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"The worst treatment I have ever received"

About: Princess Alexandra Hospital / Accident and emergency

I visited the hospital today at 26 weeks pregnant due to the fact I have a narrow inferior vena cava (largest vein in the human body) because my baby is putting pressure on it. This therefore means I am suffering from a range of different symptoms all caused by the same thing but I was more worried about my baby because if he compresses the vein to a dangerous level then my body will redirect blood flow away from my baby and into my major organs. Therefore resulting in my baby dying.

I seen an absolutely lovely technician at the cardiology department then a midwife and they both advised me to go straight to a&e. I waited there for over 5 hours to be seen by one of the most vile individuals I have ever came across in my life. They were rude from the outset and I was in discomfort with bad chest pains and they continuously told me "I'm not a specialist I don't no why your here" so I explained everything and I said please help me I'm worried for my baby he could be at risk what can I do and they said "what exactly do you expect me to do about that" it continued and by this time I was in a very distressed state and my mum got my stuff and said we were leaving. This person should not be allowed to treat people like that especially when they are there to do a job which they clearly are not capable of doing. I am utterly disgusted and I only wish I new this persons name so I could make a formal complaint. But I will be doing my best to find this information out.

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Responses

Response from Princess Alexandra Hospital 7 years ago
Princess Alexandra Hospital
Submitted on 03/02/2017 at 12:46
Published on nhs.uk on 05/02/2017 at 01:39


Dear Anonymous,

I am sorry that you have had this experience, this is not what any of us would want for ourselves or family members were we to be in the same position.

I can completely understand how distressed you were about the condition of your baby and you clearly needed to see a specialist such as a consultant obstetrician to ensure things were okay.

Having said that, what should have happened here is that, the person you did see (whether or not he or she was the appropriate person) should have explained he would only be able to provide limited assurance and then refer on to a specialist to see you within an appropriate time frame. We do not believe it is ever acceptable to treat patients in a way which lacks empathy and sensitivity to their concerns and are keen to find out more about how this happened so we can take some next steps in trying to avoid a recurrence in the future.

Please contact us in the Patient Experience Team on 01279 82 70 84, we are available anytime from Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm or you can leave a message out of hours, we await your call.

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