"Neurosugery planned operation"

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on your wife’s experience at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. We welcome all feedback and would like to assure you that all comments are taken seriously and acted upon as part of our ongoing commitment to improving patient experience. Your feedback has been forwarded to the senior staff responsible for the area caring for your wife. They have provided this response: We are very sorry that your wife has not had a satisfactory experience during her time at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. We are committed to ensuring that all patients receive a high standard of patient care, so we are saddened that you feel that this has not been the case for your wife. We will investigate your comments regarding your wife being woken up at 02.15 to ask where her paper work was. We do not like to disturb patients whilst they are sleeping during the night unless it is to deliver direct care, therefore we would like to apologise for this and assure you that the Ward Manager will investigate this issue further and ensure all staff are reminded not to disturb patients during the night unnecessarily. As a large acute trust with an Accident and Emergency Department we often have critically ill patients being admitted who require immediate transfer to a Critical Care bed. Furthermore due to the large number of complex conditions that we treat, there are occasions where patients who are already in-patients deteriorate and require transfer from their ward bed into a Critical Care bed. Unfortunately due to the uncertainty of these admissions there are times where we are unable to proceed with elective surgical cases as our Critical Care capacity has been allocated to critically ill patients who require immediate Critical Care support. Please be advised that when situations like this arise all decisions that are made regarding the allocation of Critical Care beds are made by senior Consultants and are always based upon on clinic need only. In relation to the circumstances surrounding the discussion with your wife about cancellation of her operation and lack of support given afterwards, the Ward Manager or the Matron would like the opportunity to discuss this directly. To maintain patient confidentiality we do not give any specific detail relating to individual patients via the NHS Choices website. If you would like the opportunity to discuss this or any further concerns please advise the ward nursing staff who will be happy to arrange this for you. Alternatively you can make contact via our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) team who will also be pleased to assist. PALS can be contacted by phone 0121 371 3280, by email PALS@uhb.nhs.uk , via the hospital website http://www.uhb.nhs.uk/pals-form.htm or in person by dropping in between 9am – 4.30pm (Mon-Fri) to the PALS office located to the left of the Information Desk in the main entrance of the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.