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The lack of knowledge of what services are offered

Story from nhs.uk

"The lack of knowledge of what services are offered"

I was amazed yesterday that neither the pharmacist in one of my local pharmacists nor the paramedic who called me back on 111 knew that The Minor Injuries Unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Folkestone only takes walk-in patients for 'minor injuries' and has not been a 'Walk-in' centre for other conditions for more than 2 years. There is an out-of-hours GP unit there but 111 has to have rung them to make an appointment with a GP before the patient goes there.

I knew this but the pharmacist didn't and neither did the paramedic who called me back on 111.

They said I should just turn up there and when I said I knew I had to have an appointment made in advance they gave me a reference number which meant nothing to the staff at the RVH when I got there. One receptionist was eventually quite helpful in explaining the system to me and telling me what I should tell 111 to do to get me an appointment but the initial reaction there was to shrug their shoulders. It turned out I was the 2nd of 3 people to turn up there within a short time, sent by 111 & without an appointment, and so I can understand the frustration of the staff.

Come on NHS and get your act together & let your health professionals know how the system works,

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Responses

Response from Royal Victoria Hospital Folkestone 8 years ago
Royal Victoria Hospital Folkestone

Submitted on 22/12/2016 at 17:01
Published on nhs.uk on 23/12/2016 at 01:30

Hello

We are very sorry to hear that you have had this experience at Folkestone.

NHS 111 and all other services in the area are aware that we are now a Minor Injuries Unit and have been for the last two years. We sent posters to all local GPs and pharmacists at the time of the change over. All local paramedics should also be aware. We are sorry it seemed they did not know but the Matron/Senior Nurse Practitioner will reiterate this to them again.

The GP service runs from the same building and as already pointed out is an appointment service only but you do have to call 111 first and they will make you an appointment or redirect you.

Any time we have patients being sent wrongly, we inform the service sending them to prevent the patients being sent unnecessarily.

The Minor Injuries Unit is open 7 days a week, 8am to 8pm but we only have x-ray available Monday to Friday 9 an to 4.30pm.

The Trust's website and NHS choices are kept as up to date as possible and should be dated at the last update.

However some out of date information in the public domain can be hard to get removed.

Apologies again for your experience.

Best wishes

Customer Care Team

Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust

Tel: 0300 123 1807 Email: kcht.cct@nhs.net Website: www.kentcht.nhs.uk

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