Patient care, complaints and compliments

Your feedback will help us improve the way we deliver health care services.

Anything you say will be treated confidentially and will not appear in your medical record.

Talk to a member of staff to get assistance, they will be able to organise an interpreter for you.

If you are helping someone who needs an interpreter, find out about interpreter services in the Northern Territory.

If you're unhappy with how we handled your complaint, you can contact an external organisation.

For health complaints, you can reach out to the:

• Community Visitor Program for mental health services
• Health and Community Services Complaints Commission for all services.

Other independent bodies who may be able to assist:

• The Children’s Commissioner of the Northern Territory
• The NT Ombudsman
• The Anti-Discrimination Commission

Hospital emergency departments (EDs) are for emergencies.

If you need emergency or urgent medical attention you should call 000.

If you don’t require urgent care you can:

• visit a general practitioner (GP)
• phone Healthdirect on 1800 022 222
• use the online symptom checker on the Health Direct website.
• visit an urgent care clinic.

Waiting to be seen in the ED

Waiting in the ED can be hard, especially if you feel sick, worried or in pain.

When you come to ED, a nurse will assess how urgent your care is. This is called the triage process. People with more serious problems get seen first.

NT Health uses the Australian Triage Scale. This is a national system used throughout Australia and New Zealand.

If you feel you are getting sicker or if your pain is getting worse while waiting, let the staff know. You may need to be re-assessed.

Why some people get seen before you in ED

The order people are seen in can change for a few reasons:

• Triage category, when you come to ED a nurse will assess how urgent your care is.
• Number of patients, sometimes, there are a lot of people needing help. This can lead to longer wait times as staff work to care for everyone safely.
• Emergencies, it’s hard to know when there will be lots of sick people needing urgent care. Staff may not know how long you will have to wait.
• Different waiting areas, there are other waiting rooms inside some of the NT Health hospital EDs, so you may not see all people waiting for treatment. Some people who are very sick and need immediate care can arrive through a different door.
• Resources, sometimes, the right equipment or doctors are not available right away so others may be seen while waiting.

Find out where to go for healthcare - GP, Urgent Care Clinic, or ED

If you have a medical emergency, get help right away by calling 000.

If you require urgent care you should visit your GP or phone Healthdirect Australia on 1800 022 222 for assistance.

You can also use the use the online symptom checker on the Healthdirect Australia website.

If you have a complaint or question about your specialist appointment read the following information.

Urgent specialist referral - appointments

There could be a few reasons why you have not yet received an appointment for your urgent specialist referral.

Medical triage

Specialist doctors assess all referrals when they are received. They are categorised based on how urgent they are. This may result in an urgent GP request being changed to non-urgent.

New referrals

The outpatient clinics can receive a large amount of new referrals each day, so there can be delays in registering and assessing these.

There are times where there are extended waiting times for specialist outpatient appointments. If your condition changes whilst waiting to see a specialist, you should see your GP for a review and an updated referral can be made.

If you get an appointment somewhere else and don’t need your outpatient appointment anymore let us know so we can withdraw your referral.

Delay in receiving a surgery date

After seeing a specialist, waiting for surgery can be stressful. There are many reasons why the waiting list might take time, these include;

• Priority - cases which are most urgent are done first. Patients can also come through the ED at any time that may require emergency surgery.
• Resources - there might not be enough operating rooms or staff, which unfortunately causes theatre waiting list delays.
• Your health - changes in you condition before surgery might mean more tests or consultations are needed.

If your condition changes and/or gets worse, see your GP for an updated referral. This may mean that your need for surgery may be more urgent and you may be treated earlier.

If you have your surgery somewhere else let us know so we can cancel your appointment.