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Awaiting “emergency” surgery

Posted By Nrse1010

"Awaiting “emergency” surgery"

About: Borders General Hospital / Accident & Emergency

(as a relative),

I am writing this on behalf of my mother, who fractured her ankle abroad. Upon return to Scotland we attended BGH A& E for several reasons, pain issues, the fact she only had a temporary cast applied and the fact she was told she needed surgery.

The member of staff didn’t seem to understand why we had attended and this was the start of our troubles.  My mother was informed to fast the next day ready for surgery, this was 4 days ago and she has been told to do this every day since.

The surgeon called and informed us that she was being listed as an emergency. Day 4 of waiting for emergency operation and having to fast every morning just in case you can operate is beyond a joke and you should be ashamed of the service being delivered.

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Responses

Response from Lynn McCallum, Medical Director, NHS Borders 6 years ago
Lynn McCallum
Medical Director,
NHS Borders

Along with the Director of Nursing, we are collectively responsible for the clinical care delivered within NHS Borders.

Submitted on 19/01/2018 at 14:03
Published on Care Opinion at 17:17

picture of Lynn McCallum

Dear Nrse1010,

First of all, I am so sorry that your mother has had this experience and this wait for the definitive treatment for her ankle fracture. As you can see from my job title, I am not an Orthopaedic Surgeon but I have just spoken to the Clinical Director for Orthopaedics in the Borders General Hospital (Mr Medhi) who is very aware of your mother's case and has been endeavouring to schedule her operation as quickly as he is able. He is not currently a responder on Care Opinion but has asked me to explain to you the current situation and the challenges we are facing.

Every day we have to balance the risks of the number of acutely unwell patients coming into the hospital versus the patients that are waiting for emergency and elective surgery. This is an incredibly difficult balance which is often influenced by the physical acuity of the people that are arriving for care here. Currently we have a very large number of people who are very sick within the hospital and this means that we are unable to carry out procedures such as your mother's due to physical lack of space. I can only apologise for this and assure you that the staff are also incredibly vexed at the challenges of delivering both streams of care. Everyone is working full out to try to improve the situation and I hope that we will have a solution very shortly.

Although Care Opinion is anonymous, from the details you have shared, we think we have identified your situation so Mr Medhi is going to ask his team to get in contact with you and your mother in order to update you on the situation and speak to you in person.

My apologies once again that I do not have an immediate solution to your problem and that your mother is in this position but I hope this goes some way to explaining why the situation has arisen.

If you have any further questions, can I invite you to contact Mr Ali Medhi's secretary who will be able to guide you further?

Best wishes,

Lynn

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