Poor treatment
A month or so ago I wrote in the South Coast Register about the appalling service my nephew, who had cancer, received in the emergency ward. The man was in massive pain yet had to wait four hours to be seen. That was after he had been bought in by ambulance. He was still in the hospital two weeks later.
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Following my letter in the SCR, I received a phone call from the hospital administration staff asking me if I was going to put in an official complaint. My answer was "not at this time". A sigh of relief came through the phone and I was told, "I will check to see how busy the ER was and get back to you". I would have thought checking your facts before you phoned the person in question would have been mandatory. I'm still waiting for that phone call.
I went on to explain, that if they wanted to check how bad my nephew was all they had to do was check their records as he was still in their hospital....the phone went silent for a second or two and that's when they stated that they would get back to me.
No more than 10 minutes after I had got off the phone from the administration department I received a phone call from my nephew telling me that he needed to be picked up as they were, in his words, "kicking him out".
This was at 3pm. I picked him up and a couple of days later moved him to Sydney where once again he was rushed into hospital. On July 14 he passed away. I'm not having a go at the nursing staff or doctors as they were terrific. It is the admin department and management that needs a good kick in the backside.
To send a man in that condition home was ridiculous and now there will be an official complaint put in.
Could they have done anything else for him at Shoalhaven Hospital is something we will never know.
However, I am hearing of more cases where patients and their families are unhappy with what is happening at that hospital.
L. Boucher, Sanctuary Point
Wasteful politicians
On July 2 we have a federal election (council elections in September) and I am what is known as a swinging voter. I have no idea who to vote for because I have lost faith in our local council, political parties, including their leaders, and the state and local representatives. I am disillusioned by all the broken promises, the political rhetoric, the accusations our political parties hurl at each and the never ending political and bureaucratic hyperbole we are supposed to swallow and believe.
I live in Sussex Inlet but we have some serious employment and lack of development problems. The latest appears to be that our local waste depot is going to be closed by Shoalhaven City Council. SCC sent surveys to some ratepayers regarding the waste depot, no surveys were sent to any small businesses, and anyone who lives in Sussex Inlet knows small businesses are the backbone of our community.
The residents and small business owners of Sussex Inlet are disgusted by this. What does the SCC want to do to Sussex Inlet? Do they want to make Sussex Inlet one big rubbish dumping ground at holiday times? Does council want to see the slow death of our lovely town?
Council lacks any sensible vision for the future of Sussex Inlet. Recently it gave approval for some housing development in Sussex Inlet (after years and years of the developer jumping through hoops), and now council wants to close the Sussex Inlet waste depot. It begrudgingly approved a much needed residential development, happily accepted the increased rate revenue, but does not want to continue to provide waste services despite the increase in population.
Will council reduce rates when our tip is closed? No it won't, but more likely will continue to increase our rates, for more rangers and clean-up crews and to make their "fit for the future" annual report look better.
