"leave bed meeting cancelled "

About: Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust / Inpatient mental health care

Posted by Nona (as the patient), about a year and a half ago

In May a meeting was held between service users and the service manager to discuss the situation of people going on leave and their bed being given to someone else. As a result of this meeting it was agreed that senior peopleof Northumberland Tyne & Wear Trust would meet with service users and fully explain the bed situation. This meeting was arranged for Monday 19th July at 1.00 pm. I had an appointment with my psycholigist at this time so I asked if it could be changed in order that I could attend this meeting.
I have been told today that the meeting between service users and trust staff was not going to go ahead as they had other committments. This has been rearranged for 27th July at 3.45. By this time all the original service users, who expressed concerns at the initial meeting will have been discharged.
This has left me feeling demoralised, unimportant and even more convinced that as a service user my views and concerns are of absolutely no interest to senior personnel. who seem to forget that without us service users ,they would not have jobs

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Responses

Response from Patient Opinion on 20/07/2010 at 15:08 We are preparing to make a change

NTW does apologise most sincerely for the distress caused due to the cancellation of the meeting which was due to unforeseen circumstances. The cancellation is by no means a reflection of the importance NTW places on listening to and acting upon the views of service users.
The concerns you raised were shared by clinicians and management and following the initial meeting a great deal of work has been undertaken by the senior clinical and management team within the Urgent Care Division to both understand the complex issues of bed use across the trust and develop a programme of actions to ensure that the concerns raised by the service users at the meeting are addressed.
This work will be fed back at the meeting on the 27th July. NTW is fully aware of the issues raised and takes the concerns of service users very seriously. The Trust has been monitoring the situation closely and is pleased to note there have been no further occurrences which led to the concerns raised by service users.
NTW remains committed to providing the highest levels of care and involvement to our service users and endeavours to place them at the centre of everything we do and would again apologise that on this occasion the rearranging of this important meeting has led to the feelings you describe in your posting.
Ron Weddle, Divisional Manager Adult Services