"23 hours for an ambulance"

Hi J103,

I'm really sorry to hear about your experiences and that your mum had to wait so long for an ambulance.

You are correct that we have been dealing with a period of huge demand from patients requiring an ambulance and unfortunately we have to prioritise these calls, with immediately life threatening and serious cases being prioritised and seen first. This is why the call will have been passed to NHS24 for assistance but I can completely understand your frustration and dissatisfaction.

We would like to investigate this for you and look into what happened, so you have done the right thing in registering your complaint with our team through the email system. I have just checked in with the team, and just to reassure you that an investigation into your complaint is already underway. It is correct that we require consent in order for us to comply with the legislation which has been put in place around data protection, but what that consent is effectively for is to allow us to send our findings back to you once we have completed our investigation. The ward closure will therefore not have any impact upon your complaint being investigated so if you could get the consent to us when you can that would be great.

I am pleased to hear that the care received once your mum was admitted was very positive and apologies that it didn't get off to the best of starts.

Thanks for taking the time to feedback directly, both through our email system and on care opinion. It is appreciated and your complaint is being investigated.

In the meantime, I hope your mum is recovering well.

Thanks,

Mark

Dear J103

I am very sorry to learn your Mother required to be hospitalised due to an issue with her legs and I hope she makes a good speedy recovery. I have read your story with concern. It appears there are a number of issues which require to be explored.

It may be helpful to explain that should contact be made with the Scottish Ambulance Service and they deem the call suitable for referral to NHS 24, then we normally try to make contact with patients, or their families, within one hour. From what you have described, it appears that we subsequently arranged for a home visit by an Out of Hours GP to be undertaken. Clearly there was some mix up in relation to the location of your Mother and we would be keen to look into this further to clarify what information was shared between NHS 24 and the Out of Hours Service. The arrival of the Doctor at 5am does appear an excessive delay and we would wish to understand why this was the case.

NHS 24 is keen to explore our involvement in your mother’s care. I would be pleased if you would be kind enough to contact me directly on 0141 337 4582 or by email at patientaffairs@nhs24.scot.nhs.uk I really think we can help you here and would be happy to discuss this more fully with you.

I understand that this would have been a worrying time for you all and I am pleased to note your positive comments in relation to the care your Mother received from the Out of Hours GP and the staff within the hospital.

I look forward to hearing from you when, with some additional detail, we can review your Mother’s care from an NHS 24 perspective.

With kind regards

Shona

Shona Lawrence

NHS 24 Patient Affairs Manager

Dear J103,

I am really sorry to read that your mother had such a long delay being admitted. It must have been very distressing for her and her family.

It looks from the information that you have given me like the original 999 call was passed to NHS24 and this would have been based on the information given on the 999 call itself. In relation to the request for an ambulance the next morning, unless the requesting doctor says the call is an immediately life threatening emergency, we will normally respond either as soon as possible or within an agreed time period. This can be several hours if it is felt by the doctor that it is clinically appropriate.

It's not going to be easy to talk about the specifics in your mother's case as the details are confidential to her and we would need her permission to share them, but that probably isn't helpful to you. Do contact me on 0141 810 6101 and I will see what I can do to help you.

Thank you for taking the time to feed back and thank you especially for highlighting the good care the ambulance staff gave to your mother. I hope that she is recovering well.

Pat

Dear J103

I am sorry to read about your Mother’s experience.

I see that my colleagues from NHS 24 and the Scottish Ambulance Service had responded to your post. I just wanted to say thank you for your kind comments regarding the staff in the Acute Medical Receiving Unit, Ward 53 and Ward 30.

Please pass on my best wishes to your Mother.

Kind Regards

Nicole