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About: Royal Derby Hospital / Rheumatology

Gosh intended to leave a review and then saw that the person below has experienced similar as my husband. This department really needs to sort it’s self out. Do you doctors actually realise the pain some patients are experiencing?? My husband has no pain plan in place and speaking to others in the waiting area this is the norm.

My husband has called the nurse help line and when someone eventually calls back the wait to get help is far too long. In the past my husband took part in a survey, a poster was asking for volunteers in the department. The point was to see how patients with rheumatoid struggle with work. I don’t know why he bothered. He has been in agony and still no joy in getting seen. I am shocked just how much pain he is expected to manage with. Disease modifying drugs seem to be the only treatment on offer. Talk about pain and no one wants to know. Managing pain needs to be a priority and staff need to listen when patients try to explain how it impacts on their life.

I have seen my husband broken and feared he would self-harm because the pain became too much. Rheumatoid patients still have to manage daily with home/work life. This department needs shaking up by the sound of it and before it’s too late. I would not like to see anyone self-harm out of sheer desperation and inability to cope. Some patronising spokesperson saying how ‘lessons will be learnt’ will be no help then!!

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Responses

Response from Royal Derby Hospital 5 years ago
Royal Derby Hospital

Submitted on 20/08/2018 at 12:01
Published on nhs.uk at 12:06

Good Morning

Thank you for contacting the Trust about concerns you have about your husbands care at the Royal Derby Hospital. I would firstly like to say that I am extremely sorry that you have had cause to complain. I appreciate that you will not have done so lightly and I would like to thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention. Your feedback is valuable in assisting us to identify areas for improvement.

I am sorry that your husband has had difficulty in accessing the nurse help line. I have shared this with the Rheumatology Clinic nurses and they have advised that the clinic always aim to reply to the patient on the same working day. Of course there are times when the staff cannot get through or have to leave a message on an answer machine; if staff need to do this, they can only say that they have called and invite the person to ring again.

If you did not receive a call back, we would want to look at the telephone log so that we could trace who dealt with the call and why there was a delay in responding.

I would like to invite you to discuss the matter further so that we can take your concerns forward to answer the further issues about the pain your husband is still experiencing. Please contact the PALS office on 01332 785156, we are open Monday to Friday 09:00 to 5:00pm and outside of these hours the answer phone is in operation. Please quote reference 55765.

If you would prefer to email please use, dhft.contactpals@nhs.net. You can attend the office without an appointment or ring for a specific date and time if that would suit better.

Kind regards

Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)

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