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Care Opinion

Inability to contact

Story from nhs.uk

"Inability to contact"

About: Royal Bournemouth Hospital

Very wary of my husband coming to hospital for surgery, especially when "day surgery"as promised was then talked of in terms of 2/3 days. Once he had decided to go ahead with the long awaited operation I understood the need for me not to be able to visit. What I am not at all happy about is the problem I had in attempting to check on his welfare after the operation. Having been given a phone number for the ward I at least expected it to be answered when I phoned. Instead I had to wait for news of my husband when my daughter posted something on facebook later in the evening. My husband, although groggy, had sent her a text. I do not have a mobile phone so he could not send me one and he was in no fit state to talk on the phone. Today I have discovered that the ward my husband was in was closed whilst he was in surgery. No attempt made to contact me or to explain that to him later so he was unaware that I had no idea how he was. Even with Covid this is totally unacceptable. Would not want to use this place myself.

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Responses

Response from Patient Engagement Liaison, University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust 3 years ago
University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 03/12/2020 at 15:54
Published on Care Opinion at 16:44

Dear Anonymous

We are very sorry to hear of the difficulties you had in trying to contact your husband and also the ward for updates on how his surgery went.

We do understand how important accurate information is and how distressing it can be when this information is not readily available so can only apologise that the specified phone number was not answered when you called.

Without further information about where your husband was it will not be possible to investigate the issues you have raised.

I did speak with the surgical directorate but there are a number of locations where day surgery can be performed.

Also as I’m sure you can appreciate, we need to act very quickly to any concerns over Covid 19 infection risks, so a ward may close at short notice in order to protect patients and staff alike.

If you would like us to investigate further please could I ask you to make contact with our Patient Advice and Liaison Service on 01202 704886 or pals@rbch.nhs.uk so they can review this with the ward your husband was on?

Once again we apologise for any distress this may have caused you or your husband.

We hope your husband’s surgery was successful and that he is recovering well.

Regards

Patient Experience Team
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