"Lack of communication & lost notes"

Presented myself with chest pain at ‘original’ A&E,  redirected to new area & advised it was a short walk.

Walked to new A&E, checked in & quickly triaged, probably because I wasn’t very well; bloods taken, BP, ECG; back to waiting room.

Name called (15-20mins later) along with 3 others & asked to ‘follow me’ - only when I asked where we were going were we told the name but not where it was. We walked all the way through the hospital building / lift, back to original A&E to re check in & wait (uncomfortable seating).

None of us knew what was going on. 

Lack of communication was obvious when I was called in to have bloods taken - I had to physically show my arm to demonstrate that had already been done; BP taken again; back to waiting room; called again -  x-ray, I asked why / what of - it was assumed I had been seen by a Dr & hence they had requested it (nope, only triaged in A&E & seen by health care workers)

Back to waiting room to discover my name had been called as ‘they’ didn’t know I was in x-Ray. 

10mins wait, called in again and triaged further by nurse practitioner before Dr saw me. 

Advised I needed a scan however nothing available today so I would get a call in next 24hrs with an appointment. Dependent on these results would depend on next steps however usually if nothing shown on this scan, protocol was to have an MRI. I accepted / agreed with this & took advice to re-present if I felt any worse as in essence I was still open to A&E until I received a scan.

I returned on Saturday afternoon having an appointment for a scan at 4pm. 

‘Old A&E’ was quiet. I had BP / temp done and waited for a porter to take me for a scan. They proceeded to hang around chatting for over 20mins whilst I sat observing them (& colleague) seemingly doing nothing. This is disheartening when all we hear is how busy and run off their feet they are - not the case at this particular time and not how it was on 2 days earlier either! 

Only when I asked when I could expect to be taken did the health worker chase up the porter who was seated a few feet away from me - they said they had assumed I was waiting to be ‘done’ before they could take me - evidence of very poor communication between a team of people. There seemed to be a lack of management keeping on top of everything. Many seemed to be working in silos and simply ‘doing their part’ with no appreciation of the process and without proactive action..

Following my scan I returned to this department and was seen by a person  who advised me they had lost my notes; no one knew who had referred me; no one knew how I had presented on Thursday; no one knew what the plan of action was that had been agreed on Thursday. 

I shared the information, including that standard protocol was being followed to rule out / diagnose and the next step was a referral for an MRI along with writing to my GP. 

I have seen the letter - incorrect information of how I presented and zero advice to refer me on… once again evidence of very poor communication and now zero evidence of how I was feeling or what any results were of Bloods, BP, ECG at the time.