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Cardiac Event Recording

Posted By A tired patient

"Cardiac Event Recording"

About: Specialist Therapy Services / Rushcliffe CHD Clinic

(as the patient),

The healthcare professional I saw was very friendly and my appointment was very brief and seemed efficient. I then wore the event recorder I was given for a whole week, recorded 10 events (the maximum) and completed the paper diary with all the details.

The electrodes caused sores on my skin as I must have been allergic to the adhesive, so it was very painful all week and I was counting the hours down to the end. The device made a ringing noise and was flashing differently early on, but it had not been explained to me what the lights or tones meant and I couldn't find a manual or instructions online. It seems that the monitor had not been set up correctly and was already full with someone else's data that had not been deleted off the device, so most of my events did not record after all that.

I don't live in the same area, and had to inconvenience someone else to take me back to the centre again (who had to take even more time off work to take me). At the centre, another monitor had just been left in a packet at reception and I had to start the week again. Thus having to stick the electrodes back onto already sore skin, and go through the whole thing again while not feeling particularly confident it was actually working as it hadn't before. And worrying, because starting again was delaying getting the results when I'd already waited to access the service in the first place.

Mistakes are made, but it didn't feel very good that no-one apologised to me for this or even acknowledged that I had had a completely wasted week of recording and discomfort.

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Responses

Response from Nicola Zurawliw, Head of Adult Services, Nottingham West, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 3 years ago
Nicola Zurawliw
Head of Adult Services, Nottingham West,
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Lead Community Health Services

Submitted on 09/08/2021 at 10:23
Published on Care Opinion at 10:33

picture of Nicola Zurawliw

Dear A tired patient

Thank you for taking the time out to leave feedback on your recent experience of the CHD clinic and service. Feedback is valuable to us to allow our services to to be effective.

I am pleased to hear your experiences with our staff was positive and friendly experience, but I am sorry to hear that your experience with the piece of equipment required caused skin reactions and wasn't working to the standard required, creating additional visits from yourself. We are currently reviewing the event recorders in our CHD to ensure data is downloaded properly and also the machine is functioning, so thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Nicola, PCN Lead

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Update posted by A tired patient (the patient)

This response misses the main point, which was the lack of apology or any recognition from any staff member that a mistake was made, resulting in a wasted week, discomfort and inconvenience.

Response from Sarah McCartney, Head of Service, Rushcliffe Adult Community Teams, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trus 3 years ago
We have made a change
Sarah McCartney
Head of Service, Rushcliffe Adult Community Teams,
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trus

Submitted on 10/08/2021 at 12:08
Published on Care Opinion at 14:19

Dear A tired patient,

I have investigated your concerns and I am sorry this is your experience of the CHD Clinic. I am sorry to hear this experience has left you in discomfort and has inconvenienced you, that is not what we want for any of our patients.

The clinician who attached your event recorder has confirmed there was no previous patient data on the machine when it was attached to you. We are experiencing some problems with the recorders and despite being serviced by the manufacturer some recorders are bleeping and alarming intermittently with some data not being recorded.

Unfortunately this is sporadic and we don't know when this malfunction will occur. I am sorry this happened to you and you had to undertake another week with a device. We are in the process of purchasing new recorders to ensure this does not continue to happen.

The sticky pads used to attach the probes can sometimes cause irritation to a patients skin and as you describe this was the case for you. In the event of any future skin irritation please notify the staff immediately who can apply a barrier film to your skin or find an alternative adhesive to keep the probes in place. I'm sorry this information was not shared with your at the time.

If you would like to raise the issues you experienced formally or if you would like to discuss your concerns in person, please feel free to give me a call.

Sarah McCartney; Head of Service, Rushcliffe Adult Community Teams

0300 083 0100

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