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Care Opinion

Lack of air conditioning in the Royal Infirmary

Posted By Concerned brother of a patient

"Lack of air conditioning in the Royal Infirmary"

About: Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh at Little France

(as a service user),

I recently lost my sister to cancer and she spent her last week this summer receiving palliative care in the hospital, the distress of the situation was compounded by the understandable protocols related to the current covid-19 pandemic but the very high temperature in the hospital that week was unacceptable, for staff, visitors and also patients like my sister who was saying her final goodbye to her family.

My sister had to have oxygen, the type of cancer she had meant she could hardly speak so you can imagine how upsetting it was to have to choose to have a plug in noisy fan running to keep the room cool for her and any visitors some of who felt faint while saying goodbye but then not to be able to hear her over the oxygen machine and the fan.

I felt and still feel that my family, my sister and the staff had to put up with conditions that are not acceptable in this day and age in a modern health facility. I was and still am in awe of the work the staff do in the NHS and I still cant thank them enough for the treatment and hard work that they provided while trying to save my sisters life but most of all for the kindness they showed us all. but this known issue has to be resolved and I am sure with some cleverly engineered changes a cost effective solution can be found.

This is not acceptable!

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Responses

Response from Simon Dunn, Associate Nurse Director, Royal Infirmary Edinburgh, NHS Lothian 3 years ago
Simon Dunn
Associate Nurse Director, Royal Infirmary Edinburgh,
NHS Lothian

lead nurse of the site

Submitted on 20/11/2020 at 17:19
Published on Care Opinion at 17:19

picture of Simon Dunn

Dear Concerned brother of a patient,

Firstly please accept my condolences for your loss. Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I appreciate this was an already difficult time for you and your family and am sorry that this was made worse by the uncomfortable temperatures in the ward.

During summer months this year, due to COVID, we were unable to use the same number of fans and air conditioning units to control hospital temperatures. This was not ideal for patients or staff although it was recognised that there were certain measures we needed to take to prevent the spread of COVID in our wards.

The teams strived to keep patients as comfortable as possible throughout the summer months and I am sorry that we weren't able to get this right for your sister.

Thank you for your kind words about the care your sister received. I am pleased to hear that your family experienced such kindness at a time when I am sure they needed it most.

Kind Regards

Simon

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

Update posted by Concerned brother of a patient (a service user)

Hi Simon, I appreciate you taking the time to respond but my question about the situation is about more of a long term approach and solution post pandemic.

I understand the measures that have to be put in place during the pandemic but the things you described like fans and air conditioning units used in previous years ( I assume all mobile) obviously seem to be a response to the overall lack of adequate infrastructure in the building itself.

Looking at older press clippings this is a known issue and staff spoke to me freely about how uncomfortable things had been long term when summer comes around each year.

Surely somebody is looking at a retrospective long term resolution plan? I am going to speak to my MP amongst other things to get some more detail. I am so disappointed that the main Edinburgh Hospital is set up like this, it seems from a build point of view this was a large mistake and should be remedied, I understand this would be complex ands costly but could be done over a period of time.

Thanks

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