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Felt judged in the ED

Posted By nuthatchbc43

"Felt judged in the ED"

About: Craigavon Area Hospital / Emergency Department Northern Ireland Ambulance Service / Emergency ambulance response

(as a service user),

I was taken into the emergency department by the paramedics. They were so friendly and put me at ease as I suffer from severe anxiety. When I was waiting in ED, sitting for hours no one offered me a drink of water apart from two care opinion girls. They gave all the patients who were allowed a drink. I was under the influence of alcohol and did feel a bit judged and avoided at times. My kidney dishes weren't cleaned quickly with vomit and I felt a little embarassed. The experience is very overwhelming and I feel so anxious. I wish I got a closed cubical to feel more at ease and for my mental health as seeing lots of other patients and staff scared me.

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Responses

Response from Amanda Sweetlove, NIAS, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service 2 years ago
Amanda Sweetlove
NIAS,
Northern Ireland Ambulance Service

Service User feedback

Submitted on 01/12/2021 at 23:08
Published on Care Opinion at 23:08

picture of Amanda Sweetlove

Dear nuthatchbc43

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience with us. I fully appreciate how debilitating living with anxiety can be and discussing your experience is a very brave step. A step that we all will hopefully learn from enabling us to make positive changes for the service users of the future.

Sadly we live in such a busy world that we do not always recognise or even realise the impact a particular situation is having on those around us. I am so sorry you felt isolated and judged.

It sounds as if the ambulance clinicians who attended you were helpful, friendly and reassuring. I am thankful that you could relax and feel supported in their care. I would very much like to share your comments with the crew as I believe it would be important for them to understand the postive impact their treatment of you had and how it helped ease your anxiety. If you would be happy for me to share your compliments, please contact me on amanda.sweetlove@nias.hscni.net as I would require a few extra details of the call.

I hope you are feeling much stronger and wish you every success with finding coping mechanisms to help you reduce your anxiety for good.

Take care and stay safe.

Amanda

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Response from Paul Smyth, Interim Head of Service Emergency Departments, Acute & Emergency Medicine, Southern Health and Social Care Trust 2 years ago
Paul Smyth
Interim Head of Service Emergency Departments, Acute & Emergency Medicine,
Southern Health and Social Care Trust

Submitted on 08/12/2021 at 17:13
Published on Care Opinion at 17:13

Dear nuthatchbc43 - thank you for providing this feedback through Care Opinion. As we do not have your specific details, I am not sure why you were not offered water, if there was no medical reason to contra-indicate it, you should have been hydrated.

The staff would not judge someone coming in after alcohol consumption. The department has had significant overcrowding this last few months, there are regularly a significant number of people delayed waiting on admission beds in the emergency department which impacts greatly in the way the department can function.

Unfortunately we often have no available cubicles and we have to place patients on trolleys in open areas. We do apologise that your experience left you scared and hope you are recovering well.

Paul Smyth

Head of service for ED/MIU

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