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District Nursing

Posted By squathx97

"District Nursing"

About: District Nursing / District Nursing - Carrick Joymount Residential Home Moyle Hospital / Inver Intermediate Care Unit

(as a relative),

First of all I would like to say that I think that the district nurses do an amazing job and this story is not intended to criticise them in any way.

In September last year my 92 year old mother had a fall at home when she broke her hip. She recovered well from the hip replacement operation and after recuperating at Inver in Larne she got home 4. 5 weeks later. Unfortunately, the night she arrived home she had another fall and broke her shoulder and had to be admitted to Joymount House in Carrickfergus until her shoulder healed and where she also received excellent care.

When she left Inver it was arranged that a District Nurse would call at her house daily to administer the anti clotting injection. Because she was not going to be at home after the second fall I did not want the District Nurse to be wasting her time calling at the house so telephoned her GP in Carrickfergus to advise them of the situation. The GP practice explained to me that the nurses did not work from the practice and they gave me another number to call which I did first thing.

I was shocked to discover when I received my phone bill (landline not mobile) that the number I was given is a premium rate number and the less than 1 minute call I made had cost 56 pence. Although I do not think that people should be asked to phone a premium rate number, especially when they are making the call so that the nurse’s time is not wasted, I want to point out that I would have had no issue with paying the 56 pence had the message been passed to the District Nursing team but as it turned out I was at my Mother’s house later that day when the nurse turned up to administer the injection as she had not been told that my mother would not be there.

Considering I had telephoned the call centre first thing and the District Nurse turned up quite a few hours later obviously no attempt had been made to take my Mother off the call list.

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Responses

Response from Marion Orr, District Nursing Coach, District Nursing, NHSCT 3 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Marion Orr
District Nursing Coach, District Nursing,
NHSCT

Submitted on 26/03/2021 at 18:55
Published on Care Opinion on 29/03/2021 at 10:57

picture of Marion Orr

Dear Squathx97

My name is Marion Orr and I’m one of the senior nurses in District Nursing in the NHSCT. I work alongside all the District Nursing teams and one of our aims is to improve the quality and experience of care for patients and relatives.

I would like to thank-you for sharing your story in relation to your experience. During a worrying time for you, when your mother sustained a second fall and a broken shoulder and had to be admitted to Joymount House, out of consideration and thoughtfulness, you took the time the following morning to try and stop an unwarranted 1st visit by the district nurse.

I’m sorry that in the process of trying to cancel this call, you were provided with a premium rate number for which you were subsequently charged a high rate. Furthermore even though you had contacted the call centre early, the district nurse/community nurse still called ‘quite a few hours’ later in the day.

In relation to the telephone charge, in September 2017 a local rate number for the Central Referral Management System (CRMS) was introduced to replace the premium rate number and this is the number you should have been given.

I have contacted the Information and Records Manager, Julie, who apologies and thanks you for your feedback. Communication is being sent to all the GP practices within the Trust to remind them of the correct local rate number. Your feedback has also made us aware that the ‘old rate premium’ number is still active so has prompted us to ensure it will now be disabled although this can take around 8 weeks. I plan to check that this has indeed been completed.

I have also communicated with all the District Nursing teams to remind them that the local rate number should be used on all types of communication with patients and relatives such as answering machines and information sheets.

I am truly sorry that despite you making the effort to cancel a call, you feel that your phone call was wasted.

Normally, the call management centre would forward this message electronically to the relevant District Nursing team. Whilst a community nurse checks the electronic system at regular intervals throughout the day, it is not continuously checked. Consequently the nurses may have been completing calls in the morning and by the time the system was checked the nurse may have already called or there may have been difficult contacting the relevant community nurse on his/her mobile phone.

Please be assured that we genuinely appreciate your consideration in trying to cancel your mother’s call and please be reassured that your call was not simply disregarded.

Your feedback is appreciated and has enabled us to make changes which will ultimately improve the experience of other patients and their relatives.

If you wish to discuss this further please contact me on marion.orr@northerntrust.hscni.net

Kind regards

Marion

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Response from Marion Orr, District Nursing Coach, District Nursing, NHSCT 2 years ago
We have made a change
Marion Orr
District Nursing Coach, District Nursing,
NHSCT

Submitted on 11/08/2021 at 13:23
Published on Care Opinion at 15:03

picture of Marion Orr

Dear Squathx97

My name is Marion Orr and I’m a District Nursing Coach in the NHSCT.

As a follow-up to your story on Care Opinion I would like to confirm that the premium rate number for the Trust's Central Referral Management System (CRMS) was switched off on the 26th July 2021 following communication between Trust Telecommunications and BT. The possibility of incurring a premium rate charge has been removed.

CRMS can now only be contacted through the local rate number 02825635521.

Thank-you again for raising this issue and by doing so we have been able to make a change that will improve the experience of other patients and their carers.

Regards

Marion

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