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"Nothing but praise for staff"

About: Borders General Hospital / Accident & Emergency Borders General Hospital / Respiratory Medicine

(as a relative),

My Mum has asked me to complete this after receiving a slip on her admission to BGH a week ago - she hadn't heard of Care Opinion.  I told her what it was, as I am employed by NHS Borders and on my Induction last year had a very negative example of patient care given with no positive example to balance this out, which I thought could leave a very poor impression with the new staff about to start work in NHS Borders.

Back to my mother and what she would like me to say (she is in her 70s and has no access to computers).  She was admitted by ambulance to the BGH in the middle of the Beast from the East attacking the Borders.  From her non-urgent ambulance collection at her house through to follow-up after her discharge, she has nothing but praise for staff in A&E and Ward 16.  She was admitted with exacerbation of COPD and was in a frail state.  The care she received has been exceptional, all staff, no matter their role had time to explain what was happening to her and provided support to enable her to, very slowly, self care, and build her confidence for her to go home again, when she had been convinced she would need to go into a care home.  After her discharge and on arrival at home, we found one of her medications was missing; it was coming on for 6pm and I knew I wouldn't have much luck sorting this out with the GP practice.  I phoned back to ward 16 and the staff there went to great lengths to get her a supply of the medication she urgently needed until we could get a prescription from her GP.  A big thank you to everyone - my Mum is now back home, full of confidence and understands all the changes to her treatment with the support provided and the communication between hospital and community services.  

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Responses

Response from Edmund Witkowski, Clinical Service Manager, Unscheduled Care, NHS Borders 6 years ago
Edmund Witkowski
Clinical Service Manager, Unscheduled Care,
NHS Borders
Submitted on 15/03/2018 at 17:56
Published on Care Opinion at 21:05


Hello Tuppy!

Thank you for this post.

There is learning to be had when things go wrong and mercifully more often than not when they go well.

Whilst I am sorry to read that your mum went home without one of her medications, I am pleased to hear that how positively the team responded when this came to light.

The Beast from the East certainly provided us with a few challenges and staff in NHS Borders and the Scottsh Ambulance Service certainly met these head on ensuring our patients received the care they needed despite the circumstances.

You must be delighted to see the recovery made by your mum and as someone who has worked in both the community and BGH I am particularly pleased to note that our services are communicating well in respect of her care.

I will let our ED Team know how happy your mum was with the service provided.

I hope your mum continues to enjoy better health.

Regards

Ed

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