Busselton Health Campus entertainment systems out for months according to patient’s husband

Yet another family member of patients at the Busselton Health Campus has come forward raising complaints about the lengthy outage of the in-room entertainment system. Raymond Fraser, an 80-year-old retiree from Busselton, said he had seen the issues firsthand after his wife Mary, 75, was admitted to the medical facility. “A few months back (November), my wife had a stroke and she went to Bunbury (Regional Hospital) for a month and then she was transferred to Busselton for a month,” he said. “There was no TV there and there was no TV for the month before she was there. “She was home for a couple of weeks and then she had another stroke and she’s back in hospital. And once again she’s been there a month and still nothing.” Mr Fraser said his wife was receiving great care from the staff, but they were being let down by the situation. The Busselton Health Campus uses a patient entertainment system, which doubles as a clinical computer and enables patients to access television, radio and internet 24-7. When the hospital opened in 2015, the PES was touted as assisting doctors by providing state-of-the-art bedside health information — but it has reportedly not been working for months, although the WA Country Health Service was unable to confirm since when. Mr Fraser said he goes to the hospital everyday and walks to the beach with his wife who is in a wheelchair to give her something to do. “Of course (she’s bored), I mean she’s 75 for Christ’s sake and she has an interest in things that get her brain working like game shows and quizzes and news,” he said. “We’ve got a tablet with movies on it and games and things that she can do. She’s paralysed on one side, but she also reads a lot so she has books to read but that’s the sum total of it. “But the staff are under a lot of pressure there because there’s nothing, people are bored because they’re just looking at four walls.” A WACHS spokesperson said the systems were still functioning in December, but there had been “intermittent outages” for several weeks and then the system failed”. “We now have a suitable solution to resolve the issue and the work is currently being scheduled as a priority,” they said. “In the meantime, our staff have been working to provide alternative entertainment which includes the televisions in common areas as well as books, puzzles and newspapers. “We know that access to entertainment is an important part of comfort and recovery, particularly for long-stay patients, and apologise to those affected by this outage.”