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Cannot get through to ward

Posted By Proxewa

"Cannot get through to ward"

About: Aberdeen Royal Infirmary / General Internal Medicine

(as a relative),

I've called my father's ward 105 over 90 times.  No answer, it just cuts off. I live 500 miles away and need to know how he is and when he'll be discharged so I can inform the relevant care agencies 

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Responses

Response from Lisa Forbes, Service Manager, Surgery 3, NHS Grampian 16 months ago
Lisa Forbes
Service Manager, Surgery 3,
NHS Grampian

Submitted on 05/01/2023 at 15:46
Published on Care Opinion at 15:56

Dear Proxewa,

Thank you for contacting Care Opinion. I am sorry to hear that you have had trouble contacting Ward 105 and for the understandable distress this will have caused.

The phones are carried by nursing staff and we can sometimes experience delays in answering the calls if the nursing team are in working with patients especially during this heightened period of activity. We also have telephones that are not routinely manned. Whilst we try to ensure these numbers are not given out to relatives, this may have inadvertently happened and will be a cause of the delay.

We'd like to be able to assure you as soon as possible. Can I ask you to contact the reception (01224 555105) before 1600hrs or the Nurse in Charge is on 01224 552096/559074 (24hrs) and we will be able to update you.

Alternatively, if you wish to contact me by email (lisa.forbes2@nhs.scot) with the name of your father, and I can ask the ward team to call you. Can you please include the best number for the team to contact you.

I do hope that this will resolve the situation for you and extend my apologies to you.

Kind Regards

Lisa

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by Proxewa (a relative)

Thanks for your response - I will note those numbers. I did contact them in the end, by some miracle, and basically your colleague told me they are very busy and have a lot of temporary staff at the moment who don't tend to carry the phones on them. They are going to encourage this to be done in future. They are understandably focusing on patient care, but the situation of next of kin who don't live locally needs to be addressed too. Thanks again and I can't fault the care given.

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