"The care was exemplary and the department calm"

I dislocated my kneecap while playing sport recently. The staff at the sport centre phoned an ambulance while I lay on floor as I couldn’t get up and my knee had an obvious deformity. 1hr or so following the initial call to 999 they rang back to ask if I would be willing to do a video call which I agreed to and they looked at my knee and agreed that I had a patellar dislocation. They assured me that paramedics would be on the way shortly. For context this was the evening of a junior doctor strike. So naturally I was apprehensive of going to hospital or calling an ambulance.

Within two hrs of the initial call an ambulance had arrived with two wonderful paramedics Mary and Gavin. They provided me with gas and air to assist me to get to the stretcher without much pain and did wonderful job distracting me while they relocated the kneecap. Due to the medication and distraction this went very well and I didn’t have much pain, they applied a compression brace to hold the knee joint in place for the journey by ambulance to Antrim Area Hospital and Mary was in the back of the ambulance with me on the journey, I really can’t say enough good things as both Mary and Gavin were excellent throughout and a credit to themselves and NIAS. 

On arrival at Antrim I was expecting the department to be overwhelmed and to be waiting for a long time but I couldn’t have been more pleasantly surprised. There were no other ambulances queued outside and I was immediately transferred onto a free waiting trolley where the paramedics handed me over. I was seen to by a nurse immediately who took my obs and repositioned me to await a doctor. I was a bit tired from the meds and injury at this point so don’t remember all the names to thank them unfortunately but the emergency department consultant came to see me 5 minutes later and was super kind and helpful. He pushed my trolley round the corner to X-ray himself personally and went in to let the radiographers know I was there.

Lois the radiographer was prompt to come for me and could not have been more lovely. She was so kind and took time to engage with me and then helped to return my trolley to corridor outside resus. From there the doctor wanted to have another X-ray view performed, this time with the other radiographer who was on that night who was also excellent but I forget his name.

The ED consultant then let me know he would like me to come tomorrow morning for a CT scan and a different nurse gave me a full length knee brace, he was super helpful in answering my questions and organising crutches for me and giving me my discharge instructions whose name I think was Marvin, sorry if I go this wrong. While I was waiting in the corridor I could see him taking all the new ambulance arrivals and coordinating the transfers onto department trolleys and looking after the patients, he was so friendly to everyone and really cared about them and was so compassionate to some of the patients who were far more ill than I was. I must say he was such a shining light for the department with his excellent nursing care. I was only in the department for just over and hour and half from arrival in the ambulance to getting a lift from the hospital.

I returned the next day for the ct scan and Robyn the nurse practitioner saw me and directed me to radiology for the ct. I had a 20 minute wait and then had my scan, the staff in ct were friendly, efficient and engaging.

I then returned to ED to await the report from my CT, this did take around 2hrs but Robyn kept me informed throughout and apologised about the wait. Once the report cam back she saw me straightaway and explained the results and referred me the fracture clinic and gave me advice and discharged me home. 

I cannot be complimentary enough to the staff who looked after me over the two different days and how well Antrim had managed the situation despite the industrial action. The care was exemplary and the department was calm and efficient throughout. I couldn’t be more impressed the care received. 

Thanks again.