Accident & Emergency at KKH

[red_tulip]

Just like to share my experience at the A&E department at KKH on 12 April 2009. We went there because my son was limping, can't walk and the GP that we seen the day before advise us to go KKH if the situation did not improved.

The waiting time was very long and it was 4 hours before we got to see the doctor. I believed my son’s case was considered not critical so the long wait. It was another 1 1/2 hour before the blood test and X-ray results were out and the shift doctor-in charge decided that my son should be admitted for observation. Anyway he was discharged after a day and is almost well now.

All the time while waiting, we saw many kids with high fever and various kinds of injuries. It was very crowded as it was a Sunday and many parents had to bring their other kids along too. It pained me to see so many of them trying to make their kids comfortable on the hard chairs, especially the newborns when their parents tried feeding them water or milk and the babies can’t stop crying.

I thought KKH being a Women’s and Child hospital should be better designed to cater to the needs of sick children in the children emergency department. I went there once in 2007 at around 10pm cos my girl’s gum was bleeding and it was also a long wait. Things like cushions seats for the child to lie down, a small play area, and a nurse to go around checking or answering parents’ questions or even set up a private 24 hr clinic next door for non-emergency cases will help in some small ways to make the waiting time more bearable.

In the long run, maybe polyclinic should considered opening on Sunday and public holidays. People and kids get sick even on Sunday and public holidays and for babies, they can’t wait until the next working day.

 

[mrsngpk]

I went to KKH on 11th April in the afternnoon as my son had a fever and diahorrea for days. Hmmm.. i was surprise that i only have to spend 1 hr 10 mins there though. All through the registration, payment, see dr, collect medicine. I tot i was wrong about KKH though. i tot the waiting hours was very short already. SO soory to hear about urs.

 

[twinsmummy]

hi mummies
I went to KKH in feb at 1am in an ambulance cos my boy has fits and bcos its emergency i din hv to wait ,but i saw many bbs , there and so were screaming and i heard pple comnplaining that they waited very long for their turn .i was later transfered to MA at 4 am cos KKH wanted to admit my boy so i rather go to MA where my pd is there and to my surprise there were no cases there !!! i would advise parents to send their kids to MA if u really dun wish to wait cos its not very ex , abt the same as KKH , and the important thing is u dun hv to wait too long

 

[red_tulip]

Hi Mrs Ng,

I think the first station nurse maybe classified your kid as emergency as he already had fever for days hence you get to jump the queue.

My son was only experiencing pain in the knee and refused to walk but everything else was fine hence the long wait.

Maybe next time I will go thomson or MA since both hospitals handle a lot of births, their care for kids maybe not too bad.

Any mummies can share your experience with other hospital A&E or when your kids are admitted?

 

[mrsngpk]

hi red, i dun think so leh, i also went through the normal procedure.. payment and stuff, coz the lady with her baby in front of my quene number, also gets to see the doc 1 quene before me.. hmm

 

[grace3005]

i went to visit the MA website. oh the consulation fees of A&E is very lower than KKH. but for those people went to MA, wat is the overall charges if include medication and x-ray for example.

i have been paying $80 to KKh A&E. since my son medication is not in the "list" for included medication, my bills in kkh always end up to $150++.

 

[feliciarosey]

<font color="aa00aa">Hi mummies,
Just to share my experiences in KKH. As a mother of 2kids , i have frequent KKH many times. Got emergency and non emergency case.
The station nurse will classified your kid's as emergency or non emergency based on the condition.

If fever, does not mean your kid whom is at 40degree and above will treat as emergency, coz the nurse will evaluate your child condition like if she is vomitting, heart rate, active, etc.

My #1 was treated as emergency twice as she vomit at the registration site even her fever is not above 40degree. But due to vomit, the doc will only allow me to discharge after my ger totally stop vomitting after she was given the glucose water every 15 or 20mins.

The longest time i stay in KKH was from 1am till the next day 10am and my girl was classified as emergency case.
The shortest time is about 1.5hr, tat was when the patients is not many.

But from all this experiences, i think next round i'll either go to Mt A or TMC, caused i hear the waiting time is much much shorter.</font>

 

[moonylove]

hi all, mi too.. had brought my son to A&amp;E alot of times due to his high fever and thhere wasn't any PDs clinics open at wee hours.. we always had to wait for almost more than 2 hrs.. and i was tinking since its A&amp;E shouldnt it be having alot of docs on duty instead of wat i saw only a few docs.. i saw the others kids who r so sick but have to wait and wait and the parents were all so worried.. and there's nth they can do other den wait..
i nv tried goin to Mt A or TMC b4 cos my parents said kkh is more specialist on babies so incase (touch wood la) of anything, kkh have every equipment.. but at times i really hope i can go to MT A or TMC..

 

[blueblue]

Same here. I bought my son to A&amp;E a lot of times. Like feliciarosey, I got emergency and non emergency cases.

I think it is quite fair to classify the emergency and non emergency cases. Young infants do hv priority too.

For emergency cases, I don't even hv to wait. My son has croup at that time. (got breathing difficulites) The longest wait is the observation time I need to spend there. However I don't mind as it is the good for my child.

I won't consider going to Mt A or TMC though. If really anything serious happen, not sure they are well-equipped enough. Plus if there is something serious, the bill will be a bomb. Eventually parents hv to trf them back to KKH.

 

[red_tulip]

Hi,

I do agreed it is fair to classify emergency and non emergency cases. Just hope that the hosiptal can make the wait more comfortable for the kids.

Change the hard seats to cushion ones will be especially helpful.

 

[blueblue]

Do you provide feedback to them? The only cushion seats I hv ever sat in KKH are the ones at The Private Suite. But then, the charges are at private rates too.

I also hope that they do provide cushion seats not only for the kids but also for the tired parents.

 

[kampong]

Sometimes they are just too busy. U see the crowd u also sianz

 

[chelsa1980]

I will still go to KKH despite the long waiting time.

I went to the A&amp;E at a private hospital once. My 9 month old baby was given cough medicine in the wrong dosage. He was prescribed twice the amount that was stated on the bottle. When I read the instructions from the bottle, I called up the hospital immediately and was told it was ok. I didnt think much about it as I trusted the doctors.

The doctor also gave him antibiotics and my poor boy had diarrhoea 21 times in a day. Yes. I kid you not. 21 TIMES WITHIN 12 HOURS! Initially, I thought my maid did not wash the bottles properly. However, I realised that my son will poo a few times after he was given the antibiotics. I stopped feeding him the antibiotics and brought him to KKH immediately. I was told that for giving antibiotics to babies below 1 may result in diarrhoea as their bodies are unable to digest the medication. As such, KKH do not prescribe antibiotics to babies below 1.

I called up the private hospital the next day and made a complaint. I told the manager about the cough medication and antibiotics. I told the manager the doc should have told me that there are side effects to the antibiotics. When replying my query about the cough medication, the manager told me that though the dosage is higher than stated in the bottle, the overall dosage in a day is still acceptable. I told him that that does not mean that a baby can take such a high dosage in one short.

In fact, silly me. I went back to the same hospital again when my boy had a fever. Spent $200 in the children's clinic to be seen by a pd in the same hospital. My child was not diagnosed properly. 6 hours later, he had fits with fever of 40 deg and ended up in KKH again. That day, I ran into KK A&amp;E like a hysterical woman, asking them to save my child. I thought I would have lost my son.

From then on, I brought my two boys to KKH and not any other hospitals despite the long waiting time.

 

[xuechi]

kkh that bad? I always head to mount alvernia

 

[musicbox]

i'm a frequent goer to KKH since the birth of my girl and son. The waiting time is depending on the urgency and the peak or non peak hours.
I've also complaint about their service before by sending in my feedback when my son was admitted there, they called me the next day and verified with me.
Despite the long waiting time, the reasons I still prefer KKH than other clinics or private hospitals are:
1) KKH doctors are seeing hundreds of sick children everyday, many diagnosis the PD don't get it but they can straight away tell you.
2) The $90 charge is inclusive of most services and medicines, e.g. urine test, x-ray, fever medicine are free of charge
3) If your child is serious cases, the private hospital will still send your child back to KKH, coz KKH is a full facilities hospital.

 

[frog]

I once had the honour of going to KK A&amp;E 3 times over the span of 5 days. This was in 2011. Overall, I am very satisfied with their responsiveness. Each patient is checked and seen by the senior nurse within 10 minutes.

Then there is the waiting time. It depends on how crowded the situation, and how urgent the condition. Unfortunately, plain old fever is not very high on the list - because above that there are things like injuries, pain, chest infection, etc.

The crowd starts to build up after 7pm (when parents finally get off work); and peaks around midnight to 2pm. There's barely anyone around 6am to 9am - then the day crowd... Basically the crowd forms when outside normal clinic hours, I think. But for children's emergencies, KKH is the best.

 

[googlez82]

I'm also for KKH.

Took my DD to private clinic PD due to high fever, suspected urinary tract infection so he did an urine stick test. But my DD peed too little in the clinic so an urine bag was stuck to her V area and we were told to collect then go polyclinic for the test. Results will be out later in the evening and then PD will give us a call.

My HB dashed to polyclinic once it opened in the PM and results were out within half hour. Suspected UTI. Then we stupidly waited till evening when PD opened for evening session to tell us, "send your baby to KKH for admission. It's not advisable for oral antibiotics cos she's still very young. 7mo at that time."

I waited whole afternoon just for PD to tell me that? I thot he could have prescribed medication and that will be it. Instead, I had to prep baby, get ready diaper bag and all and rushed to KKH. Fortunately it was a 'good' day, there was not much crowd and we eventually saw the A&amp;E doc at 10++pm, about 2h from arrival. The outcome was, no need for admission as babies above 6mo can be given oral antibiotics. Monitor temperature.

Moral of the story, for "big" cases, just go KKH. Since the PD may direct us there anyway. It was an excruciating afternoon when we knew the diagnosis but was just waiting for the clinic to open. In the end, it was a long night for my baby and us. Just cos we waited for the PD to tell us to send to KKH A&amp;E..

 

[musicbox]

Yes, that's right, for serious or medium cases, better go to KKH directly.
Even for small fever cases, normally second visit to the clinic doctor is the max, the 3rd visit if no improvement, the doctor will also tell u to bring your kid to KKH, so don't waste the time. For me, any 3rd visit for same sickness straight to KKh.

 

[maichiang]

i love KKH hospital too...minus the long wait bt since i onli take when mi boi is quite serious..he's prone to bronchitis/wheezing n etx..we hardly haf to wait..bt what i like abt dem is the doctors are very very reassuring..esp to our mummies since we are the kanchong ones..the aftermaths feeling is very comforting which i dun get frm normal clinic..n usually afta like 2nd visit tor so they will tell us go kkh hospital also..so in the end, thats where we haf to go.

i guess we haf to understand tt they are doing their best as well. since they check the seriousness in the triage..its onli fair tt we wait cz there are more serious cases..so if its mild cuts n etc..we too shld play a part n go to normal clinic or hospital..

cz i remembered once mi boi was wheezing once again n we went kkh at night..we didnt haf to wait and doc told us tt mi boi had to take the neb twice..we did once n were told to wait outside..bt during tt tym, there were abt 2 code blue cases in children department n a few emergency cases whereby they had to use the emergency trollery n etc..so i guess we shld be thinking abt others as well. doctors n nurses arent god. they are doing the best they can. cheers!

 

[rykgirl]

I also opt for KKH any day.. The best part of KKH is that ALL their specialists (should u need one) are for children..

Both my kids had very bad eye infection and so they got transferred to the Eye Specialist Dept.. The PDs there are SO good! So patient and willing to explain everything.. They have all the gadgets to entertain and trick the kids too.. Too bad they don't see adults (hb and I got it from the kids too).. They do have a small table and some chairs plus some books inside, at the corner..

Whenever we go, we will check with the nurses inside about how long our wait will be (even for normal cases).. Then we will head to the playground on level 1 where my girl would play there and hb &amp; I will sit and rest on the benches.. My son would be in his stroller watching his sister..

Of course, if it's not serious enough to go KKH, we would go gp first..

 

[pony]

hi,
As a mummy of 3 kiddos, I frequent Kkh a&amp;e too. In general the waiting time is reasonable abt 2-3 hrs from the time of entrance till exit. The best part of Kkh is they can do all the checks at one go.

I suppose waiting time is subjective. I can spent 2 hrs waiting at my gp.
Anyway, remember that my 2yr old daughter was running a high fever for severals days hit 40 degree sort, visited the gp at least 3 times, the gp said sent her to Kkh. Cos' I was afraid that there could be other things apart from a normal fever. They put her thru all the tests - uirne test, blood test, x-ray to cofirm there is nothing nasty, without me asking them to perform the test.

The day surgery in Kkh is also commendable. The waiting waiting area prior to the surgery had plenty of toys for the kids b4 the surgery. I was allowed to carry my son to the surgery bed and ensure that he 'sleep' b4 I leave. it was assuring for the kid, I thot. After the surgery, the nurses have plenty of stuff to offer to the kids- biscuits, drinks, lolly pop. They even have certificate for passing the surgery. The small touches certainly makes the entire surgery a more pleasant experience.

The nurses and dr generally r able to handle the kids well.