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NHS admin, including the Joint Equipment Loan Service

Posted By BreddPhloggs

"NHS admin, including the Joint Equipment Loan Service"

About: Community Alarm and Equipment Services / Joint Equipment Loan Services (JELS) General practices in Tayside Ninewells Hospital / Accident & Emergency Scottish Ambulance Service / Emergency Ambulance

(as a service user),

At the end of May at about 3:30 am I was taken by ambulance to Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, A&E (a 45 minute journey), suffering severe pains in the lower abdomen. After tests the two worst case diagnoses were eliminated, leaving muscular spasm as the most likely cause. I was given two walking sticks, tea & toast, and following some practise attempts with the sticks, was released to go home with advice to follow up with my GP.  

I was also seen by a physiotherapist who gave initial advice, said that some equipment (grab handles for the shower, shower stools, a sloping seat to aid shaving, etc) would be delivered to my home, that I should expect a home visit to more precisely identify needs and gave phone numbers to follow up.

The treatment and support received from the ambulance staff and from all in A&E were excellent throughout, the actions of unflustered professionals, kind and supportive.

Follow up; I saw my GP, a very supportive young locum, unfortunately due to move away soon, who thought the muscular spasm diagnosis was probably most likely. She was the fifth different GP I have seen in two years.

13 weeks after my visit to A&E and after a number of telephone reminders, JELS delivered physical aids. Alas most were unsuitable so were sent back.  Again the delivery staff were both (why 2?) anxious to help.

The exploratory visit to establish needs has not happened so far.

To summarise, the people responsible for my treatment were - without exception - skilled and helpful.  Problems arising - access to a GP, too many changes of GP's, triage by insufficiently medically qualified staff, long delays in delivering equipment - are managerial and structural, signs of an organisation which is over-administered but under-managed.

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Responses

Response from Mark Hannan, Head of Corporate Affairs and Engagement, Scottish Ambulance Service 2 months ago
Mark Hannan
Head of Corporate Affairs and Engagement,
Scottish Ambulance Service

Submitted on 13/08/2025 at 15:29
Published on Care Opinion at 15:29

Hi BreddPhloggs,

I'm really sorry to read about your recent illness with severe abdomen pain. I'll leave my colleagues at NHS Tayside to respond on your wider comments, but I just wanted to thank you for your very kind feedback about our staff at the Scottish Ambulance Service who cared for you. This is really nice to hear and will be appreciated by them.

I hope you're doing ok and recovering well.

Take care,

Mark

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Response from Kirsty Tonge, Consultant Accident and Emergency, Emergency Department, NHS Tayside 2 months ago
Kirsty Tonge
Consultant Accident and Emergency, Emergency Department,
NHS Tayside

Submitted on 13/08/2025 at 15:49
Published on Care Opinion at 15:49

Dear BreddPhloqqs

Thank you so much for taking the time to feedback on your visit to the Emergency Department at Ninewells. I am delighted to hear that it was a smooth enough process and that you were able to be discharged home after some important investigations and input from the wider team.

I think it is testament to the multidisciplinary team within and linked to the ED, that we are able to provide such a holistic and well rounded service and it is great to hear your comments reflect this.

I hope that your are now well on the road to recovery and thank you again for your lovely comments- I will ensure that they are fed back to the team

Kind regards

Dr Kirsty Tonge- EM Consultant and Co-clinical lead

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Response from Susan Anderson, Care Opinion Administrator, Patient Experience Team, NHS Tayside 2 months ago
Susan Anderson
Care Opinion Administrator, Patient Experience Team,
NHS Tayside

Submitted on 13/08/2025 at 16:13
Published on Care Opinion at 16:13

Dear BreddPhloggs

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback about your General Practice (GP). Feedback is very valuable to all areas of the NHS, and I am sorry to hear that your experience there has not been positive. Unfortunately, GP practices are not part of Care Opinion at this time, as each GP Practice is an independent business. So that they can see your feedback, we would recommend that you feedback your experience directly to the practice to allow this to be passed on to the staff. The Practice Manager can give you details of how to provide this feedback to them, as per their Complaints and Feedback Policy.

In relation to the other issues that you raise we are sorry to hear that the care and support you received was not as expected. As stated above feedback is very valuable to all areas of NHS Tayside as we are committed to delivering compassionate high-quality care and as Care Opinion is anonymous we ask that you share your details with the Patient Experience Team so that they can investigate this further. You can contact them on email Tay.feedback@nhs.scot or leave a message on freephone 0800 027 5507 and a member of the team will call you.

Kind regards

Susan Anderson

Care Opinion Administrator

NHS Tayside

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Response from Perth and Kinross Health & Social Care Partnership 2 months ago
Perth and Kinross Health & Social Care Partnership

Submitted on 18/08/2025 at 12:31
Published on Care Opinion at 13:36

Hello Mr BreddPhloggs

Thank you for Your feedback in relation the Joint Equipment Loans Service. I am so sorry to hear that this is your experience. It is important that we hear from our service users to enable us to review any issues to make your experience better if so required.

As a priority Driven Service, we aim to have our priority 1 equipment delivered within 48 hours of the day following referral. As you were a hospital discharge, you would meet this criteria.

when a referral is received, the equipment is scheduled for delivery if we have the items in stock, sometimes we need to wait on certain items but your practitioner is made aware of this when they place the order. it is then delivered to you.

Unfortunately we have no control over other services timescales for making referrals and without further information I am unable to identify why your equipment took so long to get to you.

I invite you to make contact with me and I will look into the situation directly for you, and provide you with a more information.

Kind Regards

Susan Foster, Community Support Manager (JELS) 01738 475757

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