Credit Where It Is Due

By the way, we are not referring to financial credit but to honouring and attributing praise to situations that are deserving of it.

This week I had cause to access the emergency and medical system at Hervey Bay hospital. This hospital has come under considerable criticism from time to time, and I must confess to being biased against the hospital, generally based on what I had heard within the community.

Hervey Bay is a rapidly growing city and probably has grown beyond most people's expectations. Many people have moved to the area for the life style, and over half the population are pensioners, of some form or another. It is an ideal place in most respects for retired people, there being a number of retirement and over 50s residential villages.

This means the medical system is stretched to its limit at times, and the public hospital is almost always full of patients. This last stay in hospital was the first time I had accessed a public hospital, having previously always used the private health system. This time I opted to be a private patient in a public hospital.

My first place I arrived at was the emergency department. I had been taken there in a wheelchair from the chemotherapy department, and the attention and time taken to see a doctor was of a satisfactory level as far as I was concerned.

From the emergency department I was transferred to the short stay unit, where a series of tests were undertaken. It was here that I was taken on as a medical patient by the medical team and eventually late at night I was moved to a single room in the surgical ward as a medical patient.

The specialist in charge of the medical team is my private specialist here in Hervey Bay who has been taking care of my situation over the last four or five years regarding my immune deficiency, and he was able to consider my present condition in the light of my primary immune deficiency condition.

I had become severely dehydrated due to a bowel infection, vomiting and diarrhoea, and was placed on drips for two and a half days. This rehydrated me and I was discharged late morning Thursday.

I give credit to the medical team, to the nurses and all the staff. They were caring, courteous and helpful even when under stress with more patients than they could really handle. Nothing was too much trouble, and they were genuinely concerned with the condition of their patients. The administration was excellent, and the paperwork efficiently followed as you moved from one unit to the next.

The food was fine, but I was mostly nil by mouth so did not eat or drink much while in hospital.

I will now continue with my regular medical plan - monthly visits to the chemotherapy unit for IVIg infusions and IM injections of penicillin; reviews tri-monthly by my private specialist at Hervey Bay hospital clinic, tri-monthly visits to Wesley Hospital private specialist clinic to be reviewed by my clinical immunologist.

So life goes on . . . and I am reminded of the words of the song in "The Life Of Brian" - always look on the bright side of life!!!