatus hernia patient

"Hiatus hernia operation"

About: Armadale Hospital / Colyer Surgical & Medical Ward Armadale Hospital / Operating Theatre & Recovery

(as the patient),

I attended Armadale hospital this month. My story contains both good things and lesser things.

I felt the good things were: 

Some of the nursing staff I saw were really experienced, caring and helpful.

They were kind and helped whenever they could.

Not a lot of waiting time in the hospital.

No issues with actual operation and not too much pain from hernia op itself.

Not so good:

I felt it was easy to tell the nurses who were interested and those who really weren't.

No one told me i had a self administer fentanyl button!

I did not find this out until i was headed to xrays for subcutaneous emphysema (a side effect of operation where air gets into your body). They told me when the button dropped. This would have been a big help as i had no pain relief until then!

Kudos - the blonde nurse in 23hr ward on the Friday night shift. I felt she was extremely helpful and considerate.

Kudos - male nurse (Genesis?) in Colyer ward over the weekend. Very kind and helpful.

Suggestion - I found the IV poles have terrible wheels. Everytime i had to go to the toilet (a lot) the nurse had to wheel the iv with me. I tried numerous times to wheel it out of the bathroom.

Really difficult! In my opinion, you should put better wheels on these poles to make both nurses and patients lives easier.

Anyone having a hiatus hernia operation, my only problem was the subcutaneous emphysema. Some people get it in a shoulder. Mine started in both shoulders but then went to my chest. 

Hopefully all my problems are over now.

Thanks Armadale Hospital - hope my feedback / story helps

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Responses

Response from Neil Cowan, Executive Director, Armadale Kalamunda Group, EMHS last month
We are preparing to make a change
Neil Cowan
Executive Director, Armadale Kalamunda Group,
EMHS

Submitted on 5/03/2024 at 1:37 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 2:23 PM

picture of Neil Cowan

Dear Hiatus Hernia Patient,

Thank you so much for getting in touch.

It was most pleasing to hear that there was not a lot of waiting for your operation and that it went well overall.

Kindness is an important value to us, so reading that our nursing staff were caring and helpful was lovely. We are incredibly lucky to have such a dedicated and caring workforce at AKG, and your thoughtful words will be shared with great pride, and especially to those staff you named.

I was sad though that you felt some of our staff were uninterested, that you were not advised about your pain medication, and the need to re-wheel some of our IV poles.

We pride ourselves on excellent care for all patients, so please be assured that we will learn for improvement in reminding all staff to be attentive, updating our pain medication information and our hard-working facilities staff will now be attending to those IV pole wheels.

I hope my response finds you recovering well, and that you can accept my apology for the elements of the care we provided which were not as they should have been, including those terrible wheels!

May I also please conclude by thanking you for both your kind words and your feedback such that action can be taken.

Kind regards,

Neil Cowan.

Executive Director

Armadale Kalamunda Group

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