[UPDATED on Tuesday, Sep. 22 at 12:45pm: An updated statement from KKH, which says that they are reviewing ways to enhance the directional signage and acknowledges that communication could have been improved, has been added to this article.]

A woman shared her "horrendous and painful" experience of bringing her 11-year-old son, who later passed away, to KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) on Aug. 24.

She highlighted a number of issues that she and her family faced, such as wasting time because they could not locate the A&E entrance, and said that there was "simply no EMPATHY" in the customer experience.

Couldn't find A&E entrance

In a Facebook post on Sep. 16, Juliana Goh wrote that she brought her son to KKH early in the morning of Aug. 24, after he lost consciousness.

Upon reaching at 4:35am, Goh said that they had trouble locating the A&E entrance.

Instead, they stopped at the more prominently-lit entrance to the Urgent O&G Centre, which is a 24-hour walk-in centre for women with urgent obstetric and gynaecological conditions.

Goh stated that they later found out there was a security barrier placed in front of the driveway leading to the A&E entrance, and that the entrance to the Children's Emergency was blocked by tentage.

Speaking with Mothership, Goh stated that the barrier is directly in front of the driveway towards to the entrance, and that the tentage is after the barrier.

She stated that the tentage is still present at its location, as it is being used for Covid-19 purposes.

1 to 2 minutes lost

At the Urgent O&G centre, a nurse then placed Goh's unconscious son onto a wheelchair and brought him to the A&E, "running as fast as she could".

This took about one or two minutes, according to Goh.

"Visibility of the entrance is critical," Goh wrote, and because they couldn't find the A&E entrance, they "lost [two minutes] of precious time".

When they reached the A&E, Goh's son's pulse could not be located, and he had to be resuscitated.

Both parents couldn't enter ICU

The mother claimed the problems continued even after her son entered the ICU.

The system apparently only allowed one caretaker per patient in the ICU at a time, and if the other parent wanted to enter at the same time, it required a manual override of the system.

However, this process took quite a bit of time, and Goh alleged that there were some times when she waited 10 minutes.

She gave another example, more than one week after her son was warded in the ICU, when the ICU doctor called them back.

However, they found that they were not able to both enter the ICU, and ended up needing to have a security guard use his own access for one of their entries.

Later that evening, their son passed away.

"Every second count[s]," Goh wrote in her Facebook post.

She urged KKH to look into improving the customer experience at KKH:

"I do not wish for other caregivers to encounter similar painful experiences while they are already worried about their loved ones.

The least we as caregivers could ask for is EMPATHY."

Goh's post is available here:

KKH responds

On Sep. 17, Goh commented on her post with an update, to share that KKH had contacted her about her experience.

According to Goh, KKH informed her that they will be bringing up her concerns with the hospital's senior management.

KKH's Facebook page also replied to her comment, thanking her for her feedback.

Responding to Mothership's queries about the situation and the purpose of the white tent located in front of the A&E entrance, KKH said on Sep. 21:

"KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital is aware of the post and has reached out to the family."

On Sep. 22, Alson Goh, the Chief Operating Officer of KK Women's and Children's Hospital gave the following statement to Mothership:

"KKH offers our deepest condolences to Ms Goh’s family. We know it is a difficult time. We had been in touch with her and her family to address their concerns.

On the morning when her family had missed the turn from the main road to the hospital driveway and arrived at our Urgent O&G Centre, our staff was prompt in transferring Ms Goh’s son to the KKH Children’s Emergency (CE) where he was given immediate medical attention, including the subsequent admission to Children’s ICU (CICU).

We deeply appreciate Ms Goh’s feedback. KKH is taking a review to enhance our directional signage leading into the hospital and around the CE to further facilitate way-finding.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore, heightened measures have been in place for the safe management of patients and visitors. All measures, including the visitation policy are in line with existing COVID-19 guidelines. While we had made exceptional provisions to CICU visitation in light of the condition of Ms Goh’s son, we do acknowledge that our communication can be improved.

We would like to thank Ms Goh for taking the time to share her feedback and we continue to remain contactable to render further support to her and her family."

KKH also shared the statement on their Facebook page:

Top photo via Facebook / Juliana Goh.