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I found the assessment room intimidating

Posted By bluefingers

"I found the assessment room intimidating"

About: Royal Edinburgh Hospital / General Psychiatry The Edinburgh Crisis Centre

(as a service user),

Was referred to MHAS at Royal Edinburgh New building in February of this year by my GP.   It was a very cold night and I arrived at about 6.30pm.   I was placed in a waiting room which was cold and uncomfortable for four hours without any staff checking on my welfare. Eventually I went back out to the Reception area and begged in tears of distress to the staff on duty there to investigate the delay and provide me with a cup of tea.  The receptionist contacted the MHAS office on my behalf and I was assessed within the next half hour. It was almost midnight and the snow was falling very heavily..

I found the room that the assessment took place in extremely intimidating.  This was my first encounter with a service of this kind and I certainly was not prepared for being placed in front of a high counter with a member of staff on the other side,,,not unlike what I imagine a police custody place may look like. 

The one person who assessed me agreed that I should be under their care and advised me to call Edinburgh Crisis Centre as a place of safety for the night.  I called and arranged for this to happen but was not offered transport there in such treacherous conditions. 

I had ongoing support from both MHAS and Edinburgh Crisis Centre,

May I suggest that some facility be made available eg a vending machine/water cooler in the reception area of the new building if potential patients have to wait so long. In addition I would like to see on the initial questionnaire supplied by reception a question asking whether the patient has any physical disabilities that staff should be aware of.  Not all disabilities are visible and I found the seats in the waiting area exacerbated my chronic back pain.

 

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Responses

Response from Patient Experience Team, NHS Lothian 5 years ago
NHS Lothian

Submitted on 07/06/2018 at 16:47
Published on Care Opinion at 20:50

Dear bluefingers,

I am sorry to read your post and of your experience having attended MHAS at the Royal Edinburgh earlier this year. I can hear, understandably, that this was an upsetting and difficult time for you. The Clinical Management of this service area really appreciate all of your feedback, and have asked me to get in touch to see if you can contact us to provide more information to help them look into this in more detail.

The Patient Experience Team can be contacted by:-

Tel: 0131 536 3370

Email: feedback@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk

Post: Patient Experience Team, 2-4 Waverley Gate, Waterloo Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3EG

In the meantime the Clinical Management of this service area have confirmed that they will look into all the feedback you have provided, and have asked me to let you know that they are sorry for your experience, and that you found the assessment room environment to be intimidating. The service explained that at times the assessment service can be very busy and whilst they do endeavour to try to ensure people are assessed as soon as possible, and within the national 4 hour waiting times, on the occasion you attended it sounds as though the service was busy; that you would have been seen in this interview room to prevent you waiting for a longer period of time to access the other interview room (there are two interview rooms at the service, and one does have a high level fixed desk which is in place for staff safety reasons). Regarding the waiting room feeling cold at that time in February; the thermostats in the building are electronically monitored regularly to help meet the recommended room temperatures and MHAS will ensure this is further checked by the Facilities Department.

MHAS currently have arrangements in place to install vending machines in the new Royal Edinburgh Building, and their reception staff have access to bottled water to provide this for people waiting to be assessed; MHAS will look to provide information at reception to help ensure that this is also known to patients. This service area also plan to review the seating within reception further to your feedback, and also the information you highlighted on the questionnaire regarding disabilities, and have relayed that they would again like to apologise that your visit on this occasion was not as they would have expected.

Thank you very much again for contacting us.

Best wishes,

Pamela

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