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"Dangerously incompetent"

About: Gloucestershire Royal Hospital

My wife was admitted via ambulance on Thursday 23rd around 8pm. As Cheltenham was closed, the corridor was completely blocked by patients on trolleys and paramedics waiting to hand over to staff but no cubicles were available. She was seen by a doctor around midnight who was very efficient (Tom). He persuaded us to stay in so cardiology and neurology could see her during the day as she has a complicated history, She was then moved to a acute ward. Around 4am she was moved to a surgical ward on level 5. At 8:45 on the 24th she collapsed after returning from toilet. Nobody had been available to take her and she is known to be unbalanced and unable to walk unaided. According to her records staff on the ward were unable to get a doctor to see her despite repeated calls (beeped 2300 medics) they said not seeing patient, beeped Gastro 2038, they said they will see her later. She is then transferred to Orthopedic ward where she waited to see a doctor all day. When the medical team arrived early evening they concluded it was a very complex case and being dealt with by neuro and cardiology and there was nothing they could add. The next day, Saturday 25th, my wife was very sleepy and unable to stay awake or lift her head off the pillow. Other patients repeatedly asked nurses to check on her because she had been fine the evening before, At 15:15 notes show: Patient very sleepy,......medical team aware, patient needs reviewing. Doctor may review later, patient may need IV fluids - monitor output 16:00 Bleeped medics again as no review >24hrs pt collapsed yesterday on ESU however still not seen by Dr. Patient clinically unwell, sleepy with pins & needles in arms and legs. Will commence neuro obs until doctor arrives as Dr states patient is on list to be seen but unaware when will be seen. Patient complaining of severe tiredness.... She was eventually seen around 18:30. Dr said she would return but did not. 00:35 Patient complaining of headache, is shaking , feels sick and unwell. Bleeped surgical on call who has passed on message.....told to contact nurse practitioner 00:40 Bleeped nurse practioter no response. 26th (Sunday) My wife is now alert and orientated and it is suggested she go home as consultants are aware. My wife asked if the blood test ordered by neurologist which had arrived at our home on Saturday morning with a lab form could be done and was told that wasn't possible, no bloods on Sundays. My wife was told she could stay if she wanted but would not see a cardiologist or neurologist on Monday either. When she wanted to discuss what had happened she was told by a nurse that she was too busy looking after sick people. We have records showing huge swings in BP which is what her consultants are worried about and a heart rate of 45. The nurses repeatedly asked for medical assistance and were rightly concerned. This is a complete breach of care and could have been extremely serious. This is a very serious situation now.

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Responses

Response from Gloucestershire Royal Hospital 10 years ago
Gloucestershire Royal Hospital
Submitted on 18/03/2014 at 15:43
Published on nhs.uk on 22/03/2014 at 03:01


Hello there, Many thanks for taking the time to share this feedback with us. We're sorry to hear about your wife's experience of our staff and services and would like to look into some of the issues you raise further. In order to do this we'd need to take a few more details. Would you be happy to get in touch with our PALS team so that we can do this? You can call them on 0800 019 3282 or email pals.gloucestershirehospitals@glos.nhs.uk Thank you again for getting in touch. Best wishes The team at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

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