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Could not understand aftercare instructions

Posted By Mraveragejoe2025

"Could not understand aftercare instructions"

About: Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital (Wonford) / General surgery Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital (Wonford) / Gynaecology

(as a relative),

My Wife came in to have a salpingectomy. We have to say that the consultant was absolutely excellent in their care throughout.

However, the level of after-care from one staff member was absolutely atrocious. They sped through the after-care instructions to me whilst my wife was still high on painkillers at such a rate of knots I could not understand. When I asked them to slow down, they said they couldn’t because they had to go back into theatre straight away, as if that was more important than dealing with the current case, which was my wife. Absolutely disgusting service.

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Responses

Response from Kate Saddler-Irvine, Clinical Matron & Advanced Clinical Practitioner (Eastern Services), Women’s Health (Eastern Services), Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 5 months ago
Kate Saddler-Irvine
Clinical Matron & Advanced Clinical Practitioner (Eastern Services), Women’s Health (Eastern Services),
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 09/01/2025 at 16:24
Published on Care Opinion at 17:14

picture of Kate Saddler-Irvine

Dear Mraveragejoe2025,

Thank you for taking the time to leave feedback. I am sorry that you and your wife had a poor experience following her surgery in Women's Health. However I am pleased to hear that the consultant who looked after your wife was excellent in their care throughout.

After a general anaesthetic, as you have highlighted, patients can have an altered level of understanding due to the various painkillers and anaesthetic medication used. Most patients will receive some feedback regarding their surgery after they have woken up from the anaesthetic, but recognising that patients will often not retain this information, the ward nursing staff will then go through the operation and discharge advice in more detail when they are ready to go home. This aftercare information should also be included on the discharge letter a patient is sent home with. I will ensure your feedback is shared with the ward nursing team to make sure the staff are including this on all discharge letters following surgery.

Again, I am very sorry for your wife's poor experience of our service and feedback such as yours is crucial for us to improve the patient experience so thank you once again for taking the time to share your story.

Yours sincerely,

Kate Saddler-Irvine

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by Mraveragejoe2025 (a relative)

Thank you so much for your response to this, we are very grateful for that. And thank you for acknowledging and taking ownership of this failure on behalf of the nursing staff. We respect that greatly.

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