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Care Opinion

Poor experience in A&E

Posted By blackbirdjt94

"Poor experience in A&E"

About: Altnagelvin Area Hospital / Emergency department

(as the patient),

I was brought into A&E via ambulance in severe pain. I found the care given by overnight staff was appalling, there was no empathy or desire to give pain relief or increase comfort levels.

I waited 10 hours to be seen by a doctor who was unaware of my previous medical history despite being told on arrival that every effort would be made to make an urgent referral to a specific ward given my previous medical history. My admission/paramedic notes were lost and the staff were unaware that I had already been given morphine and anti sickness medication. The doctor stated I needed to give a urine sample when I eventually saw him, despite the fact that I had given one on arrival which had not been recorded.

I was given another dose of morphine and anti sickness in A&E eventually, after being left with no follow up and having to request pain relief as I was in severe pain. Again, this was not recorded in my notes, which caused problems on the ward when I was eventually admitted. Paramedics stated to the sister on arrival that I needed to be lying down as there was a query of rupture in the abdominal area and pain was significantly increased when sitting or standing due to pressure on the area. It was stated that trolleys we're not available but that I would be given one once one became available.

A trolley was left beside me some time later and when my mother asked if I could use it, the nurses stated that I could not use it as they did not know who it was freed up for and it sat beside me for over two hours before it was then given to a patient who came in after me. Long wait times are to be expected given the current state of the NHS however I found what appeared to be laziness and poor attitude of the staff to be truly shocking.

It was evident that there was very little empathy or willingness to help patients. One nurse in particular who was looking after the area I was in, did not seem to want to be there or to help anyone, even an elderly man on oxygen who needed to go to the toilet.

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Responses

Response from Karima Gray, Band 7 Senior Sister Emergency Department Altnagelvin Hospital, Acute Services Altnagelvin, WHSCT 10 months ago
Karima Gray
Band 7 Senior Sister Emergency Department Altnagelvin Hospital, Acute Services Altnagelvin,
WHSCT

Submitted on 13/07/2023 at 15:35
Published on Care Opinion at 15:44

Hello blackbirdjt94,

Thank you for sharing your story. We value and appreciate all feedback into our service. I am sorry to hear of your recent poor experience within accident and emergency department where your wait was long and you felt the service lacked empathy.

Whilst I do not have access to your specific case, I would like to respond to your feedback as best I can going on the information you have kindly fed back

We have been experiencing many ongoing challenges for some time now within our service and staff do try their best to provide a high quality of care to all patients coming in unfortunately due to the extremely high demand on our service waiting times can be long and we do appreciate patient’s patience on this.

To understand the precise level of care a person needs before admission, staff will ask similar questions that may have already been asked to ensure the professionals responsible for your care in A& E are fully informed on what has been happening including past medical history. I can appreciate repeating information can be frustrating and we do appreciate patient’s repeating this information for us. Plan of care can also change several times according to the patient’s medical condition and therefore treatment regimens will change according to the need. Again without having access to your records I cannot elaborate further on the information passed over by paramedics in relation to the need for a trolley.

I am sorry to hear your notes and a urine sample were misplaced. We thank you for providing us with information and another urine sample. It is also unfortunate you experienced delays in pain relief and anti-sickness, we must take caution when administering any drug to avoid any unnecessary and avoidable complications. In relation to documentation of medicines administered again without having access to your records I can only apologize. Our staff meet regularly and I will share this information and highlight continually the importance of good documentation.

The availability of care from another service may not always be accessible to our department and this requires working with other services. There can be many influencing factors that affect onward admissions to other areas of the hospital to another specialty. Again without knowing your individual case, I cannot provided a more detailed explanation on this.

I am saddened to hear of your experience regarding staff attitude and I will highlight this feedback to all staff in the department.

Stories on care opinion are anonymous and can be difficult to provide a detailed response to feedback. I would appreciate an opportunity to explain further at your request, therefore feel free to contact me on telephone number 02871 345171 extension 214563 and we can discuss.

Kind regards

Karima Gray

Senior Sister

Emergency Department, Altnagelvin

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