"No gluten free foods after Endoscopy "

About: Crosshouse Hospital / General Medicine Crosshouse Hospital General Medicine KA2 0BE

Posted by Pmtmad (as the patient), 10 years ago

After being referred for a endoscopy and having the procedure completed due to being coeliac I was disappointed that within the department there were no gluten free items, however if you were able to you could have a sandwich or biscuit. Surely if people with coeliac are being referred for these procedures a gluten free food item should be available to ensure you can swallow etc before leaving?

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Responses

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 08/04/2014 at 09:11

Published on Care Opinion at 09:30

Dear Pmtmad,
Having no suitable food available for you after a potentially traumatic day, this must have added to your distress. I have two close friends (staff of NHS A&A) who require a gluten free diet and sometimes they have struggled to eat within the hospital. On occasion, the option has been chips or chips. I understand it will not always be easy to cater for but we do need to look at this to see what we can do to address it.
I have spoken to sister in Endoscopy and she assured me that the usual procedure is to ask you on admission if you have any dietary requirements and the housekeeper is then requested to get either a gluten free sandwich or at the very least, a packet of biscuits so there is something for after the procedure. In your case there may have been a breakdown in communication and for that, we are very sorry.
I will pass this to the catering manager and the manager of the Endoscopy service to see if there is anything that we can do to ensure this does not happen again.
Thank you for taking the time to share this with us in our endeavour to build the service around patients, it is important to know when things are not what they should be,
Kind regards
Eunice

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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 14/04/2014 at 12:51

Published on Care Opinion at 17:03

Dear pmtmad,
I am really sorry this happened and it is difficult to know what went wrong in your situation. If someone needs a gluten free diet we are able to request either a gluten free sandwich or biscuits from the kitchen.
We used to keep a stock of gluten free biscuits in the Endoscopy unit because they came individually wrapped and we will try to source individually wrapped gluten free biscuits again so that a supply can always be held .
Sandwiches should still be ordered by us from the kitchen as before and we will mention this at the endoscopy team meeting as a reminder to everyone to check every patient’s dietary requirements and ensure any special requests are made as required.
We do try to make sure that we are able to provide a good service to everyone and on this occasion, we fell short of that aim. However, your feedback has helped us to put in place systems that should prevent the situation happening again.
Thank you again for raising this with us and giving us a chance to make things better.
Kind regards,
Sister in Endoscopy

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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 16/04/2014 at 14:57

Published on Care Opinion at 15:27

Dear Pmtmad,
It is now in place that the Endoscopy will have gluten free biscuits and keep them in the unit as a safety net should sandwiches not be available for any reason. The Endoscopy unit will order more when their stock runs low. We do hope this will help prevent anyone finding themselves in the same situation.
Kind regards,
Eunice

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Update posted by Pmtmad (the patient) 10 years ago

Morning ladies,
This is a very positive outcome for the unit. Feedback is so important and by having the opportunity to share your experience proves that a positive outcome can be achieved. Thanks again for taking on board my comments and even more acting on them.
Kind regards

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 17/04/2014 at 11:03

Published on Care Opinion at 11:48

Dear Pmtmad,
You are most welcome. It is great to be able to make a 'small' change that will make a big difference for some people. It is often only 'small' changes that are needed but as you say, we need to know about them. I think this proves the value of the Patient Opinion site. (No I am not on commission!)
Take care,
Eunice

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