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Elderly patient

Posted By betakn86

"Elderly patient"

About: Swan Hill District Hospital / Emergency Department

(as a service user),

I feel really sad that an elderly person came into emergency unwell in an ambulance around midday. There were no beds. So they were transferred to a wheelchair where they sat in the waiting room for six hours. They had not been offered a drink or food or help to go to the toilet . Evening time and they had still not been seen by a doctor. They have no frame and I understand are as weak as a kitten from being unwell for two days. The waiting room was full and all the walk in patients were seen before the elderly person, who I feel should of been on a trolley. The staff were seemingly dawdling around and the doctors were calling in one patient a hour.

I am sorry but surely an unwell elderly person takes priority over walk in walk out patients. I felt it was very unfare watching them trying to sleep in the wheelchair with their head hanging forward and nearly falling out of the chair. We checked if they had forgotten to put the elderly person on the triage list and they told us there was one person ahead of them two hours ago. Very sad the way they have been treated. Their legs have gone into spasm from sitting in the one spot for so long and they were freezing. Very poor care of this person, in my opinion.

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Responses

Response from Chloe Keogh, Interim CEO, Executive Offices, Swan Hill District Health 13 months ago
We are preparing to make a change
Chloe Keogh
Interim CEO, Executive Offices,
Swan Hill District Health

Overall responsibility for the running of the health service, reports to the Board of Management. Interim for 7 months while they recruit permanently to the CEO role.

Submitted on 31/05/2024 at 12:31 PM
Published on Care Opinion Australia on 3/06/2024 at 11:54 AM

picture of Chloe Keogh

Dear betakn86,

Your recent experience in our waiting room is very disturbing and I am so sorry that it happened.

I know the staff have read your story and will all have their own reflections of how this situation looked for you sitting in the waiting room. I know they are very mindful of the public perception of what can be seen from the waiting area, and how they respond to people's questions from the waiting room. They also keep an eye on the patients who are waiting, but obviously on this day they didn't quite keep a close enough eye out- and for this I am sorry.

The triage score that a person gets when they are first given that initial assessment on presentation to the ED is based on the persons clinical symptoms, and this can cause people to feel like it is "unfair" based on other factors ( like age). I would love to say that we will see all such elderly people in a more timely manner, but I just am not certain of what was occurring for this patient at this time- and what was occurring within the ED at this time. The longer a person waits the lower their triage score, and in between seeing these patients the Doctors and Nurses provide the care for the higher triaged patients within the main ED who are on the trolleys.

Currently our ED are experiencing a lot of daily presentations, and many of them are the lower triage scores, and this is because our Doctors clinics have a 3 week wait for an appointment, so patients who cannot wait to see their GP are presenting to the ED. We are working really closely to ensure that this GP waiting time is reducing by ensuring GP support for the community.

I really thank you for taking the time to write about this experience and letting us know, and encourage you to reach out if you think that there is something we can do moving forward. We are planning to move into the new ED in December 2024, and the waiting room is directly in front of the triage nurse area (see the picture below) so I hope there will be better visibility into this waiting room area to avoid elderly people sitting for long periods and getting cold, and leg spasms.

My contact details are ckeogh@shdh.org.au or phone 50339250 if you would like to discuss this.

Kind Regards

Chloe

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
Response from Chloe Keogh, Interim CEO, Executive Offices, Swan Hill District Health 6 months ago
We have made a change
Chloe Keogh
Interim CEO, Executive Offices,
Swan Hill District Health

Overall responsibility for the running of the health service, reports to the Board of Management. Interim for 7 months while they recruit permanently to the CEO role.

Submitted on 11/12/2024 at 1:35 PM
Published on Care Opinion Australia at 4:19 PM

picture of Chloe Keogh

Dear betakn86,

I just wanted to update you that today we have fully moved into our new ED. We hope that this newly built, specially designed area will make patients who have to wait a little more comfortable.

Please understand that patients may still need to wait to be treated, as that is the triage process. Patients are treated according to the severity of their presenting complaint. There are bathroom facilities, and a parent room with water available in this area.

The new ED is located at 45 High St, Swan Hill, and has a drop off area that can be accessed from High St. I have taken some photos of this area today so you can see the change we have made.

Image titleNew ED front waiting areaImage titleImage title

Kind Regards

Chloe

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
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