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Impact on patient care

Posted By Jojo82

"Impact on patient care"

About: Causeway Hospital / Accident & Emergency Northern Ireland Ambulance Service / Emergency ambulance response

(as a relative),

My grandmother - who is in her 80s - fell recently and waited 4.5 hours laying on her bedroom floor waiting on an ambulance.  She had broken her hip and had to have been in awful pain.

Then she waited overnight to be transferred to Altnagelvin for surgery. I don't think this is  acceptable on any level. The reasons we were given was that there was a strike. In my view, strikes should not impact on patient care and cause unnecessary suffering for those in need. 

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Responses

Response from Victoria McCrory, Assistant Clinical Services Manager, Medicine and Emergency Medicine, NHSCT nearly 2 years ago
Victoria McCrory
Assistant Clinical Services Manager, Medicine and Emergency Medicine,
NHSCT

Submitted on 28/09/2023 at 11:33
Published on Care Opinion at 12:09

Hi Jojo82

My name is Victoria McCrory and I am the Assistant Clinical Services Manager for Causeway ED. Thank you for providing this feedback. I note your previous compliment for staff in Causeway ED, but equally this feedback is also appreciated as it allows us to review other elements of care which also impacts on patients and their families.

Unfortunately I cannot provide feedback on the length of time that your Grandmother waited for an ambulance, Hopefully my colleagues in NIAS will respond to this element of your concern.

I am very sorry to hear that your Grandmother sustained a fracture, and the wait she experienced both for an ambulance response and then transfer to Altnagelvin from Causeway ED. Whilst it is not ideal, depending on bed availability within the hospital sites, at times patients may have to wait a period of time before being transferred, This period of waiting is not unique to times of strike action, and is kept to as short a period of time as possible. Whilst the patient is waiting for transfer, communication between the specialities continues, to ensure that the patient remains safe at all times.

I again apologise for the experience which your Grandmother had and I will ensure that your feedback is escalated.

Yours Sincerely

Victoria McCrory

ACSM, Causeway ED

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Response from Neil Gillan, Co-Production & Partnership Lead, Quality, Safety & Improvement, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service nearly 2 years ago
Neil Gillan
Co-Production & Partnership Lead, Quality, Safety & Improvement,
Northern Ireland Ambulance Service

Submitted on 29/09/2023 at 17:31
Published on Care Opinion at 17:31

picture of Neil Gillan

Good afternoon, Jojo82

My name is Neil Gillan and I am the Co-production Partnership Lead with the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, where I lead on the development and delivery of an organisation wide approach to Patient Client Experience.

I am grateful to you for taking the time to share your experiences of the Service. From the outset I would like to apologise to you and your grandmother. As an organisation we aim to consistently show compassion, professionalism and respect for the patients we care for, we regret that this was not the experience for you and your grandmother and are sorry that we did not achieve the standards that we aim for.

As mentioned, there was a recent period of industrial action and despite agreed derogations, this still caused disruption across our service. Once again, I regret that this impacted on your grandmother and please be assured that your experiences and feedback will be escalated.

I hope your grandmother is recuperating and I would be grateful if you could pass on my best wishes.

Yours sincerely,

Neil

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