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"Very disappointed with service from start to..."

About: Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital

I am post menopausal for 9 years and woke up early hours of

Friday morning 8 th July and was bleeding heavily, I want to the A n E at Cramlington and waited in the main waiting room for 20 minutes was seen by a nurse who took bloods and said they would contact the gynocologist Department urgently who would see me to discuss next steps. I sat for another hour bearing in mind bleeding heavily the nurse who I saw past us on their way home as their shift had finished. After about 1 hours 15 my husband went to the reception to see what was happening the receptionist said they would find out. They came back and said there were 2 patients in fron of me which I found strange as I was waiting to see a gynocologist. After another 20 minutes a nurse came out with a file at which point they started having a ten minute chit chat with a colleague. They then said I'm looking for Linda which is my name they didn't say a surname , they took me into a room and asked my date of birth and proceeded to put a name band on me despite me already having one on together with a drip feed put on by the nurse I saw 2 hours previously . I said I already have been seen by the nurse at which point they said they were confused, I asked them what the name on the file was and it was a totally different Linda! Despite them asking my date of birth they obviously didn't check and if I hadn't asked it would not have come to light. I was then asked to wait again by this time I had been in the hospital for 3 hours ! I eventually saw a dr who said my blood results were ok and the gynocologist consultant was happy for me to go home but would make an appointment for an ultra scan for me which I would have within 2 weeks to eliminate any cancer. As I hadn't received an appointment letter nearly a week later I rang Cramlington to see if appointment had been made I was transferred from pillar to post and after 40 minutes got through to the patient care who are looking into this for me to simply find out if a referral has been made for me. I am waiting for the outcome. I am disgusted that a supposedly state of the art specialist energency hospital could be so unprofessional. My husband has recently been attending Wansbeck Hospital where the service is excellent. The NHS is a fantastic institution but it boils down to the mangement and dedication of staff, like a previous review the reception and nursing staff were standing around chatting whilst I sat waiting for someone to take charge, very disappointed indeed will never want to attend this hospital again.

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Responses

Response from Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital 7 years ago
Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital
Submitted on 15/07/2016 at 16:52
Published on nhs.uk on 16/07/2016 at 02:30


Dear Linda,

I am very sorry to read about your experience with us, it is deeply disappointing to see that we made a some clerical errors while trying to organise your care.

I appreciate how worried and frustrated you must have been, but please be assured that I will raise this with our team in Accident and Emergency, to make sure we’re doing everything we can to avoid this happening in the future.

I’m sorry that you’ve had difficulty contacting the relevant department, I wonder if this is something I could help you with, as I am concerned that you’re awaiting your referral and scan?

I would be more than happy to either contact the appropriate team on your behalf or provide you with a direct contact number, whichever you would find most useful? Please do contact me at annie.laverty@nhct.nhs.uk and we can have a chat about what’s most suitable for you.

It’s sad to read that you would be reluctant to use our services in the future - I hope we have the opportunity to work with you to change this view and provide the assurance you need.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Annie

Annie Laverty – Director of Patient Experience

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