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Waiting time in pathology and outpatient dispensary

Posted By chamaeleonex33

"Waiting time in pathology and outpatient dispensary"

About: Fiona Stanley Hospital / Pharmacy PathWest Murdoch Collection Centre

(as a service user),

Hi Team,

Thanks to my cancer, I am a regular customer at Pathwest FSH. It seems that those guys are very understaffed- especially on Mondays. I recently spent 3 hours waiting at the Pathwest Collection Center.

I think it will be great if you can look at augmenting capacity, especially on Mondays. Currently, in my experience, the wait times are around 1.5 hours. 

I have also recently spent 1:30 mins at the dispensary on the same day. The only place I didn’t have to wait was at the specialist appointment. 

With my cancer, I know that I have limited time. It will be great if I didn’t have to waste what I have left sitting in waiting rooms. 

In my opinion, the delay is not because of the people but because the processes are poorly managed. 

I can’t really understand why it takes 2 hours to get my meds when a private place does it in few minutes. It might be because the staff is busy carrying out non-value-added activities like documentation or managing variations and special cases. 

In my opinion, get some good managers. 

Thank you.

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Responses

Response from Elaine Toogood, a/Manager Training and Development, Pre-Analytical services, PathWest Laboratory Medicine WA 3 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Elaine Toogood
a/Manager Training and Development, Pre-Analytical services,
PathWest Laboratory Medicine WA

Manage Training and Development for PathWest

Submitted on 22/07/2021 at 7:05 PM
Published on Care Opinion on 23/07/2021 at 10:03 AM

Dear chamaeleonex33,

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback regarding your experience when attending our PathWest Fiona Stanley Collection centre. I am sorry that you had to wait for such an extended period of time and that your experience was not a positive one.

We are currently onboarding and actively recruiting staff to supplement our collection centre workforce. We are are also looking at a range of solutions including a possible additional collection centre location in the suburbs surrounding the hospital and an overflow clinic on site.

We consistently seek feedback from both our staff and customers in an effort to improve our collection service and we appreciate you taking the time to contact us through the Care Opinion site.

I can assure you that PathWest takes the well being of our patients and staff very seriously and we are committed to continuously improving our service.

Please see my contact details below if you wish to discuss further.

Kind regards,

Elaine Toogood

A/General Manager Pre Analytical Services

T: (08) 6457 4514

Mob: 0413 611 192

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Response from Neil Doverty, Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group, South Metropolitan Health Service 3 years ago
Neil Doverty
Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group,
South Metropolitan Health Service

Submitted on 26/07/2021 at 11:28 AM
Published on Care Opinion at 3:35 PM

picture of Neil Doverty

Dear chamaeleonex33,

I am sorry to hear that you are a regular customer of ours due to a diagnosis of cancer. I imagine this is a very distressing time for you and I understand your frustration with facing an extended waiting period at times. I do hope that you are happy with the specialist treatment and care you are receiving.

Regarding the waiting times for medication dispensing at our Pharmacy, I can understand your confusion as it does appear to operate like a privately-run pharmacy, however, it actually operates in a way that is markedly different.

We have 123 Pharmacists who provide pharmaceutical supply services, dispensing services, compounding services and clinical pharmacy services to both inpatients of Fiona Stanley Hospital as well as our outpatients. To give you some context, we are a 783-bed tertiary hospital and have an average of 28, 500 outpatients appointments per week. The focus of the Outpatient Pharmacy is to dispense non-PBS and/or highly specialised medications that are unavailable or difficult to obtain from a local community pharmacy.

Documentation, managing variations and special cases actually add a lot of value to the service, and in many cases are a legal requirement. There is a great deal of work our Pharmacists do ‘behind the scenes’, and I’m sorry that you have had the impression that processes are poorly managed.

What the public don’t always see is that our Pharmacy is very well-managed. To help you to better understand the service and why there is often a waiting time involved, I wanted to let you know that prescription wait times can vary day-to-day depending on multiple factors. For example, prescriptions are thoroughly reviewed by a Pharmacist to ensure that:

* The medication is safe and effective for you (e.g. review of relevant dispensing history, clinic notes, laboratory results, drug interactions).

* The prescription meets legal requirements, hospital formulary restrictions and PBS requirements.

* Patients are provided medication information and counselled on their medications.

Time is certainly precious when you are facing a terminal illness. To help you, there are a few alternatives to waiting that you may wish to consider. These include:

* You can drop off your prescription and collect it at a later date.

* You can post your prescription to the Outpatient Pharmacy ahead of time and it will be ready for collection on your requested date.

* Many PBS medications are available from a local community pharmacy closer to home. If you are unsure, I encourage you to speak to an Outpatient Pharmacy staff member on 6152 4009.

The above information is displayed on a large poster in the Outpatient Pharmacy which may also serve as a helpful resource for you.

I wish you all the very best for your ongoing treatment and care at FSH.

Kind regards,

Neil Doverty

Group Executive Director

Fiona Stanley Fremantle Hospitals Group

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