"Attended in an ambulance due to pancreatic pain and spinal injury. I ended up leaving."

Attended in an ambulance due to pancreatic pain and spinal injury. I felt I was totally neglected for 4 hours. I ended up leaving in disgust to another hospital.

I think this place is a total disgrace. I feel I was neglected and left in total pain.

I attended RPH via St. John’s Ambulance at about in the early hours of the morning recently. I was additionally informed by my doctor to do so.

I attended due to ongoing severe pancreatic pain and severe lower back, and hip pain. I have had 28 joint operations from previous tactical service from the Australian Army and multiple police forces. I am also a previous patient of the pain clinic.

I waited at reception totally unattended for over two (2) hours. I was in severe pain from my pancreas and joint injuries. I attempted to notify staff of this but I recall I was aggressively and rapidly brushed aside, then told to simply wait on a plastic chair. I had great difficulty sitting on these chairs due to my lower back and sciatic pain.

I attempted to approach some staff but I found the two staff that a dealt with (not a the Clerk staff) to be extremely rude, totally uncaring and left me an impression that no one was going to bother to attend to me. One staff member even told me to change from the orange chair to a black chair, I informed them that I was trying to find one that I could sit on due to severe spine injury. I felt they rapidly brushed me off and firmly informed me that was the rules and I had to sit on the designated black plastic chair or leave. I did as they asked and found the pain from chair excruciating. I waited nearly three hours and found that I could no longer tolerate the pain.

After waiting on the painful plastic chair for some time, I approached another member at the Triage counter and informed them that I was now going to leave due to the extreme pain felt from being informed that I “must” sit and wait on the plastic chair. I felt they did not care and rapidly brushed me aside while only caring to ask my name so they could quickly check me out. One less person to deal with!

At the time I recall there was much less than 10 patients in the hospital, and staff appeared to be aimlessly sitting or walking around.

I previously held similar jobs in the police force where I was in charge of high numbers of custodial care, and none of my clients (prisoners) were ever treated with such negligence and total uncaring disrespect. I found the whole experience and expensive, disgusting and a totally painful waste of time.

If this is now the culture of RPH, I believe the hospital has become a total disgrace to the state and its people, especially veterans who may require additional care.