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Paramedics attitude towards mental health patients

Posted By Royalfree

"Paramedics attitude towards mental health patients"

About: South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust / Emergency ambulance

(as the patient),

I had a mental health crisis recently which resulted in a serious overdose of prescribed medication. I was in a very vulnerable state and the first responder shouted at me and treated me like I was a nuisance.

When I was being transferred to GWH the two crew members laughed and joked and there did not seem to be any sense of urgency in getting me there.

I appreciate that ambulance crew are not mental health or social workers, but some show of compassion would help patients like me.

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Responses

Response from Sara Coburn, Patient Engagement Manager, Governance, South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust 8 years ago
Sara Coburn
Patient Engagement Manager, Governance,
South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust

Submitted on 28/07/2015 at 11:12
Published on Care Opinion at 11:33

Hi Royalfree

Thank you for sharing your story.

I am very sorry for what happened when you called us for help during such a traumatic event. We would not wish for any patient to leave our care with feelings you have expressed here.

Due to the anonymity of this posting I am unable to identify this event and bring your feelings to the attention of the staff involved. We would be happy to take some further information from you in order to do this, if you feel comfortable about sharing that. If you feel comfortable to discuss this further, you can speak to a member of our Patient Experience team via swast.patientexperience@nhs.net or 01392 261 585 and they will take some further information from you so that we are able to identify the event on our systems.

Thank you, again, for taking the time to provide our service with feedback and I hope you are recovering well after this crisis.

Sara

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