My terminally ill parent was recently taken to ED late one evening and then transferred to the ward into a private room where they were nursed until a palliative bed could be arranged the following morning.
Later that night, after Palliative Care arranged the transfer and my parent was moved across to the St John of God (SJOG) Unit. My parent sadly passed away.
Condolence cards were received by my family from the Geraldton Hospital Palliative Care team on two occasions. My parent was known to Palliative Care prior to this admission and had used their services.Care of my parent by the ED, Ward and the Palliative Unit at SJOG was as great as it could be given the situation over those two days; however this fell down soon after.Now we have received a call from a Geraldton Hospital Palliative Care Nurse asking how my parent was going and if they would like a visit from the nurse.As you can imagine, this is not the sort of call one would expect from the staff that had:1) Visited my parent on the ward when they were in an unresponsive state.2) Arranged for the bed at the Palliative Unit.3) Sent multiple condolence cards to my family after my parent passed away.Surely this information and the fact my parent had passed, should have been documented in my parent's notes so that calls of this nature asking how they were going didn't occur.As you can imagine, this call was quite distressing to my family and has left us feeling like my parent was just a number, and not a person, to the Geraldton Hospital Palliative Care Service.Please don't let this happen to another family - family members do not need to be reminded from an inappropriate and upsetting phone call, that their father/mother/brother/sister, etc. is no longer with them.
"Background research not done"
About: Geraldton Hospital Geraldton Hospital Geraldton 6530 St John of God Geraldton Hospital St John of God Geraldton Hospital Geraldton 6530
Posted by Coffee Cup (as ),
Do you have a similar story to tell?
Tell your story & make a difference ››
Responses
See more responses from Michele Young
See more responses from Michele Young