Nobody really wants to go to the Fracture Clinic at the Women's and Children's Hospital. However if you do, you might appreciate a heads up on what to expect.
My six-year-old fell off the monkey bars (as you do) on the last week of school before the summer holidays. Giving it was after hours, the Women's and Children's Hospital was our only option. At 5.30pm on a Tuesday afternoon, emergency was easy to negotiate - we were promptly sent to x-ray then back to emergency where we saw a paediatrician and nurse to talk it through the injury (a common buckle fracture) and he was given a half cast and sling.
The following week when the swelling has gone down, we attended the Fracture Clinic on the ground floor of the Women's and Children's to have a full cast put on. I was made aware earlier that this place was quite busy and there could be a few hours wait - something every parent with a sick child looks forward to. The Paed also warned us that they may slap a plaster cast on for a conservative six weeks, even though it could possible have a lighter cast for a shorter time.
Our appointment was for 2:10 shortly after the clinic open at 1:50 however the place was already packed and we had a 30 minute wait before being seen. Once we were taken through to the examining room everything moved fairly quickly. We saw the doctor for a quick five minute consult who advised we would only need a cast for a further three weeks and that a fibreglass waterproof cast was an option for this type of break. I can't express how happy I was given it was the school holidays and we had a beach holiday booked in January. The cast was put on quickly with no fuss and less than an hour after we had originally walked in, we were back out on the street heading home with no further costs thanks to our public health system.
Given the inevitable chaos of the public hospital, the fracture clinic staff were all professional courteous and while it seemed disorganised and unstructured to start it was a relatively painless experience despite my anxiety. read more