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health care and lack of urgency

Posted By mag1949

"health care and lack of urgency"

About: Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary / Accident & Emergency Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary / Trauma & orthopaedics NHS 24 Scottish Ambulance Service

(as the patient),

During the night recently I found myself on the floor in the bathroom with my leg under my body, knowing that I wouldnt be able to get up because of my weak knee I managed to crawl to my bed thinking I had just sprained my ankle, but when I went to get up in the morning I could not get out of bed, after 8 attempts I realised the time was 11. 40am, I knew I had to get out of bed to get to the phone which was in the livingroom.

When I finally managed to get on to the floor I crawled to my livingroom to reach for the phone I was in excruciating pain I phoned for an ambulance and said that I thought that I had broken my ankle. There answer was it was not an emergency and that I had to phone nhs 24 which I did. I explained to them that I think I have broke my ankle. The nurse on other end said that I would have to be assessed by a doctor which would be out in 2hrs after I called.

The doctor didnt arrive until 4hours later doctor assessed and said I had gout but I know what gout was I was an auxillary nurse for years. Anyway my daughter phoned for an ambulance because the pain I was in, also my angina had started at the time. was taken by ambulance to accident and emergency by which time my ankle was purple and cold.

The A&E staff were very nice. I could have lost my leg. I was xrayed and it was a very bad break. I was taken to surgery that night, I am not happy the way this was handled it was an emergency I could have lost my leg due to incompetence

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Responses

Response from Michaela Cannon, Patient Feedback and Complaints Co-ordinator, Patient Services, NHS Dumfries & Galloway 10 years ago
Michaela Cannon
Patient Feedback and Complaints Co-ordinator, Patient Services,
NHS Dumfries & Galloway

I am responsible for the co-ordination of Patient Feedback and Formal Complaints received by NHS Dumfries and Galloway.

Submitted on 20/12/2013 at 14:24
Published on Care Opinion at 15:24

picture of Michaela Cannon

Dear Mag1949,

Thank you for your feedback. All feedback received by NHS Dumfries and Galloway regardless of whether it is positive or negative is valuable in helping us learn from people’s experiences and improving services for future patients.

I am sorry to hear that you had such a poor experience with potentially serious consequences for you. I would welcome the opportunity to look into this matter in further detail and would urge you to contact me directly to discuss this.

My contact details are:

Michaela Cannon

Patient Feedback and Complaints Co-ordinator

Logan West

Crichton Hall

Bankend Road

Dumfries

DG1 4TG

Tel: 01387 272733

Michaela.cannon@nhs.net

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Response from Mark Bargon, Digital Communications Manager, Scottish Ambulance Service 10 years ago
Mark Bargon
Digital Communications Manager,
Scottish Ambulance Service

Submitted on 20/12/2013 at 14:38
Published on Care Opinion at 15:25

Dear mag1949

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I am sorry to hear about your distressing experience and hope you are making a good recovery.

I would be grateful if you could contact our Feedback and Complaints team on 0131 314 0000 or at scotamb.complaints@nhs.net so that we can investigate this further.

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Response from Shona Lawrence, Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care, NHS 24 10 years ago
Shona Lawrence
Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care,
NHS 24

Submitted on 23/12/2013 at 10:01
Published on Care Opinion at 10:43

picture of Shona Lawrence

Dear Mag1949

Thank you very much for sharing your experience via the Patient Opinion website. I read your story with interest and I was very sorry to learn that you were diagnosed with a broken ankle. I am sure this would have been a very worrying and anxious time for you, and for your family and I do wish you a speedy recovery.

I note from your feedback that you contacted NHS 24 and that you were advised that a Doctor would attend to you within 2 hours, however this did not happen until 4 hours later. NHS 24 are keen to explore this further to establish exactly why there was a delay. If you would be kind enough to contact me directly, I would be pleased to arrange a review your call to our service.

Feedback such as yours is very valuable to NHS 24 as this gives up an opportunity to review the service we provide to patients which ultimately helps us to improve our service.

I can be contacted directly on 0141 337 4582 or by email at patientaffairs@nhs24.scot.nhs.uk. I woud be very pleased to be able to explore your case further and look forward to hearing from you.

With regards

Shona Lawrence

NHS 24 Patient Affairs Manager

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Response from Craig White, Divisional Clinical Lead, Directorate of Healthcare Quality and Improvement, Scottish Government 10 years ago
Craig White
Divisional Clinical Lead, Directorate of Healthcare Quality and Improvement,
Scottish Government

Leadership team supporting improvements in quality across health & care services

Submitted on 24/12/2013 at 13:43
Published on Care Opinion at 17:17

picture of Craig White

Dear All,

It's great to see all of the different parts of NHS Scotland responding to Mag1949's posting on Patient Opinion. I'm wondering if there might be an option of offering a single point of contact/co-ordination when feedback crosses three organisations like this story does?

I know that this often happens through other Feedback and Complaints processes in NHS Scotland. I would imagine it would be helpful to Mag1949?

Best wishes,

Craig White

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Response from Michaela Cannon, Patient Feedback and Complaints Co-ordinator, Patient Services, NHS Dumfries & Galloway 10 years ago
Michaela Cannon
Patient Feedback and Complaints Co-ordinator, Patient Services,
NHS Dumfries & Galloway

I am responsible for the co-ordination of Patient Feedback and Formal Complaints received by NHS Dumfries and Galloway.

Submitted on 30/12/2013 at 09:29
Published on Care Opinion at 12:11

picture of Michaela Cannon

Dear Professor White,

Thank you for your helpful suggestion of a single co-ordinated response across all three organisations involved. I can confirm that the patient has been in touch with me directly and I have contacted both NHS 24 and the Scottish Ambulance Service with the aim of providing a co-ordinated response led by NHS Dumfries and Galloway. I agree that a single response is more helpful to the complainant and is generally how we like to respond, when appropriate.

Best wishes

Michaela Cannon

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