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Delays affected my chances of successful treatment

Posted By Old-Runner

"Delays affected my chances of successful treatment"

About: University Hospital Wishaw / Cardiology (Ward 4) University Hospital Wishaw / General Surgery (Wards 16-18)

(as the patient),

The staff who dealt with me from referral to cardiologist to the actual procedure were all very caring and pleasant. The cardioversion specialist nurses in particular went out of their way to reassure and made me feel that they were totally committed to my welfare. Brilliant staff.

The process of getting to cardioversion, however, was not good. The longer a patient is in arrythmia, the less chance of successful treatment. I had to wait just over a year from seeing my GP until my treatment. It might have been unsuccessful a year ago, but I would have had a better chance of success. 3 months wait to see cardiologist, then 2 sequential waits of almost 3 months each for routine tests before I got feedback from the cardiologist. I am not criticizing the cardiologist - the delay in the tests is, as far as I am aware, not under their control. I accept that I was a non-urgent case, but these long delays affected my chances of successful treatment.

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Responses

Response from Faith McCrea, Service Manager, Emergency & Medical Services, University Hospital Wishaw, NHS Lanarkshire 5 years ago
Faith McCrea
Service Manager, Emergency & Medical Services, University Hospital Wishaw,
NHS Lanarkshire

Submitted on 25/08/2018 at 12:11
Published on Care Opinion at 16:25

Dear Old-Runner

Thank you very much for getting in touch and for your positive comments in relation to the Cardiology Specialist Nursing team here at University Hospital Wishaw.

I sincerely apologise for any unnecessary delays that you encountered whilst waiting for your carioversion procedure. We have recently worked to improve this service and have put plans in place to review the cardioversion waiting list and ensure the appropriate staff are made available to undertake these procedures in a timeous manner.

This plan aims to ensure that there are no lengthy delays for patients unless clinically appropriate and we will work as a team to maintain this. I appreciate that this will not be able to directly impact on the process you experienced and again I apologise for this delay for you.

I hope you find this update helpful.

Best wishes to you

Kind regards

Faith

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by Old-Runner (the patient)

Hello Faith,

Thank you for responding to my story.

The delay wasn't between the decision to attempt cardioversion and the procedure. That happened very quickly since I was able to take advantage of a cancellation. I am also aware that the specialist nurses have worked hard to improve the service and that this appears to have had a very positive effect.

The delays were between GP referral and seeing the cardiologist, then, more frustratingly, between seeing the cardiologist and having routine tests - 3 months each! I appreciate that much of this is a resource issue.

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