"Excellent clinical staff but administrative processes need improvement"

My child recently had surgery at PCH (Perth Children’s Hospital). They were unwell afterwards and needed to stay several extra days. I’m a doctor myself and have worked in public hospitals for over 20 years. 

I’ve been incredibly impressed by the PCH staff. Every nurse has been fantastic, attentive and helpful. They’ve always had the time to stop, talk and help. This is a reflection of good staff levels, morale and training. The doctors, ward clerks, cleaners and other ward staff have also been fantastic. 

The building and facilities are absolutely amazing! This stay was stressful from a medical perspective but tolerable due to the great facilities. 

My only point for improvement is the pre-op organization and communication. There is a surprising lack of timely communication with patients. We had to repeatedly ring up to find out our surgical date, admission time etc. For example we rang 3 1/2 weeks before to find out the surgery date, to be told that they will send out mail 4 weeks beforehand! Obviously that letter got to us with only 2 1/2 weeks to go. This is inadequate time to arrange our lives.

Similarly we had no admission time, or even an indication of AM or PM list. Again rang 2 days before to ask and told that they ring 2 days beforehand! When we pointed out that it was 2 days we are told that they’ll ring later in the day. I believe that these lists are planned weeks in advance and this information is easily available much earlier. 

In conclusion, the building and clinical staff are incredible. Best I’ve met yet!

The administration section needs to improve. I believe private hospitals do a much better job with fewer staff, so I feel this is an indication of poor training, processes and coordination.