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Disastrous visit to A and E

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"Disastrous visit to A and E"

About: Manchester Royal Infirmary / Accident and emergency

Yesterday 23rd October my son rang to say he was in a lot of pain and struggling to breathe. I rang his GP surgery and because he has had trouble breathing before we were told to go to A and E where they would take a look and do an xray to see what might be going on. Having waited a reasonable time of about 90 minutes in the waiting room which was filthy we saw a lovely triage nurse who took the details . We explained the situation about how this had happened before and had been serious the previous times she said she would pass it over and he would probably have blood tests and an xray so you can imagine my frustration when, having told her the GP had sent us down, he was moved to the walk in clinic. I assumed it was just because they were less busy but no. He was called in and the door was slammed in my face narrowly damaging it. He came out shortly after really frustrated with a prescription for antibiotics and three days of steroids, something his GP could have given and we could have seen him that day. What is the point of fobbing people off when they have a history of serious breathing problems. We just need some answers and once again have been let down. Triage don't seem to be doing a very good job as once again there were people who were clearly well enough to see their GP who weren't.

Maybe if they were sent elsewhere the doctors would have more time to spend with the more complex cases like my son's. I honestly thought he was going to either stop breathing through the night or be sent in an ambulance later. Seems my idea to give him paracetamol to ease the pain he was in from a broken rib apparently though that wasn't looked into either, allowed him the time he needed to relax. He was still bad today though. Feel severely let down.

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Responses

Response from Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust 5 years ago
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 05/11/2018 at 16:13
Published on Care Opinion on 06/11/2018 at 10:17

We were very sorry to receive your feedback via the NHS website about your experiences when you attended the Emergency Department (ED) at the Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) on the 23rd October 2018 with your son. It is important to us that comments are heard and seen as an opportunity for the service to make changes and improvements wherever possible.

Matron Findlay would like to offer her sincere apologies that you felt the communication from the staff was not of the standard we aim to provide and apologises that your experience of the environment, treatment and process within the ED and Walk in Centre, was poor. Matron Findlay has explained that we triage all patients using a standardised system known as the Manchester Triage System (MTS) which ensures safe management of patient's to the most appropriate service. We are sorry that you do not feel that this was the case when your son attended. If you would like us to review the care provided in a more detailed way to ensure appropriate treatment was provided and enable us to identify any lessons to be learned moving forward, please do not hesitate to contact us via the link below.

Matron Findlay would like to advise you that following your feedback staff have been reminded of the importance of effective and compassionate communication with patients and relatives and they are working with our facilities team to ensure that the ED is a clean, safe and caring environment.

We are unable to respond more specifically to the concerns you have raised and therefore if you would like to discuss your experience with us in more detail, please do not hesitate to contact out Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) on 0161 276 8686 or by e-mailing pals@mft.nhs.uk quoting reference number PO18/0192.

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