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"my wife came home in tears"

About: Causeway Hospital / Accident & Emergency

(as a relative),

My wife has a very painful knee and is waiting on a knee operation. It's so bad now that she's crawling about the place on her hands and knees. Now her hip is painful and our GP advised us to go to A&E to get a hip x-ray. 

We went to Causeway A&E. We waited a long time. We were there from 11 to 5 in the end although I know it's like that these days. They took us through around 3.30 or 4 in the end. They really weren't very nice to us and the lady in front of us got on no better either. They were just as unpleasant to her. They questioned why we were there. We're not folk for visiting hospital unless we can't do anything better than that. We felt like we should just go home and give up on the x-ray altogether. But we decided to have the x-ray. 

When they did the x-ray the staff member told us it showed nothing other than they already knew and said they'd write to our GP that day to ask them why they'd sent us. They made us feel like we were wasting their time. Mind you they took plenty of time to complain about our GP. My wife came home in tears and said she'll not go to hospital ever again.

So now we're waiting on the knee operation and it could be years. The staff member said it would probably be 5 years or if we went private 15,000 Euro. My wife is in pain and I'm trying to look into getting her a wheelchair. We feel frustrated and don't know what we can do other than just wait. My wife is very upset.
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Responses

Response from Victoria McCrory, Assistant Clinical Services Manager, Medicine and Emergency Medicine, NHSCT yesterday
Victoria McCrory
Assistant Clinical Services Manager, Medicine and Emergency Medicine,
NHSCT
Submitted on 16/06/2025 at 15:11
Published on Care Opinion at 15:11


Hello flutewn97

My name is Victoria McCrory and I am the Assistant Clinical Services Manager for Causeway ED. I am very sorry to hear about your wife's knee problem, and I have no doubt this is having a significant impact on her daily life.

I am sorry to hear that your wife's pain was so significant that she felt she required an ED level of care and assessment. I apologise for the experience which you encountered and wish to assure you that this is not the standard I would expect to be upheld within the department and does not align with trust core values.

I am extremely sorry for the delay which your wife encountered waiting to be seen. As an ED we do have targets which we aim to achieve, however at times staffing challenges and pressures within the department can result in delays occurring. As a dept management team we continue to work with our patient flow colleagues and site co ordination teams to help reduce delays which we have.

I am sorry to hear that you and your wife felt that staff were not nice to you and you felt that you were wasting time. This is a very poor reflection of the department and does not align with professional codes of conduct. Staff are encouraged to uphold the trust core values at all times, and I will ensure learning from your concern is shared via staff meetings and safety briefs.

When patients attend ED we send a letter to their GP to update them regarding their recent visit. This is to ensure a continuity of care, ensures your GP remains up to date with any care patient may or may not have received. Given the anonymous nature of care opinion it is difficult for me to ascertain exactly what the clinicians thoughts were, but I hope that by contacting the GP an alternative care plan could be explored.

I am sorry to hear that there is a potential long wait for the operation which your wife requires. Unfortunately I am unable to comment or advise on this as I am responsible for the ED Dept only, however I hope that should your wife re attend our department that she has a more positive experience.

Thank you for taking the time to leave this feedback. All feedback is important to us as it helps to inform future learning for staff and shape reform within the dept.

Yours Sincerely

Victoria McCrory

ACSM CAU ED

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