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Endometrial biopsy without pain relief

Posted By orionwn43

"Endometrial biopsy without pain relief"

About: Jubilee Hospital / Out Patients Department

(as a service user),

Recently, I attended Jubilee Hospital for a Gynae outpatient appointment. I was under the impression that I was being referred due to being on an oestrogen only Hrt with the Mirena coil. I was expecting a transvaginal ultrasound scan to be discussed. However, I was informed I was having an endometrial biopsy and accused of not having had smear tests( factually incorrect) so this would be done. At no point was I asked for consent, given any advice as to the procedure or offered pain relief. Having had Mirena coils over the years I know to take painkillers beforehand. This option wasn’t available to me. I was given no follow up advice. The nurse was very kind and gave me a sanitary towel as I hadn’t expected to need to buy any. I had to attend OOH at 2. 20 am after ringing 111 and being advised to get checked as I had severe cramps akin to labour and had passed a clot. Subsequently I’ve had 2 further emergency appointments at the GP for continued pain and have been referred for an ultrasound scan. I’ve made a written complaint and have requested a change to a different consultant in light of this. I still await results. To compound the situation, I received a phone call to inform me my smear test had been sent in an out of date specimen pot so would need repeating.  I said that I would arrange this at my Health Centre. I received a follow up appointment letter saying this consultant would do a smear test and possibly a transvaginal scan. I cancelled this appointment.  

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Responses

Response from Kirsten Dickson, Quality Improvement and Assurance Facilitator, Quality Improvement and Assurance Team, NHS Grampian 4 years ago
Kirsten Dickson
Quality Improvement and Assurance Facilitator, Quality Improvement and Assurance Team,
NHS Grampian

Submitted on 03/03/2020 at 11:09
Published on Care Opinion at 11:09

picture of Kirsten Dickson

Dear orionwn43,

Thank you for sharing your experience with us and please accept my apologies for the delay in getting back to you. I am responding to you as a member of the Quality Improvement and Assurance Team but can assure you your story has been shared with both of the services involved. The Gynae outpatient clinic at Jubilee Hospital is formed of a team of nurses, who are based at Jubilee, and the consultants who visit from their base at Dr Gray’s. It took me longer than expected to figure this out and get in touch with the right people – hence the delay.

The Jubilee nursing team were glad you found them kind and the assistance they provided helpful. They are really sorry about the out of date sample pot which has meant you’ll have to repeat your smear. This was an isolated incident which hasn’t happened in the department before - they acknowledged that being an isolated incident made it no less frustrating for you – but would like you to know they have made a change to their monitoring as a result of your story to help ensure this doesn’t happen again.

I was disappointed to read that rest of your appointment was not a good experience for you. Patients should always be fully aware of their appointment purpose and have a chance to discuss queries about any procedure before it takes place. Consent should always be sought before a procedure is carried out too. This clearly didn’t happen for you causing unnecessary stress and most likely made your traumatic experience afterwards seem even more so. It makes me feel sad to think that you were not spoken to with the dignity and respect that every patient should be and completely understand your request to change consultant – I would have done the same.

We are looking into why this happened and what we’ll do to change through the complaint you submitted. Sometimes when a complex complaint (involving more than one service) is submitted it takes longer than we would like to get a response together. The service have said the investigation is underway and they hope to get back to you soon.

I hope you managed to get an appointment arranged for a repeat smear at your health centre. If there is anything further I can do to help - please get in touch. I can be contacted on kirsten.dickson@nhs.net or by phone on 01224 558404.

Take care,

Kirsten

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