Lynelle C

Wheelchairs and bedside manners.

Last night, I took my father to the casualties after a very bad fall. His shoulder was fractured and both his knees had deep cuts. He also sported a swelling on his forehead and he was off balance. This was just after 6pm. At 83, he could hardly walk and was in much pain. But we waited (it will not help to say something about the long wait), when we finally did get through the glass (broken) door we had to sit in another line. The person at the table "in charge" of that area was more on his phone than concerned about the patients. I was asked to leave since only patients were allowed, and I left. Just after midnight, my dad was released after they have determined that nothing was broken. Outside the casualties, he fell again, and he went back in until 3am. My complaint is: why was he not given a wheelchair to assist him in the first place? Then the second fall would not have happened. The overall experience of this hospital leaves me dumbfounded and the medical staff could really do with training in bedside manners and some basic compassion. Not only was my father (white) not properly cared for, but I saw another woman (black) struggling to walk with a big hole in her leg, and a wheelchair was not offered to her either. When I commended on that, it was then that I was asked to leave. It was not as if there were not wheelchairs available. Just in the few hours of waiting, four were not in use, two were standing in the rain. I am appalled at the kind of service one receives at a state hospital.