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Discharge treatment

Posted By long time waiting

"Discharge treatment"

About: Albany Health Campus / Cardiac Room

(as a relative),

My elderly parent was taken by ambulance to Albany Hospital recently.

They were having chest pains and had very high blood pressure.

I spoke to the palliative care nurse who organised for my parent to go via ambulance.

They explained to me why they needed my parent to go.

My parent was seen by the Dr and when i rang the hospital later that night for info they said my parent had another hour of tests then would be asked to call a taxi and sent home.

I rang the hospital back to find out if they could keep my parent there until morning as we had no one to pick them up at that time as we dont live in Albany.

I was told by the Dr that they could not keep my parent as the hospital was full and they did not have room for them and that my parent needed to call a taxi.

I found someone to eventually pick my parent up and they arrived home closer to 12am.

We as a family find it unbelievable that Albany hospital would treat an elderly patient in this way.

This is the second time this has happened and we find it unbelievable that this can happen to our elderly parent.

Thank you

long time waiting 

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Responses

Response from Eliza Mathew, Director of Nursing, Albany Health Campus, WACHS GS 2 months ago
Eliza Mathew
Director of Nursing, Albany Health Campus,
WACHS GS

Submitted on 3/07/2024 at 11:59 AM
Published on Care Opinion at 2:17 PM

Dear long time waiting

Thank you for sharing your elderly parent’s experience of the Albany Health Campus’s emergency department. I am sorry that you and your parent had this experience. We take great care when discharging our elderly patients and we always aim to work closely with our patients and their families or carers to ensure a safe discharge. It is true that when the hospital is at capacity, we are unable to offer social admissions and in this case we did not fully explain that to your parent.

We appreciate your concern about the use of taxis, however the Health Campus has an agreement with local taxi services. If a patient is visually impaired or has issues with mobility, the taxi driver will assist our patients with unlocking front doors, turn on lights and ensure our patients are safely inside their homes before leaving. We obviously did not clearly explain this to your parent.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention and giving us the opportunity to reflect on your parent’s experience. We have circulated an email to all our ED staff to remind them to explain the safety measures we have in place when sending a patient home in a taxi at night.

With best wishes

Eliza Mathew

A/Director Albany Health Campus

WACHS Great Southern

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