"7 hrs wait for 7 mins treatment"

Recently I took my child to a Medical Centre as they had something stuck in their right eyelid causing severe pain. The Doctor who attended my child washed their eye and could not see the source of the problem as they did not have adequate equipment, so they advised that my child be taken to Fiona Stanley emergency and they charged $100 for their services. 

Having done our best to avoid using public services, my spouse, our child and I attended at FSH Emergency in the afternoon that day. Approximately three hours later we were still waiting and as the pain was severe my spouse asked the nurse at the enquiries counter how long we might expect to wait and the nurse advised that the longest wait was 5 hours. 

About 30 minutes later my spouse again spoke to a nurse and shortly after that a nurse came and took our child's blood pressure and on being asked for some pain relief brought two panadol and water. Close to an hour later our child accompanied by my spouse were taken into the eye examination room where they were kept waiting a further three and a half hours before a Doctor attended. 

The Doctor only attended because my spouse stopped another Doctor in the corridor and explained that they had been waiting in that room for more than two hours and despite several requests to nurses and use of the call bell nothing had been done. When the Doctor attended they asked our child the level of pain and was told it was 7 out of 10.  The Doctor said that the nurse at the reception had noted the pain level as 2 out of 10 and that was why there had been a lack of attention.  My child advised the Doctor that no one including the nurse had previously asked for their level of pain. 

The complaint is that waiting seven (7) hours with severe pain is unacceptable.  Numerous other patients with seemingly no pain and no apparent medical problem as they were not given treatment or admitted were attended to in less than two hours while we waited. The Doctor took less than 7 minutes to deal with the problem.

I believe the above demonstrates poor management.  Nurses seemingly making incorrect assumptions about pain levels and a complete lack of care by all the hospital staff involved.

I think the system needs to be improved.  A computer program needs to be installed that records when a patient enters the emergency ward and the pain level and the type of medical complaint.  The system can then change the colour code for each patient after prescribed times have elapsed and record every interaction between patient and staff.  The system needs an overall manager to direct and control resources.  A system like this will also provide invaluable information when seeking additional resources.

Currently, I believe the FSH service is worse than any I have ever had the misfortune to experience.