This is Care Opinion [siteRegion]. Did you want Care Opinion [usersRegionBasedOnIP]?
Care Opinion

Eye clinic overwhelmed and poorly led

Story from nhs.uk

"Eye clinic overwhelmed and poorly led"

About: University Hospital (Coventry) / Ophthalmology

A really poor experience here on Tuesday 3 October. Triage process was reasonably quick ( within an hour of arrival) but rest of the experience was really poor after that. I had to wait 2.5 hours after eye drops were put in.before I was seen, having been told to wait in a corridor and that I would be called shortly when there eye drops had taken effect. I was only seen at all because I expressed my concern in a forceful manner. Consultant I saw first was in a massive rush, did not listen to what I was telling them, and admitted as much to me when they asked me to repeat what I had just told them, and told me off in the most patronising, disrespectful way possible (for not coming in sooner). Then they gave up on me as they had a meeting to go to, after they had got some lunch, passed me off to another colleague and left without any apology or acknowledgement to me. Next consultant was very good although very clearly overloaded. They did however listen carefully, explained the next steps well and wrote me a referral letter very quickly. Really poor experience and a bad advert for centralised treatment in massive units, as well as a bad advert for consultant who should reflect on their attitude to patients.The whole unit was out of control, the method for summoning patients was poor (just calling out names sometimes inaudibly, especially given how noisy it was and the number of elderly patients in there), the number of admin staff looking very unproductive, it was a complete disgrace, the worst of the NHS I'm afraid.

More about:
nhs.uk logo
Do you have a similar story to tell? Tell your story & make a difference ››

Responses

Response from University Hospital (Coventry) 6 years ago
University Hospital (Coventry)

Submitted on 06/10/2017 at 17:24
Published on nhs.uk at 17:32

Dear Steve,

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience of our Ophthalmology department at University Hospital. We appreciate all feedback, both negative and positive, as it helps us to better understand what is important to our patients and where we may need to improve.

I’m very sorry to read that your experience on October, 3 was so mixed, leaving you with an overall negative view of our service. We aim to treat all our patients and visitors with compassion and respect and I’m truly very sorry to hear this was not how you were made to feel.

We are aware that demand for our Ophthalmology service is increasing and we are making adjustments to better meet that demand. Changes to the triage have already been made and I’m pleased you found that part of the process reasonable quick.

We are working on further improvements to make the rest of the process more efficient and to create a more space for patients, which will be coming into effect shortly. While I appreciate this doesn’t change your experience, I hope it will be of some comfort that we are working to make improvements.

We will discuss your feedback with the staff who were working on the day; with particular focus on professional attitude, listening and communicating with patients. With regards to calling-in patients, as I’m sure you understand, we have a number of partially sighted patients attending Ophthalmology and, together with the high volume of people attending the clinics, catering to both of these groups can be challenging. However, we are working with our colleagues in central outpatients to develop more appropriate and innovative ways to call patients.

With regards to the other issues you have raised, I would urge you to contact the Trust’s Patient Advice and Liaison Service. The team will be able to take some personal information from you so they can look into your concerns in more detail - please call them on 0800 028 4203 or email feedback@uhcw.nhs.uk .

Thank you again for leaving your comments on NHS Choices.

Kind regards,

Claire

Communications Team

University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust

Telephone: 0800 028 4203

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
Opinions
Next Response j
Previous Response k