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Coronary and Ambulance

Posted By Amag

"Coronary and Ambulance"

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

(as a relative),

My husband recently had a coronary. I phoned 999 and spoke with a member of the team. She was very calming and talked me through what to do. We had aspirin which she directed me to give to my husband. We are ever grateful for her knowledge and skills on this phone call.

When I asked about a cardiac ambulance - as I have been trained to do as a member of staff in Belfast Trust - I was told that one could not be guaranteed. This was quite a shock to me.

Thankfully I was able to call on a family member nearby to drive us, that the roads were clear and we were 10 minutes away from RVH. That journey was terrifying as my husband deteriorated.

We had to park and walk him into ED and initially wait in the waiting room as opposed to being brought straight through if he had arrived by ambulance. He deteriorated further in the waiting room and was then taken quickly for assessment, cath lab and then admission for surgery. Thankfully his outcome has been good.

I wanted to commend your member of staff and thank her.

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Responses

Response from Olga O'neill, Co Director, Unscheduled care, Belfast Health & Social Care Trust last month
We are preparing to make a change
Olga O'neill
Co Director, Unscheduled care,
Belfast Health & Social Care Trust

Co Director responsible for the Adult Emergencies Care Services, Mater hospital inpatient medical wards, GP out of hours service, Custody Health Care, Ambulatory Care Services and Service Improvement.

Submitted on 23/03/2024 at 09:47
Published on Care Opinion on 25/03/2024 at 08:24

Dear Amag, my name is Olga O'Neill I am the CoDirector for the Emergency Departments. I would like to sincerely thank you for taking the time to tell us about your experience during an extremely difficult time for you and your husband. I am so glad to hear that your husband is making good progress. I am extremely sorry to hear about the journey to the hospital and the wait in the reception area, this must have been extremely frightening for you. I would like to let you know that we share all feedback with our staff, it is only by doing this that we learn and make improvements for our patients.

thank you once again and take care.

Olga

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Response from Neil Gillan, Co-Production & Partnership Lead, Quality, Safety & Improvement, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service last month
Neil Gillan
Co-Production & Partnership Lead, Quality, Safety & Improvement,
Northern Ireland Ambulance Service

Submitted on 27/03/2024 at 11:54
Published on Care Opinion at 11:54

picture of Neil Gillan

Good morning Amag,

I would like to begin by thanking you for taking the time to share your experience of the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service. It was reassuring to learn how calming the member of the team was and how grateful you are for her knowledge and skills. I am sorry to learn that the service provided did not fully meet your expectations, as an organisation we are committed to consistently show compassion, professionalism, and respect for the patients we care for. With regards to our response times please be assured that we are working closely with the Department of Health and the Strategic Planning and Performance Group to increase our available resources. We are also working with the local EDs to try to ensure that our patients can be handed over to hospital clinical teams as quickly as possible so that ambulance are able to respond to further emergencies.

I wish your husband the best with his recuperation,

Kind regards,

Neil

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