Insensitive healthcare official

My wife has been experiencing health problems, which have left her temporarily wheelchair-bound and that entail regular visits to Mater Dei Hospital because of her auto-immune condition. Her wheelchair is 24 inches wide, so slightly larger than the conventional size, and we always warn the transport people concerned about this. Usually, everything goes well and we hardly encounter difficulties.

However, on the afternoon of Friday, January 26, my wife was discharged from MDH after treatment. Transport back to a care home was booked by the ward nurses, who stressed to the people concerned the point about the size of the wheelchair. My wife cannot walk for the time being, so that severely restricts her movements.

Healthcare services should be patient-centred rather than vehicles for incompetents. Photo: Shutterstock.com

On that day, the wheelchair did not fit in the first transport van, although they had been warned beforehand about the dimensions of the wheelchair. So, alternative transport had to be found and, after about a 45 minutes’ wait, an ambulance arrived.

The stretcher in the ambulance was obviously in the way and we asked if it could be removed and stored in a room in outpatients or elsewhere until transport could be affected. The ambulance driver had to call his boss about this and get permission. Being nearby, we could overhear the conversation and we heard the boss, a woman, who very insensitively declared that she did not give a fig about the patient, say that the patient had to either walk into the ambulance or be transferred to the stretcher.

Such a procedure would have caused her undue stress as she would have had to be taken back to the ward as a hoist would have had to be used. Besides, given the dismal states of our roads, the use of a stretcher would have meant that her back would have been adversely affected. She has only recently recovered from an ailment affecting her back.

My wife asked the ambulance driver to talk to his boss and he handed over his mobile phone. The boss very arrogantly dismissed what my wife was saying, not caring in the least that her condition made her immobile and that all it took was the stretcher to be stored for a short while in a safe place.

All this took a toll on my wife who was really in no condition to face such bare-faced incompetence and crass insensitivity by a person who, obviously, does not know a thing about medical conditions.

The stress of it all affected me as well as I’m asthmatic and had, thereafter, to battle a full-blown asthma attack and breathlessness.

This person (we have her name) is not adequately equipped for such a job. These services should be patient-centred rather than be vehicles for incompetents, such as this lady, to act all self-important in her warm office, at the expense of patients’ well-being, and probably being paid a good wage for it. In a normal country worthy of that name, such misbehaviour would not be tolerated.

I hope that the relevant authorities take action and this uncivil person be removed from her position forthwith.

Eventually, after almost three hours, my wife and I were transported to the care home using alternative transport.

Shame on the person and the people who allow her to sustain the illusion of her self-importance. 

Joseph Agius – Mosta