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"in pain and haemoorhaging badly"

About: Southmead Hospital

I took my 81 year old partner to A& E Southmead at 19:00 with agonising clot bladder retention . Wrapped in a towel to act as a "nappy" to absorb the large quantity of bleeding we were not seen until 23:30 . The floor where we were sat was a pool of blood . I went to the desk 4 times to ask for him to be seen , but was nastily told , "Your on the computer , wait your turn and go and sit down there's a good boy ." meanwhile the receptionists continued to loudly flirt and cackle with passing staff . Eventually at 23:20 we were seen by the Triage Nurse who was shocked we had been kept waiting so long Having left a trail of fresh blood all the way into their office. The Urology Dr was summoned and my partner drained immediately 3 pints or more of blood on being catheterised .He was admitted to a ward later that morning .He needed urgently transfusing as he was literally bleeding to death and near to complete collapse .

As an excuse for a hospital Southmead stinks.

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Responses

Response from Southmead Hospital 8 years ago
Southmead Hospital
Submitted on 09/09/2015 at 12:57
Published on nhs.uk on 10/09/2015 at 02:31


Dear Mr Kettlewell – I am sorry that your partner had to wait so long to be triaged in A&E. Clearly this is not the care we would any of our patients to experience and I apologise that your partner did not receive attention in view of your account of his condition. If a patient is bleeding this should be a trigger for staff to consider early triage, and if this was not possible then the reasons why should always been clearly explained in an empathic way, and regular updates should be provided.

I am grateful to you for taking the time and trouble to post your comments which have been fedback to the teams concerned, so your partners’ poor experience can be used as a point of learning.

Kind regards - Steve Sykes

Advice and Complaints Team

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