"Poor communication from district nurse service"

This story has been posted by Healthwatch Tameside on behalf of a member of the public. We have their details and will forward any comments to them. They said…

I had a mastectomy at Tameside General Hospital and in the main everything has gone well. I am more than happy with the experience and outcome.

The area for comment is the District Nursing Service: I received an ‘automatic telephone call’. This seems to be an evaluation Friends and Family type call. I wonder why would they make a phone call like this for someone who has just come out of hospital, 82 years old and recovering from a major operation? I tried my best to answer the questions by pressing the keypad on my phone, but I feel that there were too many options (answers to the questions) to go through. I attempted to go through the system several times and the system kept ‘going wrong’. In the end I just hung up the phone.

The other comment is with trying to arrange/confirm appointments for the District Nurse to visit me. I had an appointment at the hospital on Wednesday and so made arrangements for the District Nurse to visit on the Tuesday. Just after the District Nurse left my home, I got a phone call from the hospital changing the clinic appointment to the Tuesday. I rang the District Nurse service to inform them. The District Nurse rang me back and left a voicemail. The District Nurse seemed confused as to which day she was going to visit and said for me to ring back, but did not leave a number. I found a number and when I rang it, I was told that it was the wrong number and I would need to make another call. When I eventually got to speak to the right person, I was given another appointment, but they could not say if this would be in the morning or the afternoon. The means that I will be ‘stuck in’ all day. I feel that there has been a lack of communication all round.