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Simply broken

Posted By AJSJ86

"Simply broken"

About: Scottish Ambulance Service / Ambulance Control Centre University Hospital Wishaw / Emergency Department

(as a service user),

Husband had passed out and cut open his head. As I couldn’t move him I dialled 999. Phone operator was rude and simply told me it wasn’t an emergency. 

After getting help to A&E, my husband was triaged within an hour, (after the nurse shouted the wrong name twice - an admission they made themself). 

We waited over 12 hours to be seen by a doctor to get my husbands head glued. No CT was given after the nurse had suggested he needed one due to the size of the cut. We asked 5 times for painkillers and never got them.  2 ambulances were sat in the car park all night with paramedics on their phones. Reception staff were snippy and didn’t communicate either. 

Our experience suggests the place is simply broken. Do better!

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Responses

Response from Jennifer Montgomery, Improvement Coordinator, Quality Directorate, NHS Lanarkshire last week
Jennifer Montgomery
Improvement Coordinator, Quality Directorate,
NHS Lanarkshire

Operational Lead for Care Opinion in NHS Lanarkshire

Submitted on 29/04/2025 at 00:12
Published on Care Opinion at 00:12

picture of Jennifer Montgomery

Dear AJSJ86,

Thank you for sharing your experience of University Hospital Wishaw, Emergency Department.

I am sorry to hear about your husband's head injury, and the long wait you had in order for him to have it treated. Unfortunately our services are under immense pressure however we would still expect the reception staff to be polite and professional when dealing with patients.

Please can I ask that you raise your concerns with our patient affairs team on the below details, so that they can look into this further and provide you with a personal response?

patientaffairs@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk

Best Wishes,

Jenni

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Response from Mark Hannan, Head of Corporate Affairs and Engagement, Scottish Ambulance Service last week
Mark Hannan
Head of Corporate Affairs and Engagement,
Scottish Ambulance Service

Submitted on 30/04/2025 at 16:02
Published on Care Opinion at 16:02

Hi AJSJ86,

I'm really sorry to read about your recent experience regarding your husband's care. As my colleague from NHS Lanarkshire says, NHS services are under extreme pressure but I can totally understand your frustrations and am sorry this happened.

From a Scottish Ambulance Service/999 call centre perspective, we have to prioritise ambulance responses and there can be delays during peak times but I'm sorry that you felt our call hander was rude.

If you'd like this to be looked into further and investigated as a complaint, could you please send some further information (name, address of incident, date, time and the nature of the complaint) to sas.feedback@nhs.scot.

We can then arrange for this to be investigated and an explanation of what may have happened provided to you.

Once again, I'm sorry for your experience and I hope your husband is doing ok and recovering well.

Best wishes,
Mark

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