"Empathy check"

My partner presented to Busselton Health campus recently in the early afternoon. They were seen to immediately by the triage nurse but I am shocked at how the nurse treated them.

My partner had a fever, felt nauseous and just felt terrible in general which is not like them. They had their head in their hands as I walked in after parking the car and I recall the nurse kept asking them rather rudely to speak up. If the nurse could not hear my partner, I feel they could have asked me to help them. The nurse asked if my partner had done a covid test to which they replied no. The nurse continued to ask questions but I felt their tone and body language suggested that they were downplaying my partner's symptoms.

This is the sickest I have ever seen my partner and I was very worried about them. We were then directed to the waiting area where my partner felt so terrible that the only position they felt comfortable in was on the floor. The nurse approached a short time later and I recall said, Is there a reason your on the floor?,  again rudely, to which they replied ”Because I feel terrible”. This seems like an odd question to ask. Clearly the hospital floor is not somewhere that is where you want to be and you would only go there if you felt terrible.

The nurse then seemingly thrust a tray at me and said “covid test” and walked away. I believe you could tell that this nurse did not care about the welfare of my partner nor offer anything that could help them. I did the covid test for them (lucky I knew how to do it because the nurse didn’t check that I did), and it was positive. I told the nurse and they said we would have to wait outside. We went out and my partner laid on the grass for an hour (luckily it was warm and sunny outside).

After they got worse I went in and asked for some panadol. The doctor I spoke to seemed concerned that my partner had been outside the whole time and the doctor immediately arranged an isolation room and medication for them. The doctor was amazing and very empathetic and I felt my partner was treated with respect from then on.

This is the second time they have contracted covid and this hit them harder than the first. I am writing because I don’t want anyone else to be treated with such disrespect and lack of empathy as my partner did especially when you feel unwell. I know people have bad days but I feel there is no excuse for this behaviour. I have always had very positive experiences at BSN in the few times we have needed to attend.