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Lack of wheelchairs at Glasgow Royal Infirmary

Posted By bazil

"Lack of wheelchairs at Glasgow Royal Infirmary"

About: Glasgow Royal Infirmary / General Surgery (wards 64, 65, 66,& 67)

(as a relative),

My brother arrived at Hospital to undergo a hind quarter amputation.

We asked at reception for a wheelchair but there were none and the receptionist apologised and said that she could phone for a porter but did not know how long that would take. We asked her to phone the ward 62 but she said that another patient had been unable to get a chair earlier in the day. My brother dragged his leg all the way to the ward. (across a large foyer and two long corridors. ) Can you imagine my brothers stress, pain and humiliation before undergoing major major surgery?

We have visited two other hospitals recently Ninewells and Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary and wheelchairs are available at the entrance.

We hope that raising this issue will remedy the situation and so help other sick patients.

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Responses

Response from Lorna Fairlie, Patient Experience, Public Involvement Project Manager, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde 7 years ago
Lorna Fairlie
Patient Experience, Public Involvement Project Manager,
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

I work in a small team in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde which seeks to involve patients and carers in the work of the NHS. The biggest part of my role is in managing feedback projects across the Board area, one of which is Patient Opinion. It is my job to give our patients and carers the opportunity to give us feedback, and to make sure that this is passed to the right people to help us improve the services we provide.

Submitted on 11/05/2016 at 12:17
Published on Care Opinion at 15:35

Dear bazil,

Thank you for getting in touch to highlight the issues you and your brother had when you came to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary recently, and I completely understand the frustration you both felt, especially at a time which I know will have been very stressful for you.

I appreciate your point that wheelchairs should be available at the entrance as you have seen at other hospitals, however the difficulty at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in particular is that there are many entrances and exits on this site which would make this very difficult to manage in terms of making sure that wheelchairs are always available for those who need them. Instead, we have the procedure in place which the receptionist you spoke to mentioned, which would be the help of a porter to get your brother to the ward. This tends to work well, and although might not be as immediate as a chair at the door, our porters do respond to all calls as quickly as possible.

We will certainly take on board your feedback, and this has been shared around our senior management team, and we will consider how we can work with other teams to ensure that anybody coming to hospital has the right information about the availability of wheelchairs so that any preparations for assistance can be made in advance.

Kind Regards,

Anne MacLeod,

Deputy Site Facilities Manager, Glasgow Royal Infirmary

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