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Care Opinion

Recent Stroke Experience

Posted By Grarp74

"Recent Stroke Experience"

About: Craigavon Area Hospital / Stroke Care (2 south) Daisy Hill Hospital / Emergency Department

(as a relative),

My father had a suspected TIA a couple of weeks ago. He was taken to Daisy Hill Hospital and after 6-7 hours at A& E and a CT scan was sent home, this part of the experience was extremely poor. He is diabetic and sat on a chair in a corridor in A& E without food or water which exacerbated his symptoms. I know the hospital staff are under pressure but that should not have happened.

From the following day, the experience with the TIA Clinic at Craigavon has been absolutely brilliant. My dad was booked in for an MRI within 48 hours by the very helpful Bronagh. He was diagnosed with a mild stroke and has had both speech therapy and physiotherapy since. I can't believe the improvement he has made and this is down to the brilliant team at the Neurovascular TIA Clinic. Thank you so much for everything.

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Responses

Response from Paul Smyth, Interim Head of Service Emergency Departments, Acute & Emergency Medicine, Southern Health and Social Care Trust 3 years ago
Paul Smyth
Interim Head of Service Emergency Departments, Acute & Emergency Medicine,
Southern Health and Social Care Trust

Submitted on 18/02/2021 at 18:12
Published on Care Opinion at 18:12

Good afternoon

I am sorry you felt aspects of your fathers experience in the Emergency Department was poor. We do ascertain if someone is diabetic when they are assessed at triage, therefore based on that your father should certainly have been given food and water during his time in ED, if he had no swallowing problems. In addition, he should not have been kept in a corridor for that length of time. Unfortunately we have been dealing with unprecedented pressures on our services during the pandemic, when the Emergency Department is overcrowded, we run out of space and need to create capacity, we also have to separate patients with possible covid from those who do not have covid. As a result of these challenges, occasionally we have to place some patients in areas that are not ideal, I sincerely apologise for this and hope your father is recovering well.

Regards

Paul Smyth

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