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"Severe pain"

About: NHS 24 / NHS 24 (111 service) Scottish Ambulance Service / Ambulance Control Centre University Hospital Hairmyres / Emergency Department University Hospital Wishaw / Emergency Department

(as a service user),

Severe stomach pains. Phoned NHS 24 at 1800 hrs. Waited 40 minutes to speak to a call handler. Waited a further 40 minutes to speak with a nurse.

Advised a senior medical member of staff would call me back.

About 80 minutes later a doctor called and suggested I go to Hairmyres Hospital and he would dispatch an ambulance.

3 hours later I called 999 and was told it maybe another 4 hours until an ambulance was available.

About 0030 hrs next day I received another call from the ambulance control telling me I would be better making my own way to Hairmyres as it was unlikely I would get an ambulance and to call the hospital in advance and tell them my story. On speaking to Hairmyres A&E they told me it would be an 8 hour wait and to go to Wishaw Hospital.

I arrived there at 0130 hrs. Triaged at 0330 hrs it’s now 0600 hrs and still in severe pain in the waiting area. God help us all. The NHS is in a terrible state it’s not until you need it do you realise how bad it is .

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Responses

Response from Faith McCrea, Service Manager, Emergency & Medical Services, University Hospital Wishaw, NHS Lanarkshire 11 months ago
Faith McCrea
Service Manager, Emergency & Medical Services, University Hospital Wishaw,
NHS Lanarkshire
Submitted on 11/07/2024 at 12:11
Published on Care Opinion at 12:11


Dear woodpeckerqz34

Thank you for sharing your recent experience of our Emergency Department at Wishaw on this care opinion platform. I am sorry to hear of your poor experience and would like to apologise for the lengthy wait you had to wait to be seen within our exceptionally busy department. I would like to reassure you that we take all feedback seriously and we will use your feedback to help improve the service we provide to our patients.

I am unsure why when you called Hairmyres they advised you to attend Wishaw as this is not normal practice and apologise that this was the case.

I indeed hope that you are feeling better and wish you a speedy recovery

Best wishes

Faith

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Response from Alan Martin, Clinical Development Manager, National Operations, Scottish Ambulance Service 11 months ago
Alan Martin
Clinical Development Manager, National Operations,
Scottish Ambulance Service
Submitted on 12/07/2024 at 16:01
Published on Care Opinion at 16:01


picture of Alan Martin

Dear Woodpeckerqz34,

Many thanks for taking the time to share your feedback here on CareOpinion. I am so sorry to read about what happened to you, I cannot begin to imagine how difficult a time this was for you and I hope that you got the required treatment and are feeling better.

We would be really keen as a Service to be given the opportunity to review the calls and try and identify any possible learning if it is there. To do so we would need to know the date, time and address that the Ambulance was requested for you? I can see from the story that I think it was perhaps Tuesday into Wednesday perhaps? I am not sure if there is a delay in the story being published that's all. This information can be sent to sas.feedback@nhs.scot for the team to pick up. If you do decide to do this, would you be so kind as to make reference to your CareOpinion username so that the team can easily locate your story and share it with the crew.

I hope that you are feeling better and once again, I am so sorry for your poor experience.

Kind Regards

Alan

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Response from Kerry F, Senior Nurse Quality Assurance and Standards, Nursing and Care, NHS 24 11 months ago
Kerry F
Senior Nurse Quality Assurance and Standards, Nursing and Care,
NHS 24
Submitted on 17/07/2024 at 17:43
Published on Care Opinion on 18/07/2024 at 09:32


Dear Woodpeckerqz34

Thank you for sharing your story on Care Opinion. I was sorry to learn of your severe stomach pain and I do hope your pain has now eased.

I understand that there were multiple services involved in your journey of care. I respond on behalf of NHS 24.

I read with concern the challenges you faced when trying to access our 111 service and apologise for the wait you experienced. We are aware that at times, due to demand, wait times to access our service are longer than we would like. Please be assured we are working hard to improve this by ensuring our systems and processes are as efficient as possible.

I would like the opportunity to explore your contact with 111 further. If you would be kind enough to contact our Patient Experience Team to provide some additional detail, we could look into this for you.

You can contact me or a member of the Patient Experience Team at patient.experience@nhs24.scot.nhs.uk

Thank you again for sharing your story.

Kind regards,

Kerry

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