"Staff were outstanding"

About: Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh at Little France / Accident & Emergency

(as the patient),

I was admitted to A&E following a collapse.

From the triage nurse through the night shift and the following day shift, staff were outstanding. Without exception they were personable, highly efficient and in the face of a number of uncooperative patients - amazingly empathetic and above all patient. The Junior doctor I saw and the Pacemaker Nurse were also highly efficient. In particular the Cardiologist Dr Lang was outstanding; he had a very clear and precise way of explaining things, listened carefully to my (sometimes ill-informed) questions and provided answers in a very lucid manner. He also seemed to take time with me and at no point did he appear to be rushing off to his next patient. When he did leave I was left with a clear view of my future treatment. Exemplary!

I must however, very reluctantly, make one suggestion: because of circumstances I was in A&E for an extended period of time and there was very little in the way of provision of water and food - in reality basically nothing. I could clearly see that the staff were under great pressure to do a very large number of tasks against a background of high expectations and targets - and I saw no evidence whatsoever of slack in the system so I am not sure how this could be achieved. It is perhaps a role that could be filled by support staff of some sort - another task for the trolley and wheelchair movers ?? However I fully agree that treatment has to be prioritised over welfare and overall I was very happy with my treatment at the Royal Infirmary.

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Responses

Response from Michelle Jack, Associate Nurse Director, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, NHS Lothian 2 years ago
Michelle Jack
Associate Nurse Director, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh,
NHS Lothian
Submitted on 17/03/2023 at 19:28
Published on Care Opinion at 19:28


picture of Michelle Jack

Thank you for your feedback and taking time out to write to us. I hope you are recovering well We are grateful that you have suggested some improvements for us and this is something as a team we are working hard on. We have support staff and volunteers within the ED who help to give our patients food and drinks I am sorry you did not see this when you were with us. We have focused on this and have made some changes in the department to make this better and improve the overall experience of our patients.

I hope you continue to make progress and wish you well and thank you once again.

michelle

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Response from Jeannette Morrison, Head of Patient Experience, NHS Lothian about a year and a half ago
Jeannette Morrison
Head of Patient Experience,
NHS Lothian
Submitted on 05/09/2023 at 15:23
Published on Care Opinion at 16:18


Dear Bccphobic,

Thank you again for taking the time to share your feedback with us following your attendance at the Emergency Dept a few months ago. I do hope you have made a good recovery.

We are keen to hear from patients who have experienced care or treatment and I wonder if you would like to get in touch with me directly via the Patient Experience Team so that we can hear more details of your time in hospital especially as you have given us some suggestions for improvements by way of the provision of food and drinks as well as the lovely feedback for the staff. I can be contacted via the Patient Experience Team (feedback@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk) or by telephone (0131 536 3370) and lines are open from 9am - 2pm and it would be helpful if you can please use Care Opinion feedback in your message.

I look forward to hearing from you

Kind regards

Jeannette

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