"Exceptional care and "alright" care"

I attended the Inaugural education meeting for people living with Heart Failure at the Dunblane Hydro Hotel November 5th.

I feel I must write to comment about how I found this event to be so informative, and what made it so good. The quality of speakers, both from the NHS and also from the Care Sector were exceptional, the relaxed surroundings of the meeting made it feel very comfortable and easy to put questions to the panel. All the "experts" were very approachable and relaxed, a situation you rarely encounter when attending an out patient appointment.

The literature that was freely available, covered every aspect of Heart Failure you could possibly want to know about, and speaking personally, I had no idea that so much had been written about the subject! The various stands offering this literature, were staffed by people who were so helpful and informative about their various support groups. I was also extremely grateful for the opportunity to speak to other attendees about our common medical condition, and to hear other people's stories as to how they cope with this condition.

In particular, I would like to say a big thank you to Janet, Lead Heart Failure Nurse and Jill, Heart Failure Specialist Nurse the Hub Coordinators, for organising this excellent event.

On a personal note, my journey through my Cardiac History has been a bit of a roller coaster ride with exceptional care and just 'alright' care! ! The Exceptional part of this journey has been having contact with the Advanced Nurse Practitioners, Heart Failure Specialist Nurse and the Community Heart Failure Specialist within NHS Grampian. The Specialist Nurse is an amazing innovation, and in my opinion as a user of the service, an exceptional advance towards meaningful Care in the Community.

The 'alright' care was not being told that I had heart failure and only being aware of this when a letter came from a Heart Failure Nurse asking to see me. This was the first time it had ever been mentioned, despite having had a Cardiology consultation some weeks before when an echo cardiogram was carried out as a follow up to my CABG the previous year. The Consultant mentioned something to the effect of " there has been no improvement in your EF which we hoped would have been the case after the Bypass". When I asked what this actually meant he said the EF was about 26% and I would need to see a "nurse" followed by another cardiac consultation in a year. That was the extent of the consultation. Not satisfactory at all.