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bad experience with a community based care manager

Posted By hog

"bad experience with a community based care manager"

About: Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust / Adult mental health

(as the patient),

i had a bad experience with a community based care manager - the complaints department suggested a "no fault" referral to the manager for a change of care provider. From being assessed on the last afternoon I was seen (in May) as needing crisis team support I was offered an appointment in 5 weeks - when I said I was unwell I was told that was as soon as it could be.

I have gone through a formal complaints procedure - my email was the start of July but it was officially logged as the start of august and have seen the investigating officer at whatever time was offered - I have still to receive the formal response, have not had any service support and when I tried to speak to the manager of the crisis team to resolve the barriers to receiving support was told via the PALS officer it was inappropriate to talk to me whilst an official complaint was on going.

I have had several occasions when I have tried to contact PALS or the complaints department to try to get access to a service when they have promised to ring back then haven't.

In my opinion, this is an uncaring, unresponsive organisation that doesn't seem to understand the problems of unwell people.

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Responses

Response from Elizabeth Moody, Associate Director of Nursing, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust 14 years ago
Elizabeth Moody
Associate Director of Nursing,
Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 07/12/2009 at 17:22
Published on Care Opinion on 08/12/2009 at 00:00

We are sorry you to hear you had such an awful experience in terms of the care you have received and also the response from the organisation. We always strive to provide both a timely and supportive response to people who raise concerns about their care and treatment. We understand that following the experience you have had you would feel that we have been uncaring and unresponsive to your concerns and we are sorry for giving you this impression. I want to make sure that from this point we are able to respond in a way that is useful to you and ensures that you receive the care you need. To help us to fully understand your concerns so that we can try to resolve your issues, would it be possible for you to tell us which service offered you an appointment and a bit more detail about the service which you had a bad experience with? Alternatively, it may be helpful for someone to review your care directly with you in order to better understand your concerns and needs Should you wish to do so, please contact Elsa Conway, Deputy Director of Clinical Governance on 0191 2232447 or by e-mail.
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Update posted by hog (the patient)

When I posted my opinion, I also wrote to the trust. I received a reply saying "unfortunately due to an extremely busy work schedule and annual leave commitments I will be unable to complete my investigations until Jan 2010. I hope to have a response to you by the end of January"

I guess this must be a timely and supportive response

Response from Elizabeth Moody, Associate Director of Nursing, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust 14 years ago
Elizabeth Moody
Associate Director of Nursing,
Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 05/01/2010 at 14:07
Published on Care Opinion at 00:00

We're pleased you have made contact with the trust directly and I'm sorry that staff leave has made it difficult for us to respond to you as quickly as we'd have liked.

I hope that your concerns will be resolved and that you will be satisfied with the outcome.

All the best for the future.

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Update posted by hog (the patient)

I wrote to the trust in Oct - I received a letter from one of the "more than 7000 staff" of the trust and have had no further contact from them. I don't think you should feel that to not begin to respond to the issues in more than 2 months is appropriate, timely, caring or responsive. If you have more than 7000 staff, there is probably an alternative person who could have responded.

In the meantime and following your reply to my post I have had three unhelpful contacts with PALS trying to get some resolution.

I don't think you understand how uncaring and unresponsive parts of your service are and how absolutely isolated that has made me feel.

I hope you give better support to other people in the future.

Response from Elizabeth Moody, Associate Director of Nursing, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust 14 years ago
Elizabeth Moody
Associate Director of Nursing,
Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 18/01/2010 at 16:56
Published on Care Opinion at 00:00

I am sorry that you are disappointed that we have not yet been able to fully respond to your complaint.

Whilst there are other people within the organisation that undoubtedly could assist, it is perhaps more helpful in terms of continuity to stay with the same person.

I do hope that you will feel able to contact the clinician whose email address we supplied you with. This offer of support is still open for you to utilise at any time.

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