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using health services in Rotherham

Posted By Local910

"using health services in Rotherham"

About: Adult community services / Heart failure support services Adult community services / Stoma prescription service Rotherham Hospital / Accident and emergency Rotherham Hospital / Cardiology

(as the patient),

This year I have admitted to Rotherham Hospital on 3 occassions with chest infections and one for heart failure. The admission ward was excellent. The staff professional and caring. Transferred to the appropriate wards and the staff were overworked but professional. Was saddened to see the elderly and frail not helped more with their meals but due to lack of staff this was not available. As usual, my medication was messed up due to staff not ordering from the pharmacy (e. g warfarin) which sent my INR results haywire. Otherwise no complaint, it was a v clean, light, airy bay which I was in on each occasion.

On one admittance I was transferred to Breathing Space, what I wonderful experience. Very organised and was able to take my tablets in with me, they were locked in my cabinet and each morning I was able to organise my daily doses. Their follow up was excellent, very understanding, helpful and patient. They listened as I was concerned about losing 2 stone in weight, loss of appetite and, sickly and becoming frail and unable to do my housework etc. They arranged test and a CT scan which, at the time of writing this, I am awaiting the results.

I use the stoma prescription service, which is dealt with sympathetically and professionally by phone. So much easier than trips to the doctors to put in a repeat prescription, then two days later collecting, they posting and awaiting delivery, by this time two weeks has past.

Had to attend A&E Christmas eve afternoon after a fall, saw a doctor who again was professional, understanding and kind. The Xray department was again kind and professional.

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Responses

Response from Grace Oldfield, Patient Involvement Manager, Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust 11 years ago
Grace Oldfield
Patient Involvement Manager,
Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust

As part of my role, I support clinical services who undertake patient and public involvement on behalf of The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust which helps us to develop or redesign our services with patients in mind, from the valuable feedback we are given.

Submitted on 13/03/2013 at 10:36
Published on Care Opinion at 10:51

Dear Local911, thank you for taking the time to place this posting and I am sorry to hear that your chest infections and heart failure have caused you to be admitted to hospital on 3 occasions this year, I do hope you are feeling better.

Thank you for your kind comments regarding a number of our services including our admissions ward, Breathing space, the prescription service, A & E and the x-ray department; I will pass on your comments to the staff who work these areas.

I am however most concerned to hear of your observations of elderly and frail patients who were not offered more assistance to eat their meals. We have a system in place in all wards to ensure that those patients who require assistance with eating meals are provided with this help regardless of the number of staff on duty or the number of patients requiring assistance and I apologise that it appears that this system failed on this ward. Senior nurses, governors and our commissioners undertake unannounced visits to ward areas at mealtimes every month and Matrons undertake more frequent spot checks to ensure that patients are provided with assistance; however your comments provide us with vital additional information of the times when we are not undertaking these observations of practice, which I am very grateful to receive. I am also concerned that your medication seems to be an on-going problem when you are admitted to hospital and that we are not able to obtain your warfarin medication in a timely way which results in your INR not being controlled, for which I am very sorry.

I would be very grateful if you would take a little more of your time to contact our Patient Services department at complaints@rothgen.nhs.uk or telephone 01709 424461, to allow us to identify the ward and team you refer to. This will allow us to take appropriate steps to ensure that the concerns you have highlighted to us are remedied. Thank you once again for taking the time to highlight both the positive and negative aspects of care.

With best wishes,

Grace

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