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"Physio outpatients"

About: North Devon District Hospital / Accident and emergency North Devon District Hospital / Fracture Clinic North Devon District Hospital / Outpatients North Devon District Hospital / Therapies

(as a service user),

My son had dislocated his knee playing football at school. He was seen promptly in A&eE, fracture clinic and initially by a physio in outpatients. All of which I have no complaints about. In fact, I couldn’t have asked for a better service. The problems started when the second physio telephone consultation was cancelled. I was asked to ring back the department to rebook an appointment, but I was unable to get through. I tried several times over the course of a week with no joy. So we looked elsewhere for private physio for my son. 

The department finally rang me back and I explained that we had sorted advice elsewhere and thanked them for their time, but we would no longer need their service. At the end of August, we received a letter to say they had booked another appointment for my son. I also received a text message to confirm the appointment. I responded to the message to say we didn’t need an appointment. I also tried to call the number given to cancel it. The phone line never seemed to be answered and went to answer phone, which I couldn’t leave a message on as it was full. We have received  a letter to say we did not attend the appointment. This makes it sound like we did not attend, when in fact, I had replied to say we wouldn’t be attending and weren’t able to leave a message on the answer phone.

I feel that if you give a number to ring then it should be answered or at least the answer phone be available to avoid frustration.

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Responses

Response from Teresa Sturm, Matron, Patient Experience Team, Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 2 years ago
Teresa Sturm
Matron, Patient Experience Team,
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

My role as matron in the patient experience team covers both northern and eastern service at Royal Devon.

Submitted on 17/09/2021 at 12:07
Published on Care Opinion at 13:05


picture of Teresa Sturm

Dear bracejq34,

Thank you for taking the time to post your feedback on Care Opinion and bringing the issues you experienced to my attention. I am pleased to hear that your experience in A&E was a positive one. Firstly please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to you and I am so sorry for the poor communication that you experienced when trying to reach the physio department by phone, and text messages which must have been very frustrating.

I have contacted the service manager of the department on receipt of your feedback to ensure they check their phone lines. I would also like to apologise for the letter you received incorrectly stating that you had not attended when you had tried on numerous occasions to contact them and leave messages on the answerphone. Please could you email me direct and provide your details and I will ask the admin team to correct the letter you were incorrectly sent and I would also like to clarify which phone line into the department you were trying to call to ensure this is investigated.

I do hope your son is making a good recovery following his injury and thank you again for leaving your feedback on care opinion.

My contact details are Teresa.Sturm@nhs.net

Thank you

Teresa

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Response from Tara Jones, Interim Fern Centre Manager, Fern Centre Manager - Cancer Services (Northern), Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 2 years ago
We have made a change
Tara Jones
Interim Fern Centre Manager, Fern Centre Manager - Cancer Services (Northern),
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Submitted on 29/09/2021 at 14:24
Published on Care Opinion at 15:51


Dear bracejq34,

Thank you for your comments I was sorry to read you had a frustrating experience with the Physiotherapy Department.

We have taken your comments on board and it has made us review our processes and practices.

We now have more staff manning the telephones and taking messages off the answerphones and ensuring the messages are acted on accordingly.

I hope you will get some assurance we have acted on your feedback.

If you would like further information or detail you are more then welcome to get in touch by email my address is tarajones@nhs.net

Thank you

Tara

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