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Care Opinion

Too many transfers

Posted By Old Doc

"Too many transfers"

About: Ninewells Hospital / Accident & Emergency Ninewells Hospital / Cardiology

(as the patient),

Because of bed shortage, I waited on a trolley in A&E for around 3 hours, while dangerously ill with a potentially fatal cardiac arrhythmia. Then I was frequently transferred from ward to ward during several emergency admissions over the next year. On one occasion I was transferred 3 times in 24 hours. The medical, nursing, auxiliary nursing and portering staff were excellent - only the bed shortage was a disaster.

I am a retired hospital consultant. In my opinion, this number of transfers while dangerously ill is a blot on our NHS, and I believe it is due to a foolish policy of reducing bed numbers to create an artificial paper saving. In my opinion it results in dreadful stress for patients and staff alike and is very time-consuming.

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Responses

Response from Alison Moss, Feedback Manager, NHS Tayside 9 years ago
Alison Moss
Feedback Manager,
NHS Tayside

Submitted on 17/12/2014 at 16:27
Published on Care Opinion at 16:41

Dear Old Doc

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback via Patient Opinion. I am sorry that your experience of care within NHS Tayside has not been positive due to delays within A & E and excessive transfers within the service. We try not to transfer patients other than those required for clinical care and treatment, however, there are times when we are faced with an unusually high number of emergency admissions and this is unavoidable. I am pleased to note your positive comments regarding the medical, nursing, auxiliary nursing and portering staff and would like to thank you for sharing this.

If you wish to provide specific information regarding your admissions and your concerns regarding bed shortages, I can be contacted at feedback.tayside@nhs.net. This would also allow me pass on your compliments to specific staff.

Kind regards.

Alison Moss

Complaints and Feedback Team Lead

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