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"When messages don't seem to get through to people"

About: Northlands Community Health Centre

(as a service user),

Recently I've had cause to contact Northlands on numerous occasions, and there seems to be a real issue with messages being passed on to the relevant persons/ teams and/or then callbacks being made on the back of these.

I've tried to contact either my Care Coordinator or the Home Treatment Team three times within the last fortnight.  Messages were taken and call backs promised, but none were forthcoming.  The last occasion was lunchtime yesterday when I tried to contact my CC, but as of yet no contact has been made.  

This lack of contact forced me to visit my GP this morning, but they were unable to help, as it seems they've had no written correspondence from anyone at SHSCFT for almost two months?  I am quite shocked about this, more so given my level of acuity over recent months.  This meant the GP was unable to assist me there and then as it was a medication related issue and they have no correspondence on which to verify my situation. 

So I have telephoned again this morning (a ten minute wait to get through).  My CC was in a meeting so a further message and callback was offered.  You could forgive me not feeling at all confident that I will get one.

I can put up with the ten and twenty minute waits to get through, what isn't acceptable is when messages don't seem to get through to people.  I have enough worry and stress as it is without the organisation that is responsible for my care further adding to it.

Thank you for your attention.

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Responses

Response from Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust 5 years ago
Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust
Submitted on 08/01/2019 at 11:36
Published on Care Opinion at 13:01


We are sorry to hear about your recent experience and difficulties contacting the Home Treatment Services. We are aware there is an issue with people having long waiting times for calls to be answered and we are continuing to work with senior colleagues to resolve this. Our current system is that an email goes through to the team that someone has requested a call back and we aim to reply in a timely manner but it sounds like on this occasion this did not meet your expectations.

There are on-going efforts to look at ways to improve these issues. We have discussed in our business meeting regarding how we can improve and make the system more efficient and suit the needs of service users, family and friends and we have a team away day this month where we will continue to look at this situation.

We wish you all the best in your ongoing care and treatment.

Regards

Imelda Murphy (Clinical Nurse Manager) & Tom Foster (Senior Practitioner)

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