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"Child Health Nurse Availabilities"

About: Hedland Health Campus

(as a parent/guardian),

We were double booked for the child health nurse appointment that was scheduled for a date recently. This is despite being confirmed in writing at least a month prior and then again when I attended the clinic a few days prior to the scheduled appointment.

The availability of the child health nurse in Port Hedland is terrible. We had booked 6 weeks ago for this appointment, and have now been told we will need to wait another 6 weeks to be seen. I understand that mistakes happen, however its not as if we were rescheduled to next week, we have been rescheduled in 6 weeks time. This means my nearly 15 month old, will be assessed for their 12 month milestones then.

I do not understand how this can be acceptable, what if we had concerns about our child's development - say possibly there was something that needed to be referred to the paediatrician. In our case there are a number of things we need to address, and now I need to make 3 appointments to try and sort out what could have been addressed in one appointment.

As a working parent every time I make an appointment I need to take time off work and reschedule things in order to attend. I will now need to do this 3 times over.

I believe this area needs more resources.

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Responses

Response from Penny Curtis, Clinical Risk Manager, Patient Safety & Quality, WA Country Health Service (WACHS) Pilbara 5 years ago
We have made a change
Penny Curtis
Clinical Risk Manager, Patient Safety & Quality,
WA Country Health Service (WACHS) Pilbara
Submitted on 23/05/2018 at 12:41 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 1:07 PM


Dear HedlandParent1,

Thank you very much for providing your feedback on the recent double booking of your child’s health appointment and being told that you needed to wait a further 6 weeks for an appointment for your child.

I can understand as a working parent having an appointment cancelled after you took time off from work is inconvenient. I also understand it is of concern when your child will be 15 months old and they have not yet had a 12 month child health nurse check up.

Your feedback was immediately forwarded on to Alistair Pinto the Acting Director of Pilbara Population Health. Alistair has spoken with the Senior Community Nurse Anna Lyon who has investigated this matter.

We apologise due to recent staffing issues there was an administrative error on our part causing you to be double booked in our system. Thank you for talking to us this morning and we will endeavour to fit you in sooner at a date and time suitable to you. Anna will be in further contact to arrange this.

Also, as a result of your feedback we will also ensure that we review our processes so that admin staff throughout Population Health Pilbara are more careful when booking child health appointments that these are entered correctly in our system to avoid double bookings.

Thank you very much for taking the time to get in contact so that we can improve our services in WA Country Health Pilbara Population Health.

Kind regards,

Penny Curtis

Regional Clinical Risk Management Coordinator

WACHS Pilbara Patient Safety Team

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Response from Penny Curtis, Clinical Risk Manager, Patient Safety & Quality, WA Country Health Service (WACHS) Pilbara 5 years ago
Penny Curtis
Clinical Risk Manager, Patient Safety & Quality,
WA Country Health Service (WACHS) Pilbara
Submitted on 24/05/2018 at 4:00 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 4:44 PM


Dear Hedland Parent 1,

Thank you for speaking with our Senior Community Nurse Anna Lyon and I understand that an earlier appointment has now been arranged for your child.

Thanks again for taking the time to let WA Country Health Pilbara Population Health know about our mistake with the appointment double booking.

Penny Curtis

Regional Clinical Risk Management Coordinator

WACHS Pilbara Patient Safety Team

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