"My mother feels rejected by the service"

Hi funnyrp97,

My name is Sarah Arthur, I am the Patient Client Experience Facilitator for the Northern Trust, please see the response, below, from Deirdre O'Brien, Continence Manager.

Sarah

Hi funnyrp97,

My name is Deirdre O’Brien I am the manager for the continence service in the Northern Trust. I am sorry to read of your mother’s experience of continence care recently and how this has affected your mother’s quality of life and self-esteem.

I want to apologise for the response letter your mother received from my service, stating we were unable to review her case or offer any help at this time. This is not the standard of care we aim to achieve. All referrals received are first triaged by either myself or one of the continence advisors. If a referral is accepted we specify whether it is urgent or routine and what clinic the service user needs to attend I.e. General or Specialist clinic. In some circumstances where a service user is unable to attend a clinic we offer a domiciliary appointment. Our normal process once a referral has been accepted is to send out an acknowledgement letter along with self-assessment forms to be completed and returned. Once these forms are returned our aim is to book an appointment as soon as available. For service users triaged for general clinic they generally can be seen before or within the targeted 13 week time frame. At present due to demand for the service those triaged for the specialist clinic have to wait longer for an appointment and would be issued another letter to make them aware of the extended waiting time.

I would really appreciate the opportunity to speak to you to learn more about your mother’s experience and arrange an appointment for assessment at our clinic. If you would be happy to speak to me I can be contacted on 02825635280.

In the meantime I will share your story with staff for learning and reflection.

I look forward to speaking to you,

Deirdre