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Mixed experience of departments at RCHT

Posted By pinky47

"Mixed experience of departments at RCHT"

About: Falmouth Health Centre Royal Cornwall Hospital (Treliske) / General surgery Royal Cornwall Hospital (Treliske) / Paediatrics

(as a staff member posting for a patient/service user),

Written by Healthwatch Cornwall on behalf of the story provider:

(A = person providing their story)

Intensive Care Unit - provided incredible support and fantastic care for A’s parent and liaison/communication with delivery suite for her own/maternity care was amazing, as was care on NICU.

Experience of care on the surgical receiving unit approximately 10 weeks ago was shocking. Staff were demoralised and very obviously having a tough day which was reflected in how they spoke to people and patients. Could see that nurses were rushed off their feet. A’s parent (the patient) needed assistance to the toilet. Staff did not arrive so a family member had to request a commode as they thought their parent would wet themself.

GP referred A’s parent into the hospital for a scan but this wasn't done for 48 hours, which sadly, they feel may have changed the outcome.

A also came to the paediatric ward/ED with A’s child a few weekends ago. Staff were rushed off their feet and didn't want to make eye contact, but the doctors were great and explained everything very well. Nurses attended A’s child every 30 minutes for observations but without really explaining to the young child what they were doing.

Staff did make it clear they were very busy, however patients were being triaged in the play area where personal information was being discussed. Therefore other people waiting there were able to hear.

A’s elderly parent visits regularly from out of county and due to distance of travel has to stay for longer periods. However, A’s parent requires regular INR testing. Spoke to own surgery - Falmouth HC who gave them the wrong information about testing so went to three different places. A’s parent used to be able to register as a temporary resident (TR) but Falmouth HC now will not accept TRs at all. Has had to go to another surgery in Falmouth.

A’s parent found this very stressful as was very unwell. Have raised this with the practice manager and asked them to raise these issues in a staff meeting. Would like concerns about these issues to be fed back to Kernow CCG.

A note from Healthwatch Cornwall

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Responses

Response from Mary Baulch, General Manager, Women, Children & HIV Services, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust 5 years ago
Mary Baulch
General Manager, Women, Children & HIV Services,
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust

Submitted on 02/01/2019 at 18:58
Published on Care Opinion on 03/01/2019 at 09:54

Thank you for this feedback which I will share with staff on Maternity, NNU and Paediatrics. I'm sorry that there were issues with communication and confidentiality on the paediatric ward/ED. I will discuss this with the nursing staff as part of our review of staffing - we have recognised the need recently to increase our nurse staffing but it's important we get the right support in place to ensure good communication takes place even during busy times. We are also reviewing our environment constantly and have plans to improve this in the future. I have asked parents & carers to get involved in this but we can also use patient stories so this is really useful. We have a message of the week for our staff so will pass these points onto staff via this to ensure improvements in practice. Please contact me if A would like to discuss any of this further.

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