What to Do When You Just Can’t Get Through

06 May What to Do When You Just Can’t Get Through

Dear Here to Help,

I’m at my wit’s end. My dad has been in hospital for 6 weeks and nobody seems to have any idea what is happening! We feel like we have been living in a Fawlty Towers episode.

Here are just some of the things that have (or have not) happened. The operation was delayed as they couldn’t do it without his full records. They couldn’t locate Dad’s medical records from other NSW hospitals and told us to do it. The other hospitals told us that they needed the hospital to contact them directly to obtain the records. Then, they told us Dad had been discharged and sent home. We frantically were trying to ring him and going to his house to see what happened to him. It turned out that he had never been discharged and was still in hospital. Then, when we asked – yet again – what was happening and why he was still in hospital so long post-operation, they told us he needed another assessment (which should have happened when he was first admitted) before they could allow him to go home. But when we rang the assessment service to ask the assessment date, they said they had no record of him being scheduled for assessment with them.

To make things harder, we all live several hours drive from Dad, which makes good communication even more important!

We are all very stressed, not the least Dad, who feels like he is being held prisoner, when he came in for what he thought was a simple operation. Please help!

Oh boy! You really are being given the runaround. It’s tough when you can’t get a sensible answer about something so important.

This may sound trite, but bureaucracies – like hospitals – respond best when you put your concerns in writing. Start with the hospital’s complaints department.

As you have noticed, things are missed when staff change frequently. Hospital staff work on shifts, so I’m sure you have dealt with many different staff. Unless you put your concerns in writing, they risk being missed as staff handover patients between shifts.

How best to write your letter to them? Here are a few tips:

• state clearly what outcome you are looking for (including a timeframe is even better)
• explain – politely – how frustrated you and your Dad are
• demonstrate what you have been putting up with
• restate the outcome you want

And, if that doesn’t work, where do I turn, you ask? There are numerous organisations you can talk to, including the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission, your local MP, Health Consumers NSW, NSW Health and the Minister. The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care has a page “your healthcare rights – key contacts”.

This article comes from my column entitled “Here to Help” in Hunter Local, May 2025. If you have an everyday problem just begging for a simple, real world solution, send it to “Here to Help” and let’s see what we can achieve.

Elaine Abery has a closet full of great ideas and empowering solutions. She’s also the Director of Unravelling Red Tape, a company dedicated to helping everyday people, not-for-profits and companies change the world through improved decision-making and legislation.