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Poor care and compassion

Posted By runningdr45

"Poor care and compassion"

About: General practices in Tayside NHS 24 / NHS 24 (111 service) Ninewells Hospital / Accident & Emergency Whitehills Health & Community Care Centre / Minor Injuries

(as a parent/guardian),

My daughter suffers badly from Nose bleeds, these have been managed at home for a few years but recently they have been happening more often and lasting longer each time.

This particular bleed started in the morning and had still not stopped half an hour later (both nostrils bleeding). I took her to our GP surgery as this is an ongoing issue, but was told that they did not have anyone there or the equipment to deal with this. I was advised to take her home and await a phone call from my local MIU unit that morning. The receptionist was brilliant and phoned me just after the agreed time, but advised me the unit also did not have the correct tools to deal with this and I would need to phone 111.

So I phoned 111 (daughter nose actively bleeding for over an hour). After consultation, I was advised I would have to take her to A&E at Ninewells in Dundee. I was then advised that they had spoken with the consultant at A&E and that I was to hold off until they phone to let me know when to bring my daughter.

Luckily the bleeding stopped shortly after this, after asking 3 different places for assistance and each service passing us to someone else.

I was eventually phoned again just over 1.5 hours later,  by my local MIU. Ninewells had passed it back to them without speaking to myself, even though hours before this, the unit had said they couldn't help. The staff member from MIU couldn't have been more apologetic and understanding.

However it was almost 4 hours from seeking help,  almost 2 from when I was told she would need to be seen at A&E. For all anyone knew, my daughter had been bleeding for almost 4 hours and she was passed from pillar to post.  

I felt I did everything I was asked and waited to be triaged, but instead we were made to feel forgotten about and totally unimportant.  No care or compassion was given from said consultant, who promised to phone but never did.  I appreciate that this was not critical but no medical professional was willing to help, but instead passed it onto the next person.  In future, I would take her straight to A&E where my child would not and could not be ignored. Very little care and compassion.

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Responses

Response from Shona Lawrence, Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care, NHS 24 nearly 2 years ago
Shona Lawrence
Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care,
NHS 24

Submitted on 29/08/2023 at 12:42
Published on Care Opinion at 12:42

picture of Shona Lawrence

Dear runningdr45

Thanks for making contact via Care Opinion and for sharing your experience. I'm sorry to learn of your daughter's nose bleeds. I know that nose bleeds, when prolonged and heavy, can be concerning. I can clearly understand your disappointment and frustration in feeling you were passed from pillar to post. I'm sorry to learn of this.

I reply to you specifically in relation to your call to 111. I note we made contact with NHS Tayside and, following discussion with a Consultant, you were advised to await a return call from them. It may be helpful to explain, our process directs, in instances like this, that NHS 24 make contact with NHS Tayside to discuss patient care and NHS Tayside determine the next steps. Therefore, it appears our process was followed. I do hear your frustration however, at your daughter's whole journey of care.

Should you care to share any more detail about your call to 111,, then I would be pleased to hear from you. I can be contacted on 07814 299944 or at Patient.Experience@nhs24.scot.nhs.uk

Best wishes to you both meantime.

Shona

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Response from Victoria Sullivan, Project Manager, Elective Medicine, NHS Tayside nearly 2 years ago
Victoria Sullivan
Project Manager, Elective Medicine,
NHS Tayside

Project manage and facilitate change programmes, transformation and service redesign across Elective Medicine services within NHS Tayside

Submitted on 29/08/2023 at 14:43
Published on Care Opinion at 14:43

picture of Victoria Sullivan

Dear runningdr45

Thank you for sharing what happened with your daughter's nose bleed and the steps you had to take for her to be seen. Feedback enables organisations to reflect, identify areas for improvement and revise any processes as required. With regard to your GP being unable to help, as each practice is an independent business, we would recommend that you feedback your experience direct to the practice to enable them to do this.

With best wishes

Victoria

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Response from Shona Burge, Project Manager, Improvement & Development Service, Angus Health & Social Care Partnership nearly 2 years ago
Shona Burge
Project Manager, Improvement & Development Service,
Angus Health & Social Care Partnership

Support service improvements across the partnership

Submitted on 20/09/2023 at 14:59
Published on Care Opinion at 16:28

picture of Shona Burge

I see you mention MIU in your story and I wanted to apologise for no-one having got back to you yet from this service. I am pleased to hear your first contact with the unit was a quick response, however it seems as if you then had a bit of a roundabout journey ending up back at the unit after considerable time had passed. Although you say again, you had a good response from MIU, it must have been frustrating to experience this process only to end back where you had started. I am glad to hear your daughter’s nose bleeds did stop, however this must have been a worrying time for you. The unit should be able to respond shortly and I am sure there will be learning in your experience for us all.

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Response from Andrew Kinnon, ED, NHS Tayside nearly 2 years ago
Andrew Kinnon
ED,
NHS Tayside

Submitted on 20/09/2023 at 18:59
Published on Care Opinion at 18:59

Dear runningdr45

I was very sorry to read your post about you and your daughters recent experience; aspects of which involves our Emergency Department Flow Navigation Centre (FNC).

So I can look into this further and to aid future learning I would be grateful if you would consider contacting our NHS Tayside feedback team with the details below:

Your Daughters Name, date of birth, Date that this happened and your CareOpinion name.

NHS Tayside Complaints and Feedback Team is based at: Complaints and Feedback Team Ninewells Hospital Dundee DD1 9SY Telephone: 0800 027 5507

Email: TAY.feedback@nhs.scot

I will then be able to get our FNC Lead clinician to review the contact with the FNC service.

Again on behalf of the emergency department I would like to apologise to you and your daughter.

Yours sincerely

Dr Andrew J Kinnon

Co-Clinical Lead in EM

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Response from Anne Black, Senior Charge Nurse, Minor Injuries and Illness Unit, Angus Health and Social care partnership nearly 2 years ago
Anne Black
Senior Charge Nurse, Minor Injuries and Illness Unit,
Angus Health and Social care partnership

Submitted on 24/09/2023 at 22:28
Published on Care Opinion at 22:28

Dear “runningdr45”

Let me apologise for the delay in responding to your story on care opinion. I’ve been on holiday and only returned recently.

I’m so sorry to hear that your daughter has ongoing problems with nose bleeds. I know this can be very distressing for both her and you, especially when it is prolonged. It’s very disappointing that your daughter did not receive the care in a timely manner and you were left frustrated attending and calling different health services.

The minor injury service in Angus is dedicated to providing patients and carers with excellent nursing care as close to home as possible. Our service is delivered by nurses who provide patients with minor injury care and advice. Most of the nurses have extended their skills by undertaking advanced training in minor injuries. Unfortunately we are not able to deal with every health care problem as somethings require further expertise. We would also not wish to delay any patients treatment by advising them to attend when we were not able to deal with their health care need.

I’m glad that the staff from the minor injuries service were understanding and apologetic that we were not able to treat your daughter locally. I think the stress and frustration regarding this event does need further investigation from all parties involved. The minor injury service works closely with the GP practices in Angus as well as Accident and Emergency in Ninewells and if you were kind enough to contact me directly I can assure you that I will discuss the case with all services involved. We would not wish any other patients or carers to feel like they have been past from pillar to post. If we can make positive changes to avoid this happening again the minor injury service certainly will.

I hope your daughter has managed to get further care to deal with her ongoing nose bleeds. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for sharing your comments and also for following the advice about accessing urgent care. I’m so sorry that the outcome was not a positive one with the services involved.

You can contact me directly by telephone on 01382 660111 ext 21112 or by emailing, the address is, anne.black2@nhs.scot. Of course, you are also welcome to come into our unit in Arbroath for a chat if this is easier for you.

Kind regards

Anne

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