WAM

Disgusting Doctor care. I went to whanganui WAM as I had been experiencing a lot of pain in my side for days. They confirmed that I had a kidney infection and sent me home with no antibiotics or treatment. I came back a few days later as the pain had gotten worse and I was struggling to breathe, a new doctor told me I’d developed pneumonia since my kidney infection had spread due to being untreated. I ended up on antibiotics for 3 weeks.

Pleasant, professional staff and fairly reasonable wait times. A good option on a weekend or holiday weekend when your regular physician, if you have one, isn't available.

The triage nurse was very friendly and efficient.But the treatment I received from the doctor was definitely not service with a smile.Felt like a burden to the doctor.Super expensive too.

Lovely triage nurse and administration staff who looked after me quickly however Dr. should learn a thing or two about PCC (patient centrered care), found to be rude, quite brash and did not listen to anything I had to say. Ended up giving prescription medicine which pharmacist said does not exist anymore, turns out could have brought from Countdown shelf for $7.99. Will not return unless absolute necessarily

One of my parents recently injured themselves in an accident and went to WAM in Wanganui, when I asked them why they did not go to the emergency department, they told me everyone must attend WAM, who then triage the patients. This accident was an obvious medical accident that required a specialist doctor.What Law or Legislative Instrument covers WAM in Wanganui to stop people from directly accessing the WDHB emergency department?The WDHB website says; on arrival at the hospital, patients are assessed by a triage nurse before being directed to the appropriate service. If you have a minor injury or illness, you will be seen by a primary care doctor in the Whanganui Accident and Medical Clinic (WAM). Not the other way around.After my parent was treated at WAM their injury deteriorated and now will require invasive treatment to fix a simple injury costing ACC more money.How does a private, not-for-profit business, which is located on the hospital ground who is not part of the Whanganui Hospital services (as the WAM website states) triage patient for entry to the WDHB emergency department?The kiwi saying “she’ll be right” does not apply to health care, if you can drive, go to Palmerston North, go to a proper ED.The Government has directed the Ministry of Health to develop a new set of performance measures to improve health outcomes for New Zealanders. An ED length of stay is an important measure of the quality of acute (emergency and urgent) care in our public hospitals, 95% is the target of patients who will be admitted, discharged, or transferred from an emergency department (ED) within six hours.The 2018/19 data for the WDHB emergency department shows it is in the bottom half of the DHB's in NZ ranking with a score of 89.5% with the government goal at 95%. Even with WDHB stopping access to the emergency department by placing WAM as the gatekeeper it is still unable to provide a service the people deserve.

Absolutely appalling phone manor! Called this morning to see what the wait times were like for my 4 year old son .. as was weighing up where to go to be seen asap and the woman on the phone not only grunted at me, laughed at me when I asked approx time or people that were there.. I totally understand you can never tell how long every patient would need but was asking for an absolute guess based on how many people were there- as he’s 4, was bleeding … she was incredibly rude, talking under her breath and behaved like I ruined her day at 8am. Needless to say, I went elsewhere. This woman should not be dealing with the public let alone patients or someone stressed or in bad health.

I'd rate it a zero if possible.Absolutely shocking set up and should not be located on the grounds of a public hospital where they gate keep who is seen in A&E. It smells of a revenue gathering set up to me and locals should not have to pay to see a non specialist practitioner.My elderly mother broke her shoulder and they mistreated her and made her come back for a fracture clinic appointment. After waiting 45 minutes for her scheduled appointment I was appalled at the recommendation which contraindicated an orthopaedic specialist.You should not call the clinic a fracture clinic when it is GP led and not a specialist and if it's a scheduled appointment, don't see non urgent cases dropping in before an appointment.My recommendation is jump in your car and drive to Palmerston North A&E!!!

Triage nurse rude and condescending. I expected professional treatment from mature woman - not so. I wouldn’t recommend this place at all. Wait if you can and see your GP or make the trip to Palmerston North and go to hospital there. I will never bring a family member here again and I sure won’t be back.Poorest run private clinic - EVER!

I'm appalled at the mistreatment of my elderly mother. The lack of care and attention shown in her initial visit compounded the injury causing the fracture not only, to not heal, but worsened the injury so she may now require surgery!Please explain to me also why this appears to be one of the only places in NZ where a patient is unable to walk into the A&E department with an obvious fracture? It would be free if she had lived anywhere else.... $18 to get triaged" in WAM. Explain to me also why there is no one with orthopaedic background running the "fracture clinic". The GP running the "fracture clinic" tried to contradict the information we were given at Palmerston North hospital by an orthopaedic surgeon who consulted on Mums injury after I took her to A&E there (for free I might add).If it wasn't serious this place would be a joke. It's not a joke though when an elderly woman is looking at a surgery that was completely avoidable."

When it mattered we found this clinic first rate. My wife has had a long battle with cancer, they took us quickly and after triage arranged a quiet place to lie down, Dr was great and the triage nurse very helpful when I had to go back later for lab results. Very professional and compassionate