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No support at home offered

Posted By lyraqp94

"No support at home offered"

About: Community Occupational Therapy / Glenrothes & Cowdenbeath Fife Community Services / Community Palliative Care

(as a relative),

My late husband suffered from prostate cancer. Assessment by O.T. for aids to help at home was awful. Seat for shower didn't fit, bed raiser was out of stock. When available a month later could only be fitted at a specific time of day when husband couldn't get out of bed.

Wheelchair so heavy I couldn't lift it into car to go to hospital appointments. Had to hire one privately. Medications were rarely available at pharmacy requiring two visits some days for collection.

No support at home offered. Husband falling almost daily needing help to get back up, often crawling on floor to lean on seat so I could then try and give him support to get up, often landing on floor together in a heap.

Eventually admitted to hospital as local Hospice closed for renovation. Not the best environment but at least he was given pain control until he he died.


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Responses

Response from Mary Kinninmonth, Lead Nurse, Specialist In-patient and Out-Reach Services, NHS Fife last month
Mary Kinninmonth
Lead Nurse, Specialist In-patient and Out-Reach Services,
NHS Fife

Submitted on 19/05/2025 at 08:56
Published on Care Opinion at 09:03

Good morning lyraqp94

Thank you for sharing your experience with us and apologies for delay in responding. I am really sorry to hear your husband did not receive the support when he needed it.

To help direct your feedback, it would be helpful to get some more information.

If you could please email me with some more detail of the team/teams involved in your husband's care in the community and I can then direct your response to the appropriate people.

My email address is:

mary.kinninmonth@nhs.scot

Kind Regards

Mary

Lead Nurse

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
Response from Neil Carnegie, Community OT Team Manager, Community Occupational Therapy, Fife Health & Social Care Partnership last month
Neil Carnegie
Community OT Team Manager, Community Occupational Therapy,
Fife Health & Social Care Partnership

Submitted on 20/05/2025 at 12:01
Published on Care Opinion at 12:01

picture of Neil Carnegie

Dear lyraqp94,

I am really sorry to learn that yours and your late husband's experiences in working with our Occupational Therapy service were less than positive, but thank you for taking the time to share these experiences with us.

By listening to patient/service user and carer experiences we aim to shape and improve the services that we deliver, and for this reason I would like to know more about the difficulties you encountered, where things went wrong and how we might improve. To this end, can I please ask you to contact me directly, so that I can investigate why you and your husband did not receive our normal level of good service and support. If you can email me at neil.carnegie@fife.gov.uk with your name/husband's name and address, I will personally look further into your situation, to try to find out what didn't go well, why it didn't go well and what needs to change to ensure that others do not have the same experience.

In the interim, please accept both my sincere condolences and apologies that you did not receive the service that you and your husband deserved and expected.

Best Wishes, Neil

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Response from Mary Kinninmonth, Lead Nurse, Specialist In-patient and Out-Reach Services, NHS Fife last month
Mary Kinninmonth
Lead Nurse, Specialist In-patient and Out-Reach Services,
NHS Fife

Submitted on 21/05/2025 at 10:23
Published on Care Opinion at 10:23

Good morning lyraqp94

Thank you for getting in touch and sharing with me this very stressful and emotional experience you have had.

I totally understand you do not want to take this matter any further at this time, I appreciate the thought of going through all the details of the experience again will cause you significant emotional distress. I apologise again for the lack of support you received at such a difficult time for both you and your husband.

If you should change your mind going forward, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Please accept my condolences, I wish you well.

Kind Regards

Mary

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Response from Neil Carnegie, Community OT Team Manager, Community Occupational Therapy, Fife Health & Social Care Partnership last month
Neil Carnegie
Community OT Team Manager, Community Occupational Therapy,
Fife Health & Social Care Partnership

Submitted on 27/05/2025 at 12:42
Published on Care Opinion at 12:42

picture of Neil Carnegie

Dear lyraqp94,

Thank you again for contacting me directly (by email) and for sharing your experiences and observations with me.

I just want to take this opportunity to apologise to you again and to also assure you that your feedback has been received, listened to and is valued by the Community OT service. I have shared your comments with the relevant managers of the services you highlighted teams, who have also welcomed your feedback and will use your observations to inform service improvement.

Best Wishes, Neil

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