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"Low regard for patients families"

About: The Wells Road Centre

(as a carer),

Received a call out of the blue from the physical health nurse. This nurse gave me an unnecessary, and totally uncalled for, interrogation about my relative, before what I felt, coldly and callously telling me that said relative had cancer. Not one ounce of empathy, but instead a  conversation full of ambiguity and totally unnecessary medical jargon. 

This nurse then went on to tell me I would not be able to attend a follow-up hospital appointment with my relative relating to their cancer;  and that if I wanted to do this i'd have to contact the cancer care team myself. The staff member told me in no uncertain terms that their team would be going and they'd tell me how it went.
I felt the staff member alienated me and tried to make me think that I had zero rights as a relative. Disgraceful.
I am struggling to find the words to articulate just how unprofessional this person was to me. Zero care, zero regard, zero anything. All of this coming from someone who is heavily involved in my relatives care. 
All of this is something which is now giving me immense cause for concern.
I raised a complaint with a senior member of staff, however, I'm awaiting further details on how to ensure my complaint is formalised. 
I have grave concerns that complaints fall on deaf ears and that a culture of disregard is common place.

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Responses

Response from Jacky Chapman, Deputy Director Forensic Care Group, Forensic Care Group, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 2 years ago
Jacky Chapman
Deputy Director Forensic Care Group, Forensic Care Group,
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Submitted on 26/01/2022 at 10:15
Published on Care Opinion at 10:15


Dear 'korky'

I am really sorry to hear that you feel the attitude of a staff member has been unprofessional and uncaring. This is below the standard of care that we expect for our patients and their carers.

We try where possible not to use medical jargon and aim to share information in the most accessible way and involve carers as much as possible. We don't want you or any other relative to feel powerless or degraded.

I am sorry you feel that complaints are not listened to. We are actively trying to gain feedback from carers to make our services better for all that use them and have developed the use of QR codes and information sharing through newsletters to try and achieve this.

Your feedback is our opportunity to understand where there are areas of the service that can be improved. It would be greatly appreciated if you could tell us more about your experiences through our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) so that we can ensure everything is done to address your concerns.

The link is below.

www.nottinghamshirehealthcare.nhs.uk/patient-advice-and-liaison-service

Yours sincerely,

Jacky Chapman, General Manager

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Update posted by korky (a carer)

Hello Jacky,

Thank you for your reply.

You say you are actively trying to gain feedback from patients and carers via a QR code system and newsletter. This is the absolute first I've heard or your newsletter and QR code system, so I would suggest the system isn't working. Furthermore, the relatives I have who attend hospital visits with the patient concerned, simply wouldn't engage with a QR code function on the basis of digital exclusion.

For 48 hours I have attempted to call your team. This has included leaving voicemail message. In total I have made several phonecalls with not one of these calls having been answered.

You say you don't want patients relatives to feel powerless, however, your processes for people logging complaints seem to present barrier after barrier.

Having been degraded by the NHS staffing team, and then having to spend 4 days pressing for how I raise a complaint, to then face the final barrier of a PALS service which seems non existent, just seems like the final insult.

I said in my original post that complaints fall on deaf ears and that there seems to be a culture of disregard. My experience over the last week raising concerns with the staffing team and trying to chase the PALS team to no avail, only seems to substantiate that claim.

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