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Poor Emergency Department discharge process

Posted By warmrw43

"Poor Emergency Department discharge process"

About: Prince of Wales Hospital / Emergency Department

(as a carer),

My parent was taken by ambulance to the hospital. They did some tests during the day and found that the pain was arthritis. So at 5.30 pm they rang me to pick my parent up. That's ok for healthy people who drive a car, but I have health problems of my own and I don't drive. I told them I would organise something for the next day. Five minutes later they rang back to tell me they organised Patient Transport.

They sent my parent home at 10.00 pm in a hospital gown, even though my parent had their clothes that the staff took off my parent. My parent still had the stickers on for heart monitoring. Also they didn't give my parent's medications back. That meant a trip to the hospital by taxi, so I could get my parent's medications back. That cost me $50. Like I can afford to throw money away. 

I feel that the hospitals are getting worse and I hate to think what it will be like in 5 years time. 

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Responses

Response from Justin O'Hare, Co-Director CCVH Program, CCVH, Prince of Wales Hospital 4 years ago
Justin O'Hare
Co-Director CCVH Program, CCVH,
Prince of Wales Hospital

Nurse Manager

Submitted on 4/07/2019 at 1:28 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 2:33 PM

Dear warmrw43

Thank you for your feedback with your recent experience with Prince of Wales Hospital Emergency Department. Your feedback has been acknowledged and discussed with the Emergency Department leadership team.

I appreciate the difficulties in the timing of your parent's discharge, however it was identified that you were not able to present to the Emergency Department upon your parent's discharge and transport was organised by Prince of Wales Hospital. Unfortunately we do not have control over the timing of the transport, however the staff continually escalate to the service to move times forward.

In regards to your parent being discharged in a hospital gown, with heart monitoring stickers still on, and medications not being returned we sincerely apologise for this and this has been fedback to staff to prevent this reoccuring. We also acknowledge the inconvenience you had to endure to collect these medications and again sincerely apologise for this.

At Prince of Wales Hospital we endeavour to provide safe, patient centred care and your feedback is greatly appreciated to continue to develop our services and standards of care.

Kind regards,

Justin O'Hare

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

Update posted by warmrw43 (a carer)

It's easy to apologise and it hasn't done anything to change the situation, or how I feel.

We have an aging population and dementia is also on the increase, so the nurses and doctors should show more compassion. Not only to the patient, but also to the carers and family.

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