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Care Opinion

Superb Nursing staff

Posted By Tower

"Superb Nursing staff"

About: Borders General Hospital Borders General Hospital / General Medicine

(as a volunteer/advocate),

I work as a volunteer patient representative in the Borders General Hospital, Melrose.

My general feeling is that BGH give a very good service overall with a lot of respect for all staff. Of course there can be problems but when reported these issues are dealt with immediately by  competent and very professional staff.

This week I was working one day in the MAU ward in the hospital and was most gratified by the very positive comments made from patients - the surveys are anonymous . I went into one ward where there were five patients and before I could really open my mouth I was assailed by all these people what had been achieved by a most magnificent effort by staff. There had been a life threatening emergency and the whole procedure had been dealt with swiftly, professionally and in an exemplary fashion. The other patients  could not express  how wonderful the staff had been. Not only with the emergency issue but also to the remaining patients in the ward. They were adamant that I report their feelings to higher authority. This I did. However the praise was so strong that I felt the actions of staff deserved a wider audience.

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Responses

Response from Lynn McCallum, Medical Director, NHS Borders 6 years ago
Lynn McCallum
Medical Director,
NHS Borders

Along with the Director of Nursing, we are collectively responsible for the clinical care delivered within NHS Borders.

Submitted on 12/12/2017 at 16:43
Published on Care Opinion at 16:49

picture of Lynn McCallum

Dear Tower,

I feel the need to thank you for so many elements but specifically for making my day today, when the hospital is bursting at the seams and there are a lot of very unwell patients in our care! I also want to thank you for giving up your time to come and listen to our patients' experiences and to feed back to us and guide us in the changes required to make our services better! Volunteers like you make such a difference to our hospitals and to the way that we deliver care. So thank you for caring and for taking the time to feed back to us on Care Opinion!

I am so glad that our patients feel well cared for and that they were reassured in the emergency situation. In fact, recognising the situation you describe, some of those same individuals were key in calling for help for the acutely unwell individual and this undoubtedly made a difference to their very positive outcome.

Our processes have undergone massive change in the last two years in MAU and the whole team has embraced this change and made it theirs. Their ownership and drive to improve the standard and delivery of patient care is evident on a daily basis and they strive to deliver a high quality of care at all times. We do of course recognise that we don't always get this right but learning from the people experiencing this (I.e. the patients themselves) is the most valuable in delivering a safer and more effective system. And so via the work that you do, you are helping us to change services and this, in collaboration with the patient's direct feedback here on Care Opinion is driving a safer, patient centred medical service within the BGH.

So thank you again both for your time volunteering and for feeding back to us here on CO.

With best wishes,

Lynn

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Response from Edmund Witkowski, Clinical Service Manager, Unscheduled Care, NHS Borders 6 years ago
Edmund Witkowski
Clinical Service Manager, Unscheduled Care,
NHS Borders

Submitted on 13/12/2017 at 11:10
Published on Care Opinion at 11:16

Hello Tower.

Really pleased to read your post this morning. Day to day our staff display their best clinical and personal qualities in dealing with unexpected, life threatening situations. Whilst our team do not seek out expressions of appreciation, there is the danger that their day to day excellence could be taken for granted within the context of the hurly burly of our routine work. Given that, your post is a most welcome reminder of the contribution our people make to the recovery and longer term wellbeing of the public who depend on us at their most vulnerable moments.

Regards

Ed

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