I have a lot of respect for the medical profession etc. but today my patience has thinned enough for me to write a blog entry of complaints that will probably be annoying to read but this was really annoying to happen so here goes.
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Is it just me or have the waiting times got progressively worse in the children hospitals lately?? Feel free to comment below if any of this has happened to you. Maybe this is just where I am but I hope its not happening wherever you are.
I have health insurance luckily but still I don't feel it makes much difference from someone who say doesn't have it.
My son recently got a bad case of gastroenteritis and I went into the ER room to make sure he wouldn't dehydrate. He had a projectile vomit and a couple of bad episodes of diarrhea during the day. I think he just picked it up as my other children thankfully (for now!) don't have it and hopefully it will stay that way..bring on the bottle of bleach huh and constant hand washing.
Anyway, I was absolutely appalled at the lack of treatment we got. I must have counted 8 doctors walk past us and blatantly ignore him. I finally cracked after the long old wait (and him getting no treatment whatsoever) and as am nursing a 1.5 year old baby still and simply wanted to go at this point. We were told to take the queue. We did that. The nurse said that there are people like you with these circumstances sitting here too! People like me I said? explain?? I found this kinda patronizing. But for anyone who has small kids and knows how this is - for a 3.5 year old to wait for a doctor to come at 10 p.m. at night when they are more than tired and flopping....I just found it ridiculous and kinda cruel.
I asked for the nurse manager. I said I want to make a formal complaint. My son has been here for AGES and has not been seen whatsoever. He started innocently kissing her arm as I went to say this to her. Cringe. I said shame on you! There he is innocently kissing your arm and you have ignored him like as if he wasn't a human being all this time!!
The nurse didn't even ask us for a stool sample - that was my idea. He had an episode of diarrhea so I scooped a sample up into a container and handed it into the staff to send off to the lab, this was at 8 p.m...you will have to wait one week to get the results back I was told. Okay. But at least I might have more of a clue of what is wrong with him if they take a sample I thought. (Doc agreed later). Roll on 8.30 p.m. - how many kids are in front of us, I painfully asked? ...2 she said..okay...9.30 p.m. - give me 5 mins said the nursing manager - okay... how many kids are in front of us now? 2 she said. You told me that an hour ago!! then at 9.45 p.m she tells there is 1 child ahead of us...and to give her 5 mins... at 10 p.m. I had had enough and at this point my child was flopping...so we went to leave as I had simply had enough and I said if he gets any sicker I am holding this hospital responsible for NOT doing a thing to help him!!
Junior doc suddenly (finally) calls his name at 10 p.m. when I was fed up enough and about to just go...we quickly glided into the cubicle - she thanked us for the sample and asked us if we had been waiting long? YES too long I said. Disgruntled. Shocked at the lack of communication among staff. So let me just repeat all my complaints about my child to you again for fear this information was not given to you in the first place!! I am sorry if I am sounding rude in this post but goodness me...I had been more than patient enough waiting hrs for him to get seen to just be ignored and sat there.
Where is the humanity these days when you arrive with a sick child into a children's hospital? Isn't it bad enough when your child gets sick suddenly and you are left with no choice but to come in to make sure they get better quicker.
Shouldn't it be their duty of care to respond better? and EVEN IF they get BUSY and they are BUSY the worst thing about last night was they clearly were not busy at the time we were there!!...so it was more than frustrating...at least if I thought they were doing some real hard work at the time before us I would have been much more understanding and possibly more patient.
Just to get mum we will get to you in due course. Really? can you give me an approximate time? I didn't get a chance to pump milk out as I didn't know I would be forever waiting!!? Can I have the e-mail address to your boss then? is the pen mightier than the sword?? (I wondered) Why do I have to do this in order for my child to get treated with the dignity and respect they deserve anyway?? I said if nobody sees him soon I am going to lose my mind and check myself into your psychiatric ward!? seriously WTH?!
So are you confirming that you have a shortage of doctors at present? (I asked the nurse this prior to seeing the doctor.) Yes there is. I said well how come I counted 8 doctors walk past idly and they didn't look to be doing much either. She said nothing in response. But here is the thing WHY LIE? why lie to people - isn't it bad enough if you have jerked them around and made them unnecessarily wait hrs on end??...for something that could have been sorted within an hr to begin with and hey if you want to cut your list in half why not deal with simple cases quicker that way you have more time to spend and devote on the trickier cases? AND even if the trickier cases need attention or priority before us, and that's fine and all...don't totally neglect the other cases and ignore the person who has gone to the trouble of coming half way across town to get their child proper treatment. Rant over.
Thankfully my chemist friend gave me an anti-diarrhea powder to add to a drink and its given him much relief. When I asked the doc in the ER if it was okay to give it to him prior with the bug he had she told me what is it? even though the box said Paediatric powder on the side! Then she said sure its fine to give - thank you to let me know about this over the counter solution. Sure....
The silver lining came when my son turned around in front of them all and said I have the best mummy in the whole wide world - I love you...to which I teared up and said I love you too and you are the best most patient child in the whole wide world...exit hospital. I hate the drama of this though. It shouldn't be this hard to get your child seen to.
Ironically got treated MUCH better in the adult hospital.
Just to add in I wish they had this robotic bear - all the children's hospitals should get something like this...
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