If you have read my post on What to do in the face of negligence? then you would understand that I am now facing a battle between myself and the Australian Government health department. There is currently an investigation being held at the community health clinic that I was originally "treated" in.
The community health clinic "the name of which I do not speak" misdiagnosed my ectopic pregnancy. The list of people and things to blame is so long its scary. So many things went wrong on so many levels. It was a disaster of mammoth proportions....(well for my right fallopian tube anyway.)
The staff work less than normal hospital hours, they are housed in lovely accommodation free of charge ,they have more holidays than teachers and they are remunerated generously with Australian tax payers money. Very few of them do their job properly and when I say properly I mean to the normal standard that any Australian would consider appropriate. A lot of them would disagree with my "opinions" of them and their situation but I "tell" it how I "know" it
Which begs the question... when you live in a remote indigenous community what choice do you have? I know the answer to that one......none!
A friend who still lives in this community rang us yesterday and told us that his pregnant wife had woken up in pain. She is 7 weeks pregnant and has cramping pains on her left side.He had tried to ring the health clinic 8 times...but it rang out. So he drove her there. She then waited to see a midwife, who promptly told her that what she was experiencing was normal and to go home and have paracetamol!
I asked them if she had got an early scan yet, she told me that she was booked in to see the obstetrician that was due in the community last month, but it was cancelled and she would have to wait another 2 weeks. This would be taking her up to 8 weeks pregnant. If she had an ectopic pregnancy, she would be past the threshold for rupturing at that stage.
We flew her to us and I took her to the hospital. She was white as a ghost and convulsing in pain. I thought the worst and to my relief so did the emergency department. She had presented to emergency with a positive pregnancy test and abdominal pain on one side, immediately ectopic pregnancy had to be ruled out. We waited for the ultrasound and to our relief the baby is fine, but she does have an extra large ovarian cyst which was possibly rupturing and this would explain the pain.
It has been just over 6 months since I was taken to that health clinics emergency room.Collapsed in shock and bleeding out rapidly. They knew what happened to me was preventable...there was no need for me to experience that amount of trauma if I had been treated "properly" Yet here they were...faced with a similar situation again and alas.....they failed. How can this clinic continue to be negligent...and yet still be tolerated, have tonnes of money thrown at it and better still "rewarded" for their efforts.
It makes me sick to my stomach to think that this department has learnt nothing from what happened to me. Its a tiny community....most pregnant women there refuse to go to the clinic because of what happened to me and theres little wonder why.
I have another month to wait for their response to the investigation.
If you have been treated by a health care professional and you believe that you have been treated with negligence then I firmly suggest that you forward your story to the complaints commission located in your state. They will contact you and explain to you what will be done.They are independant of the local health department and the doctors and nurses commission. They will demand answers from the subjects that have lead to your complaint. It is against the law for them to not reply to the complaints commission.
Please follow the link to your local health complaints commission in your state or territory.
Tasmania
South Australia
Victoria
New South Wales
Queensland
Western Australia
Northern Territory
Thank you
Janey
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