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Failed to be taken seriously

Posted By taurustt76

"Failed to be taken seriously"

About: Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital (Wonford) / Accident and emergency

(as a parent/guardian),

My daughter has been experiencing severe anxiety, insomnia and inability to calm down from a high state of mental anguish for many nights, brought on by traumatic memories. We have spent all day here, over 12 hours from morning to late evening. We failed to be taken seriously on the phone to mental health crisis, even though my daughter has been suffering suicidal ideation.

We came to A&E after being sent by 111 and were initially told we would be seen within four hours. After 6 hours, crowds of minor physical injuries had all been dealt with, and for people there with mental health concerns, they had seen one person with everyone else still waiting.

It is one track for physical health and mental health seems not to be treated in a fair and equal way. My daughter has trauma from childhood that is no fault of her own. Many of the injuries that have taken priority all day are things like sports injuries.

How can this be humane prioritising of resources. People who hurt themselves having fun prioritised before traumatic mental injury not caused by choice.

Do you have a similar story to tell? Tell your story & make a difference ››

Responses

Response from Tamara Martin Garcia, Sister, Emergency Department (Eastern Services), Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 13 months ago
We are preparing to make a change
Tamara Martin Garcia
Sister, Emergency Department (Eastern Services),
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Sister Emergency Department

Submitted on 22/10/2024 at 20:12
Published on Care Opinion at 21:12

picture of Tamara Martin Garcia

I’m really sorry to hear about your daughter’s experience. It’s incredibly frustrating to feel like mental health concerns are not being prioritized appropriately, especially in a crisis situation.

The normal process is to refer patients to the psychiatric liaison team after being quickly triaged who would then come to the department to assess and provide support. However, the current staffing shortages and high demand they are experiencing have clearly made it difficult for them to respond in a timely manner. While there are nurse practitioners available on-site in the Emergency department who can treat minor injuries, the absence of an on-site psychiatric liaison team and the huge demand the are experiencing can lead to significant delays for those in need of urgent mental health care.

It's important to emphasize that we do not intend to make mental health patients wait longer or prioritize physical health issues over mental health concerns.

Our goal is to ensure that all patients are seen by the most appropriate specialty so they can receive the best possible outcomes

I will be passing your feedback on to the liaison team to help improve the process and ensure that patients in similar situations receive the care they need more quickly.

Hope this was helpful, and I wish your daughter a quick recovery. If you have any more questions or need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Take care.

Tamara

Emergency Department Sister

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Response from Tamara Martin Garcia, Sister, Emergency Department (Eastern Services), Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 11 months ago
We have made a change
Tamara Martin Garcia
Sister, Emergency Department (Eastern Services),
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Sister Emergency Department

Submitted on 17/12/2024 at 20:29
Published on Care Opinion on 18/12/2024 at 08:22

picture of Tamara Martin Garcia

Thank you for your patience. I just wanted to follow up and reassure you that we are continuing to work on improving the situation. We understand how critical it is to provide timely mental health support, and we are actively addressing the staffing shortages and the challenges with response times.

Your feedback is incredibly valuable as we work to make necessary improvements, and we are committed to ensuring that future patients in similar situations receive the care they need more quickly. Thank you again for bringing this to our attention, and we will continue working on making the process better.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Take care,
Tamara

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Response from Lisa Townsend, Patient Experience Feedback Lead, Patient Experience Team, Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 3 months ago
Lisa Townsend
Patient Experience Feedback Lead, Patient Experience Team,
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

I take patient feedback and work with all departments at Royal Devon University Hospital NHS Trust to implement service change and improve the patient experience.

Submitted on 06/08/2025 at 17:07
Published on Care Opinion at 17:07

picture of Lisa Townsend

Dear Taurustt76

Thank you for recently leaving feedback on Care Opinion. I wanted to reach out to ask if you would be interested in sharing your experience further? Our Engagement team share a monthly story at the Public Board of Directors meeting. The aim is to allow our executive and non-executive directors to understand the issues they are discussing from the perspective of the patient. The stories normally take the form of a five minute video/audio interview that is pre-recorded.

Your story has been identified as one that the Engagement team would like to explore further as it may be suitable for featuring in a patient story. If you are interested in being involved and would like to find out a little more, please would you email me your name and contact details to me privately at: rduh.patientexperience@nhs.net quoting ref 1272619.

With your consent I will put you in touch with the Engagement team who will find out more about your experience and consider whether it might be suitable for a patient story interview, if it would be suitable and you can find out a little more about the process before you agree next steps.

Once again thank you for leaving feedback. It really does make a difference to improving our services.

Kind regards

Lisa

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