"District nurses in tandragee"

My brother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in august 2020. He was given 6 months of chemotherapy and after his treatment was finished and was no longer going to the mandeville unit at craigavon area hospital. I felt quite isolated and left on our own.

My brother then took ill a couple of weeks later and I had to take him to A&E at craigavon where he was admitted. He spent 9 days in 3 south where we couldn’t get into see him because of Covid. My brother was discharged on the Thursday evening with a syringe drive in place and notes for the family and his GP. We were told by the nurses on the ward that the district nurse would be out on the Friday around 5pm to sort his medication. I was given a bag of medication that was to be put in the syringe driver and thought that was all.

Friday night after 5pm and no one from the district didn’t arrive I phoned 3 south and was told not to panic because the twilight nurse would be on. I thought ok I’ll wait a while longer. At 9pm no one had arrived. I called a family member who is a district nurse and and she had the means to look up and see if my brother was in the system and she couldn’t see anyone but she had the number of Paul who was on twilight that night and he contacted me immediately and he was out ASAP which was great.

When he arrived after 10pm he asked me for my brother’s medication and notes which all I had was the letter for the family and doctor. Paul then asked me for the box which he needed to put the medication in. I had nothing there because I wasn’t given anything. Paul then had to phone the district sister Lisa from Tandragee district who had to go down and open the surgery for him.

This was very stressful for my brother and his wife and myself. I have to say the way Paul handled it was brilliant and made us all feel at ease even if it was after midnight before he left. Paul was on call over the weekend which was great because he was so helpful and made my brother feel comfortable but I felt that the hospital should have passed on such important notes.

On the good part of this is that we couldn’t praise the women and men from the Tandragee district highly enough because they have been so good to my brother and our family in these sad times. I really appreciate how they have handled everything and how much work they do. I can not stress enough how much these workers do and how they have answered all the silly little questions I have asked them and nothing is ever to much for them.

So I just want to say a BIG THANK YOU TO THE TANDRAGEE DISTRICT NURSES. 

Thank you.