7 February 2013

Canberra Hospital Frustration

| justoneopinion
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My 88 year old aunt has been in Canberra Hospital for 16 out of the last 18 days. After being discharged after 8 days she went home only to call an ambulance within 48 hrs. When back in casualty the second time, neither of the 2 doctors (although very friendly and nice) bothered to check her notes from her previous admission before coming in to ask her the same lot of questions, even though this had been written on her chart. And that is the start of my frustration with this experience.

Being one of two people with Power of Attorney and remembering my aunt is 88years of age and has some short term memory loss, only one doctor in the whole time she has been there has thought to update her family members on her condition (and this was purley by being in the right place at the right time). After leaving multiple messages with her specialists we have still NOT been contacted. After requesting at least one of us be notified of the results of her latest tests, still no communication. It is not like there hasn’t been anyone visting her as she has had family in their everyday but the communication system, or lack of in the Canberra Hospital is beyond hopeless. We have been very patient to this point, but my aunt has had enough and depserate for some answers herself.

On top of that, my aunt is becoming very confused with the contradictory advise she gets from each nurse she sees. They are all lovely (well most of them), but the SYSTEM of care is completely dysfunctional.

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f4te said :

At least it’s free!

Dealing with the consequences of a “negative patient outcome” (funeral) isn’t free.

gun street girl9:48 am 09 Feb 13

If you want to talk to the treating team, ask the ward when the team rounds, and make arrangements to be there when they come to see your aunt. All patients should be seen on a daily basis by the team, but several times per week the admitting consultant will also do an official ward round (which will be known by the ward staff), so if you want answers from the big Kahuna, that’s the time to be there.

Power of Attorney is only invoked if a patient hasn’t the capacity to act for themselves. As such, if your aunt is well enough to make her own decisions, your status of PoA doesn’t mean anything at that time. It’s certainly not an automatic reason for people to be calling you with updates (indeed, a patient must consent to the sharing of information in the first place).

At least it’s free!

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