"Let down by lack of support"

About: Lagan Valley Hospital / Heart Failure Nurse-Led Service Lagan Valley Hospital Heart Failure Nurse-Led Service BT28 1JP

Posted by Ferndell653 (as the patient), nearly 2 years ago

I had heart failure in April 2023 and had a pacemaker fitted. I subsequently spent 21 days in the Royal Victoria Hospital undergoing tests for a suspected infection. During this period it was discovered that I had an aneurysm on my aorta (about 6.2 cm). On my release I was assigned a support nurse who made me very aware that I could call them at any time during the working week and they would respond within 5 minutes. I had occasion to use this service on a number of occasions and was delighted at the response and treatment received.
After about 8 weeks I was transferred to Lagan Valley Heart Failure Support team. At my initial meeting it seemed that this was similar to the Belfast system and I was given a telephone number to call if I needed support. When I called this number a week later with a problem described in my support book a receptionist suggested I should phone my GP. This was about 2.30 pm and I pointed out that no one can get a GP these days. I then discovered that the receptionist cannot contact the support team other than by email. The support team will then try to phone you back that day. If you miss that call you must go through the whole process again.
My consultant in the Royal sent a request to my consultant in Lagan Valley requesting them to see me. When I chased up with their secretary, the consultant rang me to inform that they could see me on the NHS but it would probably be a year away. I contacted the Hillsborough Clinic and discovered I could see them privately within two weeks! I have subsequently been booked in for a consultation in late August but this consultation is by telephone. There I was thinking that how a patient looked was important.
So far my experience is that there is no support available in the Heart Failure department, which simply increases the pressure on Urgent Care and Out of Hours.
Why can we people with Heart Failure not get some proper care, at the very least the ability to talk to someone at the end of a phone?

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Responses

Conor Campbell

Senior Manager, Assurance and Improvement,

South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust

Assurance and improvement

Submitted on 22/08/2023 at 09:47

Published on Care Opinion at 09:47

Dear Ferndell653
Thank you for sharing the story of your experience.
I am sorry to learn of the difficulties you describe when attempting to access support from Lagan Valley Hospital Heart Failure Nurse Led Service.
I have shared your story to the Heart Failure Specialist Nurse for review and response to you.
If you wish to have a personal level response made to you, please contact me by email at conor.campbell@setrust.hscni.net or by telephone at 07485593364 to provide your name / date of birth / address and contact information.
I apologise to you for the difficulties encountered.
Best wishes
Conor

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Conor Campbell

Senior Manager, Assurance and Improvement,

South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust

Assurance and improvement

Submitted on 22/08/2023 at 15:39

Published on Care Opinion at 15:39

Dear Ferndell 653
Grainne Toal is our Heart Failure Specialist Nurse and she has reviewed your story.
Grainne responds to you:
"Thank you for your feedback regarding the heart failure service.
We apologise that your experience was negative.
Due to Trust resources available for this service and service demand levels, the Trust operates by a standard of response to patient queries within 24 hours. This service strives to contact patients before the end of the working day in which the patient made contact. Given the resource available and accompanying response standard, this service is for non-urgent queries.
For any patient need that is deemed an emergency or urgent, the Trust advises patients to contact GP Out Of Hours Service (Lisburn 02892 602204 From 6PM and Belfast 02890 744447 From 6PM) or NI Ambulance Service (Call 999 24-hour)."
We will review Trust position in terms of (a) provision for this service and (b) public information regarding this service. I will connect with you again once this has been done.
Again, I apologise for your difficulty in accessing support and for the level of response that this service is currently established to provide.
Best wishes
Conor

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Update posted by Ferndell653 (the patient) nearly 2 years ago

I was very disappointed to note that you had passed my feedback to the Lead nurse, who I think does an excellent job. Staff at the coalface do not make budget, staffing or operational decisions. This information and my complaints need to go to someone who can hopefully make decisions about reallocating resources etc.
I will reply separately to Grainne's response.
The NHS cannot be fixed by identifying it as a whole and trying to fix the whole thing. The solution lies with each manager at the front line who should be working to make their little department a centre of excellence. If sufficient managers addressed the problem in this way I think it would be amazing how quickly improvements would be evident.

Conor Campbell

Senior Manager, Assurance and Improvement,

South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust

Assurance and improvement

Submitted on 23/08/2023 at 10:23

Published on Care Opinion at 10:23

Dear Ferndell653
I appreciate that whilst the response sent to you has provided information, I apologise that does not necessarily mean that it was helpful to you.
At this point, I invite you to make contact with me directly in order to ensure best response possible to your experience.
Please call me on 07485593364 to discuss how we may best move forward.
Thank you very much
Conor

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Conor Campbell

Senior Manager, Assurance and Improvement,

South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust

Assurance and improvement

Submitted on 23/08/2023 at 15:52

Published on Care Opinion at 15:52

Dear Ferndell653
Thank you for your comments.
I wish to assure you that sharing your feedback to those closest to providing service is the norm first step for alerting to patient feedback and consideration of response to same and is no way seeking to place any kind of negativity / burden with Grainne.
The point that I have referred to re: raising provision of this service for Trust review is for myself to raise to relevant leadership - this leadership group sits tomorrow 24.08.2023 and I plan to raise for consideration and response.
I agree totally and wholeheartedly with your comments regarding achievement of improvement and excellence.
Best wishes
Conor

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Update posted by Ferndell653 (the patient) nearly 2 years ago

I will be in touch shortly.

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