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Terrible ordeal and organisations

Story from nhs.uk

"Terrible ordeal and organisations"

About: Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital

We attended A & E on the 5th January 2017 at 4.30 after my husband was sent by the Dr. immediately after his appt.

He is in heart failure and had a chest infection and coudnt breath and the Dr needed him to be dealt with by the hospital.

after being seen by trearge we waited 6.+hours to be seen by a doctor who offered no help even oxygen, and told us to keep the appt with the heart clinic at Wansbeck. on Monday we already had.

We have had no sleep at night for over a month and this was last resort, they told us to buy more pillows and we left at 1.45 with .canular still in his arm. They had no insight into his condition and it was quite apparent we where dismissed because there where no beds and they don't now what to do with us. This is hospital is supposed to offer help the other hospitals cant..

What a disgrace the hospital is failing

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Responses

Response from Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital 8 years ago
Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital

Submitted on 09/01/2017 at 11:25
Published on nhs.uk on 10/01/2017 at 01:30

Dear Madam,

I am very sorry that your husband had to wait so long to be seen by a doctor during his recent trip to our Emergency Care Hospital. It is naturally disappointing to hear that you felt dismissed and that we failed to provide you with the kind of support and care that you were expecting.

You are right – the Northumbria is designed to offer special emergency care support that some other hospitals can’t, and we do make sure that we do that every day, seven days a week.

Sadly, the service isn’t always used in the way it was intended – for life threatening conditions and serious medical emergencies. Many of our recent attendances for example were for illnesses such as bad colds, viruses or stomach bugs which are very common at this time of year.

These are best looked after at home with over the counter medication, plenty of fluids, rest and recuperation - they certainly do not need a trip to A&E.

These inappropriate attendances result in unreasonable waits for patients, which is frustrating and worrying for them.

It also upsets our staff too – they feel they are prevented from caring for those who really do need immediate and potentially lifesaving help.

We will continue to do all we can to signpost people to the right hospital, at the right time. We also hope to get the support of our local communities to understand how their actions and any misuse of services can have a significant impact on the NHS.

Pleased be assured we pay a lot of attention to all feedback we receive – we don’t want to be unnecessarily defensive. We are committed to improvement and try to act on the stuff that, frankly, just needs to be better.

We have interviewed thousands of patients since The Northumbria opened – based on this feedback I’m afraid I can’t share your view that the hospital is failing. I’d be more than happy to share this information with you, if you’d like to get in touch annie.laverty@nhct.nhs.uk.

I do hope your husband is feeling considerably better and that his outpatient appointment with the cardiology team went well.

Best wishes,

Annie

Annie Laverty - Director of Patient Experience

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