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Lack of monitoring and concern

Posted By Argyll Boy

"Lack of monitoring and concern"

About: Golden Jubilee National Hospital / Cardiac Surgery University Hospital Monklands / Cardiology/Coronary Care Unit (Ward 18)

(as a service user),

I was admitted to ward 18 Monklands Hospital having suffered a heart attack and remained with them for almost the whole of August this year. For approximately four weeks of this time I was waiting to be transferred to the Golden Jubilee Hospital for a bypass operation that was scheduled for the end of August.

I have to say that I have a lot of admiration for all staff in this ward, their professionalism and dedication is to their credit. I would however point out the following with the hope that my circumstances are not repeated in the future as the result of my stay could have been so much different.

The first two weeks of my stay were flawless, I was up early every morning, showered and shaved on my own and waiting for breakfast at 8 am.

The second two weeks were a marked contrast, where I was taken off the bedside monitors and fitted with a portable telemetry device to monitor my heart and moved to a private room. After five hours of being fitted with this device a nurse came to my room to change the batteries and to everyone’s surprise when they opened the device found that there were no batteries fitted.  For five hours I had been carrying a device that was not giving any readings and it took that length of time to notice.

Two days afterwards I was moved back to a four bed ward and a few days after that the telemetry device was removed as my readings were deemed to be fine and the device was needed for someone else.  For the remainder of my stay I was not monitored via an electronic device.

During the next ten days to fortnight my condition deteriorated.  I could either shower or shave, not both as my breathing was laboured and I was experiencing intermittent chest pains. By the end of the two weeks even a trip to the toilet was bringing on these symptoms.

I did not keep this to myself, I informed various doctors and nurses of the problems and said repeatedly that I thought I was getting worse. The attitude I got was that as I had a date for the operation I just had to sit tight.

To cut long story short, when I was eventually transferred to the Golden Jubilee Hospital the staff there were all over me.  I was classed as an emergency, not routine, prepped for surgery immediately and was operated on the Saturday which was very rare. The opinion of the surgeon afterwards was that the op was “challenging” and took almost 7 hours and several opinions were raised regarding my classification by Monklands.

I submit these details with the hope that nothing similar would reoccur in the future at Monklands and feel that if I had been listened to at the time I would not have came so close to a completely different outcome of my case.

I admire the work that all hospital staff carry out and I much appreciate their skill and attention and I hope these comments only help to improve things.

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Responses

Response from Karen Jamieson, Patient Safety Co-Ordinator, Quality Improvement Team, NHS Lanarkshire nearly 2 years ago
Karen Jamieson
Patient Safety Co-Ordinator, Quality Improvement Team,
NHS Lanarkshire

Submitted on 04/10/2022 at 20:53
Published on Care Opinion at 20:53

Dear Argyll Boy

Thank you for taking time to feedback on your experience at University Hospital Monklands, ward 18. We take your feedback seriously and note the points you make, and I am sorry to hear you did not feel listened to. We always want to make things better for patients,

It would be helpful if you could contact Patient Affairs at University Hospital Monklands so that they can understand the issues in more detail,

PatientAffairs.Monklands@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk Tel no 01698 752300

Kind regards

Karen

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Response from Gavin Dolan, Senior Nurse - Medical Directorate, University Hospital Monklands, NHS Lanarkshire nearly 2 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Gavin Dolan
Senior Nurse - Medical Directorate, University Hospital Monklands,
NHS Lanarkshire

Submitted on 05/10/2022 at 20:07
Published on Care Opinion on 06/10/2022 at 09:20

picture of Gavin Dolan

Dear Argyll Boy,

Thank you very much for taking the time to leave feedback via the Care Opinion platform. Your opinion very much matters to us in determining whether we delivered the level of expected care to all of our patients. On this occasion I believe we didn't and from what you are describing and for your honest feedback I thank you. At the same time though I would also offer you my sincere apology on behalf of Ward 18 for not delivering care to the high standard that we usually deliver to our many patients.

What you have described in your feedback sounds like human error in terms of the portable telemetry unit having no batteries in it. That said, regardless of human error, this is a significant safety issue you have highlighted and I will personally ensure that there is no repeat of this going forward. I will work closely with the Senior Charge Nurse of the ward and the wider team to ensure that we develop a very clear written process for ensuring that all portable units are live once attached to patients as your one should have been. Again, I am very sorry that this happened to you and for the time it took to recognise the error.

I was particularly concerned to hear that over the subsequent two weeks you continued to deteriorate and that you felt that you weren't listened to or communicated to effectively enough. Moreover, the discussion you had with colleagues at the Golden Jubilee University National Hospital must have made you very angry and added to your stress levels. I will certainly communicate with our Medical and Nursing colleagues the outcome of your Surgery and the opinion of colleagues at the tertiary centre so we can revisit our processes and treatment plans in case we missed something in your case.

I do hope that you are very much on your way to recovery and hope that you will accept my personal apology for the issues that you faced during your time with us at University Hospital Monklands. I am also grateful for your positive feedback and will ensure that all of the staff in Ward 18 have the opportunity to read your journey and experiences. If you would like to discuss anything else in more detail then please feel free to contact me directly via the University Hospital Monklands switchboard 01236 748 748 and I can look at your care specifically.

Very best wishes,

Gav

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Update posted by Argyll Boy (a service user)

Good morning Mr. Dolan,

Thank you for contacting me in response to my earlier post and if your subsequent actions help to improve patient care in the future I would be delighted.

As previously stated I am an admirer of of all health care professionals presently working in our hospital environment and I submitted my comments not as a criticism but purely to highlight an area I experienced which was not up to the usual high standard.

By the time I reached the Golden Jubilee I was at a very low ebb and the urgency in which the staff there tackled my case was disturbing and if truth be told, frightening!!!

If your future actions prevent that sort of experience happening to any other patient then my comments would have been some use.

I appreciate that with the heavy workload your staff are experiencing makes the job so much more difficult and I still owe them a big debt of gratitude. I hope your actions help others and I wish all staff the very best for the future.

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