"Completely dismissed the amount of pain she was in"

Dear disinfectantnx97

Thank you for sharing your experiences and opinion on the care opinion platform. It is disappointing to read your comments and reflects in an apparent lower than expected level of service from our department.

I cannot comment on individual cases, however, I would like to offer my apologies for the upset and distressed caused to both you and your daughter. This falls short of our expectations and standards.

We do have a 'safety netting' procedure in place, whereby all x-ray reports are reviewed in a timely fashion, by our Consultants and the patient contacted for a senior review if clinically indicated. Due to your onward referral to the virtual fracture clinic, it may have been deemed appropriate for this to be done by the orthopedic team in this instance, and that the initial management was appropriate.

Best practice within the department, is to provide a leaflet explaining the Virtual Fracture Clinic process were necessary. This gives details on what to do and who to contact if you have have not heard from them in a timely fashion. I am not sure if you were provided with this. If not, then once again I would like to apologise.

I am sorry you had to take your daughter to a different minor injury unit to be reassessed. We, as a department have an ED Consultant and senior Medical and Nursing staff available to reassess and review.

Finally I hope this finds you both well and that your daughter is making good progress.

kind regards

John Kerr

Emergency Nurse Practitioner (ENP)

South West Acute Hospital Emergency Department

Dear disinfectantnx97,

My name is Ann Marie Conlon, I am the Falls Integrated Pathway Co-ordinator within the Trust. Thank you for taking the time to share your experience of attending the Emergency Department in South West Acute Hospital with your daughter after she had a fall in which she sustained fractures.

I am very sorry to read that your daughter's pain was dismissed by the doctor assessing your daughter at the time of her ED attendance and that you felt the need to request an x-ray to diagnose your daughter's injuries. I am also disappointed to read that your daughter was made to feel uncomfortable by the attitude and approach of the Doctor providing the assessment.

Coming into the emergency department can be such a stressful experience not only for our patients but also for their families / carers. Approach and communication are vital in the caring professions, not only to ensure that your daughter's injuries are assessed to arrive at the correct diagnosis but also to ensure that her needs are met in terms of pain management and follow up care after injury has been diagnosed.

From your feedback it would appear that there was a breakdown in communication at some point of the care pathway and this resulted in you needing to attend the minor injuries unit 10 days after the fall incident when further injuries were diagnosed.

I am sorry that both you and your daughter have had such a poor experience of the service provided when you attended the Emergency Department.

As an organisation we are committed to consistently show kindness, compassion, professionalism and respect to the patients we care for. I can only apologise for the lack of kindness and compassionate care that your daughter experienced when she attended the Emergency Department.

I hope that your experience of attending the minor injuries unit was much better and that your daughter is making a good recovery at this time.

As care opinion is anonymous, I do not know your particular case to look into records or notes on systems. I would like to learn more from your experience in order to give you more of a detailed response at this time in addition to using any learning identified to make improvements to services delivered by the Trust.

Can you please contact me on 07769300028 and I will look into this for you.

Kindest Regards,

Ann Marie Conlon

Falls Integrated Pathway Co-ordinator

Mobile 07769300028