Patient Opinion logo
Share your experiences of Australian health services, good or bad.
We pass your stories to the right people to make a difference.

"Lack of duty of care"

About: Joondalup Health Campus

(as a relative),

My husband was admitted for surgery yesterday to have surgery to remove a foreign body from his infected foot. This was supposed to happen last night. Then it was this morning. Then it was today at 2:30pm. It's now 3pm [at the time of writing]. My husband has bipolar and is in manic phase. He hasn't eaten since 2pm yesterday. He is getting agitated and I’ve been sitting here trying to keep him calm all this time. He is about to leave the hospital putting himself at risk of sepsis. If this occurs I will sue. It seems that there is a distinct lack of duty of care toward patients with mental health conditions.  

More about:

Responses

Response from Ben Irish, Director of Clinical Services, Joondalup Health Campus

picture of Ben Irish

Dear Angrywife

We are concerned to read of the issues you have experienced regarding your husband’s surgery being delayed. We are aware that some surgeries unfortunately were cancelled on Tuesday 30 October 2018 due to two children being added to the theatre list as emergencies. Those patients whose surgery was cancelled were added to the theatre list for 31 October and had their surgery that day. Again, due to 2 children needing to be added to the list, there was a small delay in patients being transferred to theatre for surgery. Joondalup Health Campus has an Emergency Department and as such, patients presenting to the Emergency Department who require life or limb saving surgery are prioritised as a matter of urgency. We are sorry if this was not explained to you and your husband at the time. We would like to speak to you to provide you with a more detailed response. If you would like to do this, please can you contact our consumer liaison office on 08 9400 9672 and our staff will be able to make the necessary arrangements. We offer our best wishes to your husband for his speedy recovery.

Kind regards

Ben Irish

  • Angrywife thinks this response is helpful
    {{helpful-1}} other {{helpful-1 == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} so too

Updates, changes and questions related to this story

;