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Hospital admission and follow up care

Posted By Liaison67

"Hospital admission and follow up care"

About: Borders General Hospital / Accident & Emergency Borders General Practices

(as a staff member posting for a carer/relative),

Following a fall at home my mother was taken by ambulance and admitted to accident and emergency at the Borders General Hospital in Melrose. She fell outside and landed on her hip and following this was in acute pain. She described numbness in her leg on the side she fell onto and a coldness in her foot.

When she was seen she was given a very thorough examination and sent for an X-ray which showed there were no fractures. She was given analgesia for the pain while she waited but was still in a great deal of pain.

Her mobility was poor and I spoke to the doctor as I was concerned how she would manage with the stairs in her home since she could barely walk. The doctor advised me they would refer to the RAD team for follow up and a physio would contact her the next day by phone to arrange to see her. She was discharged home with a prescription for analgesia.

Unfortunately after being advised where to get the prescription the actual pharmacy was closed so she was without any painkillers until the next day. There was no contact from RAD and her pain is now worse and her mobility poorer than before. Despite trying to get an appointment with her GP she has just been sent different painkillers, which made her sick, and not followed up at all.

I consider this to be extremely poor practice on all accounts and she is still left with acute pain and unable to mobilise.

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Responses

Response from Paul Williams, Associate Director Allied Health Professions, NHS Borders 2 years ago
Paul Williams
Associate Director Allied Health Professions,
NHS Borders

Submitted on 30/07/2021 at 14:53
Published on Care Opinion at 14:53

Dear Liaison67. I am sorry to hear of your experience at the Borders General Hospital Emergency Department. It appears that a breakdown in communication resulted in the RAD team not being aware of your situation for which we can only apologise. We would like the opportunity to provide any further assistance that may be required, and also to ensure that we learn from this situation. If you are willing to call 01896 826537 we would like the opportunity to discuss this further.

Thanks

Paul

Paul Williams

Associate Director AHP's NHS Borders

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Response from Lesley Anderson, Senior Charge Nurse, Emergency Department, NHS Borders 2 years ago
Lesley Anderson
Senior Charge Nurse, Emergency Department,
NHS Borders

Submitted on 07/08/2021 at 18:36
Published on Care Opinion at 18:36

Dear Liaison67, thankyou for using Care Opinion. We value all feedback we receive. I notice Paul Williams has already replied but felt it was also important to respond on behalf of the Emergency Dept. We try and use RAD to assess as many patients as necessary to ensure patients are safe and fit for discharge. I am sorry that on this occassion the follow up with RAD was missed, I am unable to explain how that has happened. Normal practise is for patient details to be documented in the RAD folder and then the RAD team pick this up the following day so again I apologise for the breakdown in this process. With regards to the prescription, we would issue a prescription if we are aware of pharamcies still being open and if patients or their relatives are well enough to collect these from an external pharmacy. In the Out of Hours period when the pharmacies are closed, ED do have a supply of take home packs of analgesics, albeit a slightly limited supply, so if there had been any doubt that the pharmacies were closed, ED could have given analgesia from their supply, however it is difficult for me to comment fully without knowing discharge times etc for your mum. I do hope she is making a recovery and apologise again for the breakdown in the RAD referral process.

Kind Regards

Lesley Anderson, Senior Charge Nurse, Emergency Dept, Borders General Hospital

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