Re: Grateful Patients or Savvy Consumers?

When I complained and a meeting was organised, the patient liaison woman was useless, didn't utter a word - I didn't even know who she was until it was all over!

Mind you, my estranged husband (who came to the meeting with me) said 'you should be proud of yourself, you didn't let them get away with a thing' - and they tried. Thankfully, the surgeon concerned left a few weeks later.

I am about to go head-to-head with them again via the Coroner's Inquest regarding the recent death of my estranged husband but, on this occasion, I'm not on such firm ground and can only go by my instinct. The sad thing is, my eldest granddaughter has insisted on going as well as she too had run-ins with them regarding his IV being repeatedly removed.

And they still can't find his bag with all his belongings in!

Re: Grateful Patients or Savvy Consumers?

Wish you so well with that Kal - I'm sure you will be fine, as you've been through it before and, you are wiser now than before and, you did pretty well then. xxx

Re: Grateful Patients or Savvy Consumers?

Many thanks Pats - I am dreading it (mainly because if I what I suspect is true, then I'll blame myself for not being more insistent, could I have done more to prevent his death, that kind of thing). Another suspicious thing was on the morning of the day he died, they moved him from his bed right in front of the nurses station to what, as my daughter has described it as, a tiny box room with no windows. I didn't see it as his sister and a colleague were to be spending the day with him so I was unaware he had been moved until I got the phone call that same night. And still no drip to keep him hydrated and fed. From what I understand, doctors cannot accurately predict the time of death - they seemed to do quite well with their prediction that day ...

Re: Grateful Patients or Savvy Consumers?

Thats the hardest part - that feeling 'we could have - should have'.
Once this is over - you can hopefully move on, you have done your best x

Re: Grateful Patients or Savvy Consumers?

Many thanks again Pats xx

Re: Grateful Patients or Savvy Consumers?

Well right at this present time i am having the leading Neurosurgeon in Western Australia investigated finally by AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency)
This is it for me after 4 years of fighting these bastards,yes,bastards!
this mongrel left me with a fully crushed nerve in my cervical spine,it was on the MRI it was obvious to the consulting neurosurgeons in the same teaching hospital but not to the head surgeon Mr George W..g,not a Dr or Prof but a "Mr" the bees knees of medicine is called a "Mr",i diden't know that after Professor you get elevated to Mr? true, you do,he told me there was nothing to fix?? Or in Doctor talk-"No Amenable Lesion" ha!
I travelled 4000 kilometres to Sydney NSW and was operated on as a matter of urgency within 2 weeks of arrival at Liverpool Public Hospital as a public patient by a brilliant surgeon Associate Professor Mark Sherdidan,but i lost the use of my thumb and two fingers from nerve damage,they waited too long at SCGH Perth,a bloody disgrace,I reckon any Doctor who does not do his job should be reprimanded,cautioned or sacked.

Billy

Re: Grateful Patients or Savvy Consumers?

I'm sorry to hear that happened to you Billy and you are doing the right thing by pursuing it. Unless people complain, why would substandard doctors bother to try and improve their skill set? They won't, they'll just keep on doing what they're already doing.

I wish you well and I hope you get a favourable outcome.

Re: Grateful Patients or Savvy Consumers?

THis is not for money! I only had 3 years to lodge a claim but I diden't know,the Sir Charles Gardnir Hospital or SCGH internal investigation unit (Public Liasion) put it in the bottom drawer and lost it for 2 years,so i complained to the Ombudsman who sent me to HADSCO and they did nothing,they apparently were dragging the 3 year time period out?
I went to a non government mob the HCCC who helped a bit but too late so i complained directly to APHRA myself over 12 months ago and they are right now getting an interstate Neurosurgeon to give an opinion,each State here has its own budget and infrastructure but all States and Territories come under the Commonwealth Government,in other words my Medicare Card as a public patient is valid anywhere in Australia as it is issued by the Commonwealth Government not State.
Its a bloody disgrace,a pinched nerve is a bloody nightmare,everyone knows what happens in your lower back if you pinch the sciatic nerve,its intolerable pain,but my nerve was crushed flat,wholly crushed inbetween two bones,my surgeon when he operated said it was so bruised and swollen at the exit of the actual "exit foramen" that it was the size of a cigarette! these spinal nerves are normally as thick as a match stick or smaller,no stuff em all,you don't do your job then you go elsewhere.

Billy

Re: Grateful Patients or Savvy Consumers?

Experiences like these are the reason that Healthcare England was set up earlier this year.

http://www.healthwatch.co.uk/about-complaints

Re: Grateful Patients or Savvy Consumers?

Trouble is it all ends up about money in the end, when most patients just want someone to say sorry and to ensure it never happens again. Same thing happens in the countries law courts we seem only to be able to get redress by asking for money, no one just says sorry ....