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"Dissapointing visit to QMC"

About: Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust - Queen's Medical Centre Campus Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust - Queen's Medical Centre Campus / Accident and emergency

(as the patient),

My doctor first referred me for an x ray, arrive at x ray clinic on time for my appointment at 11; have to wait 40 minutes to be seen. Following this I have to have a few more scans, so a 15 minute extra wait. Then told to go down to A and E to have further consultation.

Wait in A and E 30 minutes to be seen by the streaming nurse/doctor, told to go wait in the yellow waiting area.

Wait in the yellow area for 35-40 minutes. Get seen by emergency nurse, who seemed taken aback by the fact I was there even though my xray said had no break. Goes up to talk to the xray department, I was another 15 minutes but still no worries as I understand that the QMC is extremely busy and that doctors are under stress and there is no problem for me waiting.

Alan comes back and then says there is nothing to do as there is no break and to go back to my doctor and wait another week for him to get my xrays. I ask is there any advice he can give on what to do or what he might think is wrong.

He says he thinks ligament damage, could he not do any simple tests to see what is wrong with my hand so I can get a better idea of what to do with it? Throughout this he is extremely condescending and quite frankly rude and saying if there was something wrong with me he'd refer me, as if blaming me for following advice given to me by previous doctors.

I then say I would like to make a complaint and he then starts ranting to me about how 'If I want to make threats that's fine' as if I was trying to threaten him and he tried to provoke a reaction. I just told him he's being condescending and not helpful. This injury although not important to him, is keeping me from working as I work a manual job in Summer and need to lift heavy items. He gave me little advice, and only because I asked him. If I had not asked questions I would not have received any advice on how to lessen the pain of my injury.

He showed no empathy towards my situation and made it apparent that I was wasting his time. Extremely upsetting and frustrating, as I have just looked up what to do with ligament damage to the hand and it is simply to put it in a splint, could he not have advised me to do this? Never have I felt so let down and wasted a day to this extent. It was basically better that I didn't come in today as the advice I got in the end was next to nothing. I will not be using QMC ever again by choice.

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Responses

Response from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust 8 years ago
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
Submitted on 09/06/2015 at 07:53
Published on Care Opinion at 07:55


Thank you for taking time to provide such detailed feedback.

We are extremely concerned to read your comments about your experience and attitudes and behaviours.

It is unusual for a patient to wait for 40 minutes at the X Ray clinic. We apologise that this occurred. It is difficult to comment without the exact details (date/time of your visit), however a spike in walk-in patients may have extended waiting times on this particular day.

We X Ray patients according to the guidance given by the GP. Sometimes we will get a second opinion from a radiographer if we have concerns about a bone injury. If you had a definite fracture, we would inform you and refer you to our Emergency Department (ED) for treatment. However, sometimes patients are referred to ED without a fracture if there are other concerns such as swelling. Again, without exact details it is difficult to comment with any certainty – however it seems likely that this was the case for you. It does also appear that communication between departments and with you could have been better.

We would like to look into your concerns further, including those about attitudes and behaviours of our staff. If you wish to discuss this further you can contact me on 0115 9249924 ext. 64333.

Kind regards,

Tracey A Clegg

Modality Manager Plain Film

Nottingham University Hospitals

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