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"Horrible experience with the "emergency list""

About: The Royal London Hospital

I heard nothing from bed manager and due to personal commitments I was only able to go into hospital on Sunday that week. I was put in one of the rooms in ward D on the ground floor and told I would be moved to the 12th floor as soon as a bed becomes available. Over the next 4 full days nothing happened apart from routine labs such as blood tests and then on Wednesday my consultant contacted one of the doctors on call and said that no further tests would be done and that I could go home. 2 minutes later the consultant came back into the room after my family helped me pack everything and said that they had changed their mind and no longer wants me to be discharged and that they would come down and see me that night. We waited a further 3 hours up until about 9pm and as advised by one of the nurses there we decided to go home. The nurse also said that this sort of thing happens all the time. The following morning I tried calling the registrar of my consultant with no answer but luckily I was able to find an email for PALS and was able to explain the situation. Later that day I got a call from one of the neurosurgeons on call to say that they heard about me and I was told to come in at 12:30 the following day which was Thursday to sort this out. Me and my fiancé arrived there on time and were asked to sit in the day room while they inform the team about us. At about 14:00 a doctor I spoke to on the phone came in to talk to us and said that the plan is to carry out the further tests as planned as soon as they can find me a bed. We have then waited a further few hours until 20:00 when the handover started and were told that no progress has been made but the bed manager is still trying to find me a bed. Eventually we decided to go home because nothing seemed to be likely to happen but I left my phone number in case anything changed. While we were on the bus home I received a call from the bed manager saying that they found me a bed in ward 3e as there were no spaces on the 12th floor. I came back that night and as soon as we got to that ward one of the nurses told us that they had beds all day. Over the next couple of days nothing happened again and I decided to go home by self discharge but seeing as I did not agree with the points listed on there I wrote what actually happened and then signed it. I went home. A couple of days later I received a letter of appointment telling me to arrive to ward 12f at 7am on June 24th and so I did. Yet again I was sat in the waiting room until 6pm waiting for a bed when eventually one was found for me. I was evetually admitted to ward 12e. The emergency list was not working out so I agreed to have ICP monitor put in on ward that showed low pressure and so the next morning my doc decided that I need a shunt revision and I found myself on that list yet again. However, because I am not dying my surgery keeps getting pushed down and it is now day 6 that I am not allowed to eat in case they'd finally have time for me.

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Responses

Response from The Royal London Hospital 8 years ago
The Royal London Hospital
Submitted on 22/07/2015 at 13:32
Published on nhs.uk on 23/07/2015 at 02:30


We are very sorry to read of your experience and apologise for all of the inconvenience and upset this may have caused you and your fiancé. Thank you for highlighting your concerns with us. We value all feedback that comes from our patients and have sent your comments over to the neurosurgery team so that they are able to make improvements to our service where needed. However, if you have not already done so and would like to discuss the issues you have raised here please do contact us as soon as possible via our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) at pals@bartshealth.nhs.uk or by calling 020 3594 2040. Kind regards Barts Health NHS Trust

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