"Trying to get a diagnosis 2 weeks on"

Dear Godsgirl,

Thank you very much for taking the time to leave feedback on the Care Opinion platform. I very much appreciate you taking the time to be so honest and frank in your feedback.

I was sorry to learn of your experiences as you set out in your feedback. It sounds like you have had a terrible experience and equally, the ongoing pain that you have must be very debilitating and frustrating. I was sorry to learn of your wait on an Ambulance after dialling 999 - It would be unfair of me to comment on any advice you were given by the service as I can only assume that they were extremely busy when you called. I would hope that colleagues in the Ambulance Service are able to reply to you via this platform and hopefully give you some peace of mind and some answers to your questions.

In relation to coming to the ED at University Hospital Monklands, I am very sorry to hear that you had to wait 5 hours to be seen by a clinician. This is an unusually long time to wait to be seen in ED but unfortunately, as the pandemic continues to evolve, so too does the demand on unscheduled care and again, unfortunately, I can only surmise that we had a very busy department at the time. Nonetheless, it was a very long time to wait and I apologies again for the time you had to wait to see one of our clinicians. It is an unfortunate fact these days during the pandemic that when people see our waiting room empty or with a only a few individuals within it at any given time, they assume we are quiet. In actual fact, it is probably an indicator more that we are managing to safely adhere to strict social distancing guidance and continue to ensure our patients and their relatives remain safe in our department as much as practically possible.

Again, I am very sorry to learn of your ongoing issues around pain and not really knowing where to turn to for onwards care. I would like you to know, that we are open at University Hospital Monklands Emergency Department 24 hours a day, 7 days a week over 365 days a year and will see any patient who presents with an Emergency that is urgent, time critical or life threatening. We would always encourage patients to use our emergency service wisely and if not critical or life threatening then to engage with your GP for onward management and referral if appropriate. It sounds very much like you need to engage with your GP and suggest onward referral to a Neurologist if that is what you believe to be the right course of treatment / appropriate referral to try and get to the bottom of the problem. Please don't be frightened to re contact your GP if you feel that your symptoms are not improving or you feel the pain is worsening. I am really sorry that you are having these issues and can absolutely appreciate your frustrations. I would very much feel like you do also if this were my situation.

I hope you manage to get the right help you need very soon and that your GP is able to signpost you to the right specialist if required.

Best wishes,

Gavin