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"shocking"

About: Royal Blackburn Hospital / Accident and emergency

I was taken to A&E by ambulance when my knee locked after Cartlidge popped. I was in Excruciating pain and paramedics were amazing. They gave me gas and air to help cope with the pain. I was checked into a&e and left on a wheelchair. I had to ask someone waiting if they could wheel me to the toilet and also away from the open door. After an hour someone wheeled me to the fracture clinic where I sat for another hour before being asked some questions and told I would be taken for an xray. This was 11pm now, couldn't move, knee locked and I was on my own

The xray dep't completely alone no phone as it was flat from before i got to hospital. This was now a few hours later and i had not had access to water or appropriate Pain relief. A person took me into xray and I asked them whether I could charge my phone anywhere but they said i wasn't allowed and should've had a spare battery. Their bedside manner was awful. No interpersonal skills at all. No empathy. I explained that when I was picked up in an ambulance I didn't have the foresight to ask them to collect my battery pack from my home enroute! I said my husband would like to know what's happening and their response? Well surely they have noticed you're not there! I explained that they did know and would be hoping for an update as they were stuck at home with our sleeping children and worried. After their intro they then told me how much of an inconvenience it was that my leg was bent and they had to try and straighten it for the xray. I told them it was locked...hence the xray. They did manipulate it a bit to try and straighten it even though I said its extremely Painful.they were a radiographer as far as I knew, not an orthopaedic surgeon. Anyway. I was returned to the main area again to wait about 45mins before being told the xray showed no break and so it might be Cartlidge that's come loose. But because I had a slight ability to move the leg backward by 10degrees I didn't need to see an orthopaedic surgeon or have an MRI scan. I could go home. Ok. How? 1am..cant move. Goodbye.I was given an appt in a Weeks time and told they wanted to give me codene but had ran out so they gave me a prescription i can only get at the hospital pharmacy..another day. A nurse brought me some crutches that they had no clue how to set up. They asked me to try them but I fell back I to the chair as they were too small. They came back again with some more and left them with me. That was it. Bye. So I went to call a taxi, 3 meters down the hall and the crutches slipped twice in that short space. I had been wheeled around for 5 hours now I was expected to get up and go. Some people who we're waiting to be seen actually helped me as nobody cared if I struggled or not. 24hours later. I am in as much pain as when on gas and air in the ambulance and yet nobody has even looked at my soft tissue or told me what the heck to do. I cant walk. Can't drive in severe pain and my knee is locked. And I should come back in a week? They didn't even strap it up!

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Responses

Response from Royal Blackburn Hospital 6 years ago
Royal Blackburn Hospital
Submitted on 13/11/2017 at 08:40
Published on nhs.uk at 09:31


Thank you for your comments regarding your visit to the Emergency Department with a locked knee at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital and thank you for taking the time to do so.

I am extremely sorry to hear of your recent experience and will ensure that your comments are fed back to the senior staff for the Emergency Department.

If you would like to provide further information about your experience you can contact the Patient Experience team.

You can contact me (Sarah Ridehalgh) on 01254 734471 or by email at patientexperience@elht.nhs.uk

Or if you prefer you can discuss further any concerns you may have about our services with our East Lancashire Hospitals Trust Customer Relations team on 01254 733700 or complaints@elht.nhs.uk who can advise you of your options in raising these concerns further.

If you would like to share your experience in confidence with an independent organisation please contact Healthwatch BwD on 01254 504985 or info@healthwatchblackburnwithdarwen.co.uk

Many thanks again for commenting.

Kind regards

Sarah Ridehalgh

Patient Experience Facilitator

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