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my brand new heart pacemaker

Posted By hornby68

"my brand new heart pacemaker"

About: Crosshouse Hospital / Cardiology Golden Jubilee National Hospital / Cardiac Surgery New Stobhill Hospital / Cardiology

(as the patient),

I collapsed in mid December & was admitted to Crosshouse Hospital NHS Ayrshire & Arran. I felt that I was bounced around wards while diagnosis sought. It was suggested that I had pneumonia then at tea time it was confirmed as a heart issue.

Subsequent operation was carried out in Golden Jubilee Hospital at the end of December with discharge to Crosshouse a few days later. I was discharged from Crosshouse less than 24hours later.  However unbeknown to all,  my neighbours had accidentally broken the Central Heating. arguments with Scottish Gas are still ongoing! However I have not been seen by any specialist from Jan 2nd until yesterday. Two visits to Stobhill Hosp Glasgow had confirmed that 2 of the pacer wires had slipped but the technicians were not able to say what was the next step.  & nobody of gravitas saw fit to tell me.

As my comprehensive hospital notes will tell, I am severely disabled (3 titanium hips) & suffer from depression on occasion having thoughts of suicide.Yet I have received no help from any repeat source to help me cope with these problems especially ignorance about the next step with my heart problems. Specialists from 3 hospital locations were dealing with this ..shame that they forgot about me the person their patient!  Eventually seeing my local (Crosshouse) specialist this week, they chose to inform me then that the decision had been made to revisit the pacemaker & resite the slipping wires.

After a night's troubled sleep I phoned that consultant's office this morning & asked that this procedure & all other consultations be cancelled..I am at the end of my tether & struggling to cope By the way i still have no central heating at home .This story reflects the reality of treatment of a severely disabled, clinically depressed, 72 year old patient whose pacemaker op went wrong!

Despite the above comments I have nothing but praise & fulsome admiration of nursing staff, who undertake Sterling work under, sometimes intolerable conditions.  They were outstanding.

Also the Crosshouse cuisine was up to the standard of a decent hotel...seriously VG

Welcome to life within the caring NHS Ayrshire & Arran!!!

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Responses

Response from Eunice Goodwin, Patient Feedback Manager for NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Quality Improvement and Governance Team, NHS Ayrshire and Arran 6 years ago
Eunice Goodwin
Patient Feedback Manager for NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Quality Improvement and Governance Team,
NHS Ayrshire and Arran

I respond initially to most of the posts and ensure they are passed to the appropriate team whether they are compliments, observations or grumbles. It is important to make sure all issues are addressed and I try to encourage that to happen for all the posts as required.

Submitted on 23/04/2018 at 14:13
Published on Care Opinion at 15:12

picture of Eunice Goodwin

Dear hornby68,

I am so sorry you seem to be really struggling right now on various levels. Reading your worrying post sparks me to wonder a few things, for example - what support do you or can you have? Is there anything I can do to help get you that support? I would like to help you. In order to do that, I would need to know some more about you and your situation. I wonder if you would be willing to contact me by email or telephone.

With different hospitals and services involved, it sounds as if there may have been poorer communication with you than you wanted or needed. This can also really impact on how you feel about things and I am very sorry about it. This is something we can look into and see what has been happening. It is only by looking at these things that we can make them better. So I would like to thank you for taking time to share this and raise these issues, which gives us a chance to look at things with a view to change and improve as required.

When everything seems too much to cope with, we can be tempted to throw the baby out with the bath water and of course, I hope that you will reconsider the cancellation of your ‘heart’ appointments. If you contact me, we can have a chat about that if you want. I can be contacted by email - eunice.goodwin@aapct.scot.nhs.uk or by phone on 01563 826222. One thing I can do, with your permission of course, is to find out what the plan is for your heart treatment.

I hope you have managed to get your heating sorted out too. While it may be a bit warmer, it is not acceptable to have no heating and presumably, no hot water.

Kindest regards,

Eunice

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Response from Paula McPhail, Feedback and Legal Co-ordinator, Clinical Governance, NHS Golden Jubilee 6 years ago
Paula McPhail
Feedback and Legal Co-ordinator, Clinical Governance,
NHS Golden Jubilee

Submitted on 27/04/2018 at 11:42
Published on Care Opinion at 16:37

Dear hornby68,

I am very sorry to read your post regarding your care with different hospitals and also your ongoing issues with your heating. I really do hope that Scottish Gas have now resolved this issue for you. I am aware that Eunice has offered you to contact her to try to help resolve the detail in relation to NHS Ayrshire and Arran, however if there is anything that I can do to help regarding the Golden Jubilee Hospital, please contact me on 0141 951 5951. I would really like to hope that as a team we can ensure that we resolve your concerns.

With kind regards

Paula

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Response from Nicole McInally, Patient Experience and Public Involvement Project Manager, PEPI, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde 6 years ago
Nicole McInally
Patient Experience and Public Involvement Project Manager, PEPI,
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

Submitted on 27/04/2018 at 15:37
Published on Care Opinion at 16:38

picture of Nicole McInally

Dear Hornby68

Thank you for your post on Care Opinion.

I see that Eunice had responded to your post. However, I would also like to apologise for the lack of communication between the 3 hospitals and the lack of communication with you as the patient. I appreciate how frustrating and distressing this must be. I would like to reassure that I will share your post with the staff in the Cardiology Department at Stobhill Hospital so that we can learn from your experience.

Kind Regards

Nicole

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