"Medication problem"

All qualified nursing staff have to pass a yearly medicine management assessment, without which they cannot give medication unsupervised.

Occasionally new medications are prescribed but the nurses have the an index of medications which, informs practitioners of what the medication is used for and how it can be administered, to refer to. This index is called British National Formulary (BNF) ; they can also contact the ward pharmacist if in doubt.

I am sorry it appears this was not the case. I am also sorry you had to wait until 2pm before bloods were taken – patients are bled based on a doctor’s request and they are bled by a team of phlebotomists who visit the ward when they receive the request.

It may be that the request went in late and the blood results may have been needed to inform if discharge was safe or not.

Someone could have explained this clearly to you.

Please accept my apologies that this was not the case.

I hope your partner is recovering well at home.

Ugochi Agbasimelo

Matron – Acute & Emergency Medicine

University Hospital Lewisham

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust