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"Treliske adult insulin pump therapy"

About: Royal Cornwall Hospital (Treliske) / Diabetic medicine

(as the patient),

I moved to Cornwall using an insulin pump with NHS funding initiated by another CCG area. I was given no choice of where I could be treated but was told I could only attend the Royal Cornwall Hospital, RCHT (Treliske), for an insulin pump clinic. Here I would have to be reviewed in order to continue receiving NHS funding for my treatment, which also at Treliske unusually includes a compulsory "patient contract".

What followed was a string of appointments issued then cancelled by the hospital within a few weeks of each being issued, this continued for over 6 months. In the mean time, as I had not received one appointment that the hospital would keep, my life saving medical supplies were running out. Various local NHS medical staff and myself attempted to speak with specialist staff there for approx 10 weeks, leaving messages, sending emails and formal letters, but no-one at Treliske helped, they did not communicate with either me as a patient, my GP's or any community based NHS staff. At this point I gave in and after much NHS fighting I managed to organize myself an appointment in Devon. 
It appears to me that the adult insulin pump clinic at Treliske operates to block adult patients from accessing insulin pump therapy. I think they should feel ashamed at how this hospital treated me as an adult type 1 diabetic patient on insulin pumps, and I believe they really need to change their attitude, be retrained or should be closed down. 
I had contacted complaints team, but they didn't get back to me. The pump team clearly knew that this problem existed but did not act on it. It's good to see a now publicly available RCHT adult insulin pump service pathway document, but sadly it doesn't include any information on service accessibility or had any patient input, lots of patients being made to jump through hoops but no commitment or accountability from clinical staff or managers - if RCHT would like some help with this please contact me. Overall my experience conclusion in attempting to receive pump therapy at RCHT is I will avoid using this hospital at all costs in future.
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Responses

Response from Jess Saunders, Patient Engagement and Feedback Coordinator, Patient + Family Experience Team, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust 4 years ago
Jess Saunders
Patient Engagement and Feedback Coordinator, Patient + Family Experience Team,
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust
Submitted on 01/04/2020 at 15:51
Published on Care Opinion at 15:51


picture of Jess Saunders

Dear Johnson100,

Thank you for taking the time to share your story with us, I was saddened to read about the trouble you are having with the Insulin pump clinic at the Royal Cornwall Hospital. I have since forwarded on your concerns to the Matron who oversees the clinic for comment.

I work within Patient and Family Experience, alongside the complaints team, who I have also passed your feedback to. I am very sorry to see that you haven't heard back from them, but if you would like to call us on 01872 252793 or email us rcht.patientexperience@nhs.net, we can look into this further for you.

Thank you again for highlighting these issues to us.

Best wishes,

Jess

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by Johnson100 (the patient)

Dear Jess,

Thanks for your quick response, and for forwarding my account to others.

If the staff involved are not aware of anyone having this problem I will be happy to supply further details to them, if they have solved these problems since then it would be great to hear what they have done to ensure appropriate and timely treatment for adult insulin pump users, how they have structured responsibilities and are now actioning responsibilities to deal with these problems when reported to RCHT clinical staff by patients, GP's or community medics.

I don't mind which staff look into this problem but I really think it needs some kind of clinical and management accountability presence given the difficulty that it has created for patients to access this service. As this is a commissioned clinical service, by limiting patient accessibility RCHT is potentially creating inequality in finances of diabetes care provision across the south west of England, as patients from RCHT are being forced to seek care out of county, as I had to, this placing unfair pressure on other hospitals thus creating further problems.

As a patient with decades of experience in type 1 diabetes and pump therapy I would be very happy to help RCHT produce a better service pathway, if indeed it does want to ensure a high quality accessible adult insulin pump service for Cornwall.

Any help you can provide to explore and resolve these issues would be fantastic.

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