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"Disappointing attitude of one nurse letting the..."

About: The Tunbridge Wells Hospital

I took my mother in to A&E with chest pain and sob. Initially I was disappointed with the fact she was kept waiting in the waiting room for 40mins with severe chest pain. My mother doesn't like to make a fuss and looked quite well but was obviously in pain. The triage nurse saw us and was apologetic and polite and did not delay in taking us through to resus after initial tests. But it was the attitude of the staff nurse in resus that quite frankly saddened me. She didn't seem interested in her job or even general interaction. She gave the impression that my mum was wasting her time. Didn't take any observations (until I highlighted that this had not been done) even though my mum was initially hypertensive on triage. Took half an hour to come back and take bloods after telling us she would be back in a minute... With no apology or explanation (although I did notice she was busy fetching biscuits for the paramedics) and then took her time in physically sending the bloods off. Her attitude towards my mother and me when we asked questions was quite short and abrubt. She seemed very unimpressed when I even asked where the water machine was (after being there 4hours!!) The two doctors and male charge nurse were nothing but polite and informative, they diagnosed her with gallstones (a very painful problem) so although not life threatening the urgency and attitude of the staff nurse could have been extremely detrimental if the pain was cardiac related, and in my mothers case it was not treated as an emergency or even serious. I'm a nurse myself with A&E experience which I didn't make the staff aware of at the time.. And I am saddened at the experience my mother had.

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Responses

Response from The Tunbridge Wells Hospital 9 years ago
The Tunbridge Wells Hospital
Submitted on 24/09/2014 at 15:16
Published on nhs.uk on 25/09/2014 at 04:00


Thank you for taking the time to leave feedback on your recent visit to the Accident and Emergency Department at Tunbridge Wells Hospital. We were very sorry to learn of the poor impression you formed of one of the nursing staff who was attending to your mother and that this let the rest of the team down. We have passed your comments on to the Matron for Acute and Emergency Medicine, so that she can highlight this with the team. Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. Kind regards, The PALS Team.

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