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Another agonising hysteroscopy

Posted By Hospexp

"Another agonising hysteroscopy"

About: Hexham General Hospital / Gynaecology

(as the patient),

Went in to see consultant, thought for a brief chat with regards to GP ref. Ended up with the most horrific experience. Consultant says 'it's a one stop shop here'... cut backs masquerading as patient convenience I suspect. The usual... 'period pain', 'even 80yr olds are ok with it'.. yeah right, you had anything like this?

Hysteroscopy - agonising beyond I can say. I couldn't go beyond 10 secs. Shaking, nauseous, searing dreadful pain. Breathe deeply or you'll faint was the response, impersonal beyond words, simply a conveyor belt, no apparent patient concern. Nurses I am however grateful and thankful for, very good.

Absolutely disgraceful in this day and age that women have to endure this amount of pain. I have a high pain threshold... this is something else. I've had a couple of these, all under GA... that's how it should be... never, ever, ever again, brutal and disgusting practice.

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Responses

Response from Hexham General Hospital 8 years ago
Hexham General Hospital

Submitted on 26/10/2016 at 09:31
Published on nhs.uk on 27/10/2016 at 02:31

Dear Hospexp,

I was sorry to read about your care at Hexham General Hospital, and the dreadful pain you experienced whilst having your procedure.

Our one stop shops are not intended as a cost saving initiative, but rather, we hope, something that is more convenient for patients. I am genuinely sorry that was not the case for you.

Hysteroscopys are done usually there and then so that the patient does not have to come back in or spend the night in hospital unnecessarily. A local anesthetic can be given but clearly you were not offered or told about this – it’s disheartening to hear that there was so much more we could have done to give you the compassionate service you were expecting.

I understand your frustration being told that 80 year olds are usually ok with the pain and the shock of an unexpected procedure being done.

Due to the fact that a hysteroscopy is a relatively quick procedure - general anaesthetic is not routinely used for this unless the patient is having other treatments which require them to be asleep, or unless the patient specifically asks to be asleep.

Aside from the pain issue, it concerns me greatly that you were made to feel like you were a parcel on a conveyer belt. We’d want all our care to be provided with kindness and compassion and especially care that is very invasive.

I will pass on your review to the staff and ask them to reflect on how it felt for you to avoid this happening again to others .

With an anonymous post I am limited in the actions I can take for improvement. If you would like me to look into your case further, please can you email your details to patient.experience@northumbria-healthcare.nhs.uk.

Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention. It is not always easy to hear when we have let people down but it is an essential part of our continued effort to improve so I’m very grateful that you’ve taken the time to share your story.

Kind regards,

Jessica

Jessica Mallach - Head of Quality Improvement and Patient Experience

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