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"In agony on new years day"

About: Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital

I have a swollen knee and in severe pain so my partner phoned the Sittingbourne Memorial hospital to get advice on appointment times, she was told that it was quiet at the moment so if he got down there he would be seen and they were open until 9pm, Brilliant never had reason to complain against this hospital before and would speak very highly of until today! so I hobbled down to the Rainham train station (as I don't drive) ,then hobbled up to the hospital ,went in and thought great stuff its so dead in here, at last I could sort out this pain which by now was more swollen and on a pain ratio out of 10 it had gone from a 6/7 to 11/12 because of the agonising journey I had just made !

Only to be told by the receptionist that no appointments were available for new years day. Firstly I ask you how can they treat people like this? and secondly why not say when my partner first phoned i may not be seen, instead of which she was told there are no patients at the moment they are all in with the nurses so you are looking at 30 min wait currently and as long as I got there before 9pm I would definitely be seen, which could obviously alter depending on peoples needs,(which I totally appreciate) but I was there within 90 mins , walked into an empty waiting room to be told this, and for what its worth to be told to go away and phone 111, I am currently in so much pain, really disgusted at the way I have wasted the train fair of nearly 5.00 (Which by the way I feel strongly should be reimbursed to me by the memorial for giving out false information when we first made contact)and totally amazed that some one in such pain can be totally turned away, I am now struggling to make the journey back to be assessed over the phone by 111 and will have to make another train journey to somewhere hopefully more helpful than the Memorial on this occasion, and just for the record my partner has just phoned back the memorial hospital at approx. 14 02 to be told open today till 9pm x ray dep't till 8pm and yes you've guessed she asked what's the current wait time for walkins and was told there's not really a wait time no more than 30 minutes and she would definitely be seen today, so can you please tell me why I have been discriminated or at least that's how it feels!?

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Responses

Response from Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital 8 years ago
Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital
Submitted on 05/01/2016 at 15:37
Published on nhs.uk on 06/01/2016 at 01:30


Dear Simon

We are extremely sorry to learn that you had this very poor experience of Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital Minor Injury Unit on New Year's Day.

Dawn Gaiger, MIU Service Lead, would like to sincerely apologise for your wasted journey whilst in pain and the fact that you were not seen on arrival.

Would it be possible for you to email her on email dawn.gaiger@nhs.net to advise which telephone number your partner rang and whether you have any more information about the person your partner spoke to both before your arrival and again after you were turned away.

This will help her to investigate what went wrong and try and prevent this unfortunate incident from happening again.

Many thanks

Customer Care Team

Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust

Tel: 0300 123 1807

Email: kcht.cct@nhs.net

Website: www.kentcht.nhs.uk

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