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My fathers recent admission to hospital

Posted By Theodore1937

"My fathers recent admission to hospital"

About: Chesterfield Royal Hospital / Accident and emergency East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust / Emergency ambulance

(as a relative),

My father was taken by paramedics to Chesterfield Royal with a suspected accidental overdose due to suffering with Alzheimer's and dementia.

I  was asked by paramedics to follow in the car as he needed just a quick blood test so shouldn't be long. I left my elderly mother also suffering with dementia and arrived at a and e shortly after 6pm.  At 6am my father was still sat in a wheel chair waiting for blood results! At this point I felt I could no longer stay with him as I was worried for my mum, plus I felt ill being awake over 24hrs.

I arrived home to find my mum still sat on the sofa where she was when paramedics arrived some 16hrs earlier. She had been sat waiting for most of the night not daring to go to bed with the door unlocked. Needless to say she was as stiff as a board could barely stand and couldn't walk.

The paramedics I'm told can do blood tests however they don't have access to a printer to print out a form to send to the lab! How ridiculous I even offered to buy them one as I'm sure everyone's time could be better spent in a and e if bloods could be dropped off for testing without leaving 2 frail and vulnerable adults in this situation for well over 17hrs.

Its a disgusting service & not at all patient centric. It seems no one is thinking outside of the box,  just keep churning the patients round in a and e, I'm only here to do blood pressure, I'm only here to get a history, I'm only here to drop off your dad in a wheelchair etc etc over 100 people waiting in this out of date system 

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Responses

Response from Sarah Connerton, Patient Experience Manager, East Midlands Ambulance Service 2 months ago
Sarah Connerton
Patient Experience Manager,
East Midlands Ambulance Service

Submitted on 22/02/2024 at 08:17
Published on Care Opinion at 08:17

Dear Theodore1937

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us. We are very sorry to hear of this situation and that it was felt our service was not of the level expected.

I can confirm that our frontline crews do not perform blood tests but provide emergency care and either signpost to other services for follow up care or convey patients to hospital where tests can be carried out to diagnose fully what the issues may be.

I am very sorry to hear that you experienced a delay in being seen at hospital but this is something outside of EMAS's control (the hospital itself may be able to advise on what caused the delay specifically that day). I can confirm that sadly we are experiencing high demand on all NHS services at the moment which can mean waiting times, either for an ambulance to attend a scene, or for patients to be seen in hospital, have increased significantly. We are doing all we can to combat this, utilising community services where appropriate.

If you wish to, you can share your comments with our Patient Experience team, with as much detail as you can (e.g. date, time and location), so that they might identify the attending crew and investigate this matter further for you. You may leave a voicemail via telephone on 0333 012 4216 and the team will call you back asap or email emas.pals@nhs.net.

Best wishes, Sarah Connerton, Patient Experience Manager, East Midlands Ambulance Service

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Response from Stacie Russon, Surgical Division, Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 2 months ago
Stacie Russon
Surgical Division,
Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 29/02/2024 at 08:32
Published on Care Opinion at 08:32

Dear Theodore1937,

Thank you for sharing your experience with us, I'm sorry your experience in the Emergency Department felt non-patient centred and I hope your Father is feeling better.

I will feed back your comments to the staff in the department and look for ways we can make the patient journey feel more holistic

Many thanks

Stacie Russon

Senior Matron

Emergency Department

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