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"The ambulance crew have done a real good job"

About: South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust / Emergency ambulance The Great Western Hospital / General surgery

(as a relative),

At about 12: 00 I called the 999 service as my husband was in a lot of pain. The woman who took my call said she would ask someone to call be back within 20 minutes but there was no call.

At 13: 00 my husband was still in a lot of pain so I called the 999 service again. This time a young man answered. He must have thought there was a coronary problem as he asked if I had a defibrillator, although I’m not sure why he thought I would have one! In the event he sent an ambulance out – this arrived in about 10 minutes.

My husband had suffered from these pains previously and had been seen by 3 of our GPs and a doctor at the emergency place. None of them could work out what the problem was.

Steve, one of the ambulance crew was great and thought he had worked out the problem but to be sure he called the on-call surgeon at the Great Western Hospital. Steve thought my husband was having problems with his gall bladder. After speaking to the surgeon he also spoke to our GP and asked for a scan to be performed for my husband the next day as he already had an appointment for an aneurism scan.

The ambulance crew have done a real good job. They were spot on!

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Responses

Response from Laura Martin, Patient Engagement Administrator, Governance, South Western Ambulance Service 10 years ago
Laura Martin
Patient Engagement Administrator, Governance,
South Western Ambulance Service
Submitted on 14/03/2014 at 13:44
Published on Care Opinion at 15:08


picture of Laura Martin

Dear Giant429

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. I hope your husband is feeling better and recovering well.

It is always rewarding to hear that our staff are continuing to provide excellent care to our patients when they need us most. I would like to pass your thanks onto Steve for you. In order to do this I will need to know the date and address that the ambulance attended. I would also like to discuss with you the points you have raised with regard to the way your 999 calls were handled, to see if there is anything the Trust could learn from these calls. Could I please ask you to contact me, at your convenience, on 01392 453831 or laura.martin@swast.nhs.uk?

Kind regards

Laura

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Response from The Great Western Hospital 9 years ago
The Great Western Hospital
Submitted on 04/09/2014 at 17:36
Published on nhs.uk on 05/09/2014 at 04:00


Many thanks for taking the time to post your comments on NHS Choices. Although many of the services you've dealt with (GP, 999 and the ambulance) are not part of Great Western Hospitals, I'm pleased to hear how everything worked together to help your husband. I do hope he's feeling better.

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