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"The lack of communication"

About: Antrim Area Hospital / Ward A5 Care of the Elderly

(as a relative),

My father was a patient in A5 for over 3 weeks during the September & October 2020.  Our experience of care overall is not a positive one. 

The key concern was the lack of communication; e.g. diagnosis without been informed, needing to ask specific questions in order to get an answer. It is so frustrating as families are not getting to see their loved ones, they cannot see the deterioration and are relying on timely information. My father was moved to other wards where communication was better but still not adequate. 

Generally staff appeared to care, however there was no co-ordination of care, literally a different staff member every time we phoned.  The wards should have named staff who co-ordinate the care and a device for older patients & families to face time at a designated time. My father sadly passed during these most difficult of times and his last weeks were spent without his family apart from the last few days at home. 

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Responses

Response from Fraser Collie, Assistant Director, Care of the Elderly, Northern Health and Social Care Trust 3 years ago
Fraser Collie
Assistant Director, Care of the Elderly,
Northern Health and Social Care Trust
Submitted on 28/01/2021 at 18:23
Published on Care Opinion on 29/01/2021 at 10:17


My name is Fraser and I am the Clinical Services Manager for Care of the Elderly.

First of all, thank you for taking the time to provide feedback about your experience and can I express my condolences in relation to your recent bereavement and the extremely difficult and distressing circumstances you found yourselves in. I am sorry to hear that you found communication regarding your father difficult and updates were provided by different staff members each time they contacted you to provide an update. The wards have been under tremendous pressure throughout this pandemic and to help with communication due to visiting being restricted due to the ongoing risk of Covid-19, we have now set up a Family Liaison Service. This service now supports the ward staff by contacting the patient’s nominated Next of Kin with regular updates and to relay any concerns from relatives back to ward staff with the objective being to improve communication with relatives and where possible to provide a dedicated person to liaise with relatives. In addition virtual visiting has now been introduced and is being supported by the Family Liaison Service. I recognise the anxiety felt by patients and relatives during these difficult times and the hurt that separation can cause. Please accept my sincere apologies. I would be grateful if you would contact me directly so that I can support you with this if you have any further queries my email address is fraser.collie@northerntrust.hscni.net

Again, thank you for taking the time to feed back to us. It can help us learn and improve where required.

Kind Regards,

Fraser

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