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Very poor standard of care

Posted By ray5150

"Very poor standard of care"

About: Forth Valley Royal Hospital / Clinical assessment unit

(as the patient),

I was sent to the CAU recently on the advice of my Doctor and arrived around 5: 00pm. At approx. 5: 30 I was registered and had blood samples taken. I was then returned to waiting and between then and 9: 00 pm received no further information, treatment, or advice from anyone. At approx. 9: 00 the department " emptied" in anticipation of a quiet nightshift and, given the length of my wait already, the queue of patients already in front of me, and the lack of information/communication, I left untreated. I offered to return the next morning but was told this would not be possible and was asked to sign a form confirming I had left against medical advice. Problem is, during my entire stay I did not receive any advice!

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Responses

Response from NHS Forth Valley 6 years ago
NHS Forth Valley

Submitted on 30/03/2018 at 14:43
Published on Care Opinion on 31/03/2018 at 10:20

Dear ray5150

Firstly I would like to apologise for your experience in the Clinical Assessment Unit.

Similar to the Emergency Department, patients are triaged on arrival and are seen primarily in order of illness severity and secondly in order of time of arrival. We try very hard to ensure that everyone is seen by a doctor or advanced nurse practitioner within 4 hours of arrival but we don't always manage this, particularly on Monday and Friday afternoons/evenings which is when we tend to be at our busiest. I am sorry that we didn't manage to see you within this time frame (we were very busy), and also I am sorry that we didn't update you in a timely fashion regarding how much longer you were likely to have to wait.

Whilst we do have a system whereby patients can be discharged to return for review the next day, this is only for patients who have been initially assessed by one of our doctors or advanced nurse practitioners. As you will appreciate it is important for us to assess whether it is the right thing to do, and is safe, on an individual patient basis.

I hope these comments are helpful and I'm grateful for you taking time to let us know about your experience. Feedback like this is very important in helping us to improve our service. I would be happy to meet to discuss your experience with you in person if you would find that useful.

If you would like to discuss your experience further, can I please ask you to contact Patient Relations Team on 01324 566660 or alternatively you can email fv-uhb.complaints@nhs.net

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kindest regards

Dr Dan Becket

Consultant Acute Physician

Speciality Lead for Acute Medicine

Forth Valley Royal Hospital

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Update posted by ray5150 (the patient)

Hi Dr Becket

Thankyou for taking the time to reply to my original comment, and I fully accept your comments and explanation.

What may be of interest to you are my observations made whilst waiting (and not included in my original comments).

There appears to be an element of "right hand,left hand" as I noticed Nurses attempting to carry out admin work only to discover that the work had already been completed! I also watched junior Doctors wandering around the Dept in pairs chatting socially but not really contributing. Perhaps they could become more involved.

Having received excellent treatment on several occassions I hold FVH in very high regard but feel that the CAU is "letting the side down"

Hope these comments help

Thanks for reading

Response from NHS Forth Valley 6 years ago
NHS Forth Valley

Submitted on 24/04/2018 at 15:56
Published on Care Opinion at 16:43

Thanks for taking further time to write. Accept my apologies for the delay in reply but I have just returned from annual leave.

I am genuinely disappointed that this was your experience and would very much like to discuss this with you, so that I can learn more, and see what we can do to improve things. The staff in CAU work exceptionally hard and I know that this is not the impression that they would like our patients to be left with.

If you would be happy to do so please contact Pauline 01324 566660 and let me know when would best suit you to speak.

Dr Dan Becket

Consultant Acute Physician

Speciality Lead for Acute Medicine

Forth Valley Royal Hospital

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