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"Incredibly dissapointed but not surprised!"

About: Croydon University Hospital

On 28/02/15, my fiancé started to get severe back pain (low down to the right hand side - around the kidney area). I quickly took her to A & E, this was just after midnight, we advised of pain and explained that she had a Contraceptive Coil. We were given a priority card and were out of the waiting room within half an hour and placed into an observation room, she was given paracetamol and when that didn't help the pain, she was given morphine at around 1.30am. At this stage I was happy with the care received. We heard nothing further until 8am, where we were told that they had a bed for her. She was moved to Acute Medical Unit(not on list below), this was not in visiting hours so I went home to get some sleep. I visited her later (2.30pm), she advised that she had 2 ultrasounds and a CT Scan, the results came back fine on the ultrasounds but was still awaiting results from CT Scan, which we were never actually told about so assuming it was fine. Later on Sunday a gynaecologist came round and examined her, she advised that she couldn't see the coil (however scans show it was definitely in place), she thought that this could be due to an infection that she couldn't see this, she took swabs and advised that they would start antibiotics. On Monday, at 9am, my fiancé was advised that she would definitely be discharged today once the gynaecologist had come round. Later that morning she was told that the coil had moved, which is the reason for the pain, when the gynaecologist comes she will remove the coil. Once I got there, I asked several times what was happening, the response each time is that they were awaiting the gynaecologist to get back to them. at around 8pm, after querying again, I was told that they spoke to the Doctor (a different one that came and saw her) and based on the notes advised that she can go home with 10 days worth of anti biotics and will need to have coil taken out in the outpatients department another day! I queried this as we were told this was the cause of the pain, and if so then it should be removed, I was advised that this is not the cause of the pain so it's not urgent to remove it. I asked what the cause of the pain was, the sister looked at her notes and advised that they didn't know but from her experience it MAY be PID, I asked whether results of the swabs taken had come back, which they hadn't. I pointlessly argued for a while as didn't think she should be discharged without knowing cause of pain and without all test results, but she was discharged anyway. So after 2 days in hospital, after multiple tests and with my fiancé still in severe pain, we left the hospital without diagnosis! We are both incredibly disappointed with lack of information provided and the fact she was discharged without diagnosis. We were given no details of how/if we will know the results of swabs taken or any contact number if the pain should increase (which it has done!) I will be taking her to a different hospital tonight!

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Responses

Response from Croydon University Hospital 9 years ago
Croydon University Hospital
Submitted on 16/03/2015 at 16:23
Published on nhs.uk on 17/03/2015 at 00:00


Dear petez316 I am very sorry to learn that you and your fiancée were unable to obtain a clear understanding of the cause of her problems before she was discharged and I fully appreciate that the lack of information will have caused additional anxiety. I will pass on details of your concerns to the AMU and if you would like me to investigate further, please ask your fiancée to contact me with her details. You can contact me direct at graham.richardson@croydonhealth.nhs.uk or, if you prefer, you can contact our PALS office at pals@croydonhealth.nhs.uk or on 020 8401 3210. Graham Richardson, Deputy Manager, PALS and Complaints

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