"PathWest"

In my opinion, my husband recently had a poor experience with PathWest. He is undergoing cancer treatment and he was instructed by his Medical Oncologist to get a blood test on the morning before his next chemo infusion. She was very specific about the details and timing of the blood test (had to be the morning before, had to be with PathWest so she could view his results online) and she recommended he choose the PathWest collection centre closest to home for him (i.e. we looked it up and he went to the nearest collection centre). I got a weary and frustrated phone call from him saying he waited 45 minutes in a crowded waiting area with standing room only (all the chairs were taken) only to be told by the phlebotomist that there was no way his blood results would be available in time if he had his blood test at that particular location. He said there was no receptionist he could talk with before beginning his wait and that the phlebotomist was under great pressure with a huge queue of people waiting. He tires easily due to treatment effects at present, and he then drove over to SCGH to try and get his blood taken. I feel so let down and frustrated that a difficult treatment process is made more onerous. I think a 'triage' function is needed at path collection centres to check that people presenting at path collection centres are in the right place and that their needs will be met before they sit in a queue waiting for ages. It would also be good to have a hotline that is advertised widely with a - ring us before you go for your blood test - message so that people can call and check if they are going to the right place for their test with the right preparation. I have had the frustrating experience in the past of quarantining time from work to go for a blood test only to be told on arrival that I should have fasted beforehand.