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"Appalling service from a usually efficient team"

About: Sevenoaks Hospital

I'm appalled at the level of service my daughter and I received at Sevenoaks MIU today. We attended three days ago with my daughter's swollen and sore toe, to be told it was "probably" a soft tissue injury and given the usual advice to rest, elevate the foot, apply ice packs and take ibuprofen and it should improve after a couple of days. An X-ray couldn't be done as it was after that dept had closed for the day. When it hadn't improved after three days, and in fact was worse, we visited Sevenoaks MIU again today. The very nice person who booked us in remembered us from our previous visit, took my daughter's details and told us it would be a 1-2 hour wait. After a 2 hour wait, we were then taken to see a nurse who quite abruptly and rudely told us that they wouldn't be looking at my daughter's toe again as she had already been seen three days ago by their colleague. If that is the policy, then why could the receptionist not have told us that two hours before? Even after we said it had worsened, they flatly refused to even take a cursory look at it and told us we should have gone to see our GP. Feeling like chastised children, we left and went to our GP's surgery. After another hour's wait, the GP gave it a thorough examination and referred us to Darent Valley Hospital for an X-ray to rule out a fracture....something that could quite easily have been done at Sevenoaks MIU. A further two hour wait at DVH and we, thankfully, have the diagnosis that it is not in fact broken. But what a complete and utter waste of ours and everyone else's time. I thought that the MIU was there to help ease the pressure on GPs and A&E departments. Shan't be attending there in a hurry next time....would have been far quicker to go straight to A&E, even with a four hour wait.

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Responses

Response from Sevenoaks Hospital 7 years ago
Sevenoaks Hospital
Submitted on 25/10/2016 at 16:57
Published on nhs.uk on 27/10/2016 at 02:31


Hello

Thank you for the feedback you have provided following your daughter’s visits to Sevenoaks Minor Injuries Unit. We are sorry to hear that you were unhappy with the service you received. We have had the opportunity to check records of attendance for this day and with the information you have provided we have been able to review your daughter’s records. There is detailed information provided by the practitioner on your daughter’s first visit, indicating where she was experiencing discomfort and where she was not. The clinical findings on this day do not indicate a fracture though evidence a soft tissue injury to be the cause of her discomfort. On the second visit it is reasonable, given the records from the first visit, for the practitioner to have felt that a bony injury was unlikely. However we would have expected a further examination, which would have helped to confirm this and helped to provide rationale and advice regarding your daughter’s on-going discomfort. Due to the high volume of people attending the service with new conditions or acute injuries, we do try to encourage for follow up visits to be with a GP. However anyone attending the service should be booked in and have the opportunity to be seen by a practitioner. We are sorry that your daughter did not receive a more thorough review on the second attendance and this will be discussed with the practitioner concerned. Feedback will also be shared with the wider team to help aid service improvements. We hope that your daughter is now recovering from her injury.

Best wishes

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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