"Rude and disinterested"

Last year Armadale Hospital accepted a GP referral via central booking, I was deemed to be a P2 patient. 1st contact I explained I was a high risk patient when having a GA. Early this year I received a booking call for my procedures but from Kalamunda Hospital & after a short discussion it was quickly established that I'm a high risk patient & Kalamunda Hospital isn't equipped to deal with that. So I was referred back to Armadale, Mid last month Armadale called with a booking date & sent emails with instructions. 

I found I needed 4 doses of a prep solution & was told to buy it @ chemist, I called chemist (only 1 for 50ks) & was told prep comes in 3pk @ $55 & I needed 2 pks, I called the hospital looking for help, I felt they offered 0 & was told 0 prep 0 treatment, I asked for a social worker & recall I was told no,

I'm a disability pensioner & $110 is huge. I felt I had no other choice but to comply as my health is declining & the pending procedures are in areas where I've had radical surgery in the past for cancer.

I found that the staff I saw @ Armadale Hospital just keep on giving with their apparent rudeness, unwillingness to help & an attitude that I feel screams they'd rather be somewhere else.

Little did I know the worst was yet to come.

Late last month I had a pre-admission call booked with a time frame in the early evening, I was called almost 2hrs early which I almost missed as call was to landline. I get a seemingly very angry person with a strong accent & poor word pronunciation. I felt their English was so hard to understand, I asked them to speak slower & I recall I got a loud no! They wldn't give their name but stated they were calling from Armadale Hospital. Then I recall I got told how stupid I am to have my mobile phone turned off when I knew there was a hospital call coming. Apparently they had wasted 15mins calling it. I'd called the hospital 2x (once accidentally to Kalamunda Hospital) that morning explaining the mobile wouldn't be working for a few days & cld a note be left to call landline.

They then named the 2 procedures I was having done, 1 I knew & 1 I didn't, I asked them to give me a brief description of the 1 I didn't know & I recall they said no. They then asked me if I agreed to having the procedures done, I said I cld answer that once I'd gone through everything with them, I recall they told me if I didn't say yes right then our conversation was over.

They started with their questions to which I was supposed to give a yes or no but I feel it isn't that easy, when I asked for clarification I recall they would say it's yes or no. I felt I was bullied into answering questions I wasn't sure about, If I asked a question I recall I was told it was irrelevant. It seemed it was all about doing the pre-admission fast,

When we got to medications I believe they got I.R. & S.R. confused when telling me which to take day of procedures - they told me to take usual dose of S4s & S8s & on the day - so that's 3 different types S8s = 70mg of IR drugs & 3 different types S4s & my other meds too. I understand S8s & S4s are all known to severely suppress breathing jn large doses (which I take) & it's all just before I have a G.A in the morning.

I believe they weren't listening & didn't seem to understand the danger to me, I wanted to talk to an anaesthetist, they said I couldn't, no patients did & I had no reason to. I got upset & they wanted to move on, I wanted to sort it out, they got mad & hung up. They called back & told me they ask the questions not me & I have to just answer them - I felt I was again bullied, this time into claiming medical condition I don't have just because of a drug I take that was prescribed "off label" to treat a different condition. I repeatedly explained this to them, they didn't seem to understand, I wanted them to go back & correct the medication side of things & they again seemed to get mad &, I felt, yelled no.

I tried to bring up COPD - TMJ issues & other things...apparently it's not part of the questions they ask, I recall they told me they'd had enough of me - I tried really hard but everything isn't black & white. I believe they got mad over food, I have food allergies, I asked about ingredients & I felt they yelled to just pick something but I couldn't, I recall they yelled they would pick it & hung-up again.

They made me cry during the call & I cried for ages after it, I didn't sleep that night & the next morning I called the hospital looking for help, I got passed from person to person all with different reasons why they couldn't help, The last person took my info & said someone would call. Well no-one did, no sleep again, mid morning the next day I called again, I got transferred to a person who I recall said if I'm making a staff complaint I will get no help just the run around in the hope I will go away, I explained how distressed I was & I hadn't slept since calling two days ago, I really needed to talk to a social worker, this nice person said it was an unwritten understanding that people with hospital staff issues were referred to lifeline as social workers tend to facilitate reporting of these issues & that hurts the hospitals reputation,

I'm still reeling from this & tears are often. The pressure on me is phenomenal.

1) Do I try to manage my meds as best I can without guidance & risk attending for my procedure & hope I survive the GA? Then I will know if the cancer has returned.

2) Do I wait & hope that someone from the hospital will call me soon while there is still time to reduce meds to a safe GA level & if no-one calls cancel everything & hope for the best with my health?

I'm so broken right now!