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Care Opinion

Rude Staff

Posted By Disgruntledbuthumoured

"Rude Staff"

About: Crosshouse Hospital / Accident & Emergency NHS 24 / NHS 24 (111 service)

(as a relative),

Dad punctured his foot on a plug, funny I know, I dressed the wound and it eventually stopped bleeding. My dad still had pain and swelling and tingling so rang NHS 24 for advice, wasn't sure if we should bother with A& E but NHS24 were worried about the type of pain and whether he'd need antibiotics so advised him to attend.

The department was dead being a Tuesday night and not a lot happening, staff confirmed this and told us they had no one else to see but then left us in a room for an hour & a half with no communication about what we were waiting for and to be honest, if the nurse thought it was fine she has the authority to say I think that looks okay go home.

Instead the grumpy, hacked off doctor arrived and asked my dad what was wrong, my dad told him and then the doctor went so why are you here like so?   We felt that the doctor was actually quite rude, didn't smile once or acknowledge that we just came to check it out and the department wasn't busy so what was the problem.Then when we left not so much as a smile or a goodbye.

I understand ED doesn't like time wasters but was all innocent and just and NHS 24 send us in. Just plain rude service. Next time talk to your patient and smile instead of chatting outside the whole time whilst ignoring us completely for the time being. We weren't looking for special treatment we just wanted someone to say it's fine go home, didn't really need a doctor given the nurse sees these things all the time. Maybe structure your service to be more nurse led and more assertive.  

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Responses

Response from Claire Gilroy, Specialty Doctor, Emergency Department, University Hospital Crosshouse, NHS Ayrshire and Arran 5 years ago
Claire Gilroy
Specialty Doctor, Emergency Department, University Hospital Crosshouse,
NHS Ayrshire and Arran

Emergency

Submitted on 03/05/2018 at 15:48
Published on Care Opinion at 16:21

picture of Claire Gilroy

Dear Disgruntledbuthumoured,

Thank you for taking the time to send us your feedback. I am sorry that your dad and yourself did not receive the level of patient centred care that we expect our staff to deliver in our department.

I think we can learn a lot from your experience and I will ensure that your feedback is shared with our whole team. Communication, in many ways, is the most important part of what we do and you have given several examples of how we could potentially improve this.

Once I discuss this with my team I will be back in touch. In the meantime, if you would like to discuss this further please contact me Claire.gilroy@nhs.net

I hope your dad is feeling better.

Claire

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Response from Shona Lawrence, Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care, NHS 24 5 years ago
Shona Lawrence
Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care,
NHS 24

Submitted on 04/05/2018 at 09:46
Published on Care Opinion at 12:49

picture of Shona Lawrence

Hi

Thanks for sharing your story. Your Dad's injury sounds painful, so I do hope he is doing much better.

Your story has been tagged by the Care Opinion Team to NHS 24 as you mentioned contact with us which resulted in your Dad being advised to attend A&E. Your experience of A&E doesn't sound great, however I am pleased to see that Claire, my colleague from NHS Ayrshire & Arran, has responded to you.

If there is any specific feedback you wish to provide for the NHS 24 part of your Dad's care, then I would be delighted to hear from you. I can be contacted on 0141 337 4597 or by email at patientaffairs@nhs24.scot.nhs.uk

Thanks again for sharing your story and I do wish you both well.

With kind regards

Shona

Shona Lawrence

NHS 24 Patient Affairs Manager

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Response from Claire Gilroy, Specialty Doctor, Emergency Department, University Hospital Crosshouse, NHS Ayrshire and Arran 5 years ago
We have made a change
Claire Gilroy
Specialty Doctor, Emergency Department, University Hospital Crosshouse,
NHS Ayrshire and Arran

Emergency

Submitted on 10/05/2018 at 10:48
Published on Care Opinion at 15:57

picture of Claire Gilroy

Dear Disgruntledbuthumoured,

Negative feedback is always difficult to hear but we know that we can use it to help us to improve. I therefore want to thank you once again for taking the time to tell us about your experience in our department.

On Thursday, I circulated your feedback to all of our medical staff by email and then handed out copies to all of our staff at our team huddle the following day. This led to multiple conversations centring around effective communication.

As a team, we would like to ensure that all patients and their relatives have a positive experience in our department. We know that to achieve this effective communication is necessary at all times. Communication skills encompass more than just the words we speak and, as you pointed out, sometimes non-verbal communication skills like smiling and eye contact are just as important. These skills need to be developed but even the most effective communicator can be challenged by the environment we work in; stress, pressure, tiredness can all contribute to a poor consultation.

Today, on bank holiday Monday, we asked our team to think about what we can do to improve communication and asked them to write their ideas up on a board. We then asked them to pledge what they would personally do to help the team achieve this over the coming weeks. We received 16 different personal pledges ranging from role modelling and challenging negative behaviour to updating patients and relatives about waiting times. I am hopeful this will lead to improved patient and staff experience.

Claire

‘We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve’ Bill Gates.

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