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St Paul's Cottage Surgery
2016-09-27
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Written by a patient
Written by a patient 27th September 2016
I went to St Paul's Cottage Surgery for ECG, to do some other tests.
First appointment- the ECG machine was lost, had to make new appointment.
Second Appointment- the ECG machine did not work or nurse did not know how to handle machine, I would be called back for new appointment, nobody rang, finally a new appointment made.
Third appointment- after 1 hour waiting in waiting room, it appeared that the nurse had confused another patient for me and taken an ECG from him (he was there for a Hepatitus vaccination).
Apart from the inadequacy of the nurse regarding the ECG machine, the fact that she mistook someone else for me and had him do the test is beyond words.
Unfortunately for me, the Surgery does have some very good GP's so I am hesitant in changing to another Surgery.
13th October 2016
Response from St Paul's Cottage Surgery
Dear patient, I am very sorry for the unacceptable service that you received. Obviously, I do not want to break any confidentiality by replying to you personally through this medium so could I please ask that you contact me direct to discuss what happened. Unfortunately, because of a national shortage of practice nurses, we are having difficulty recruiting a permanent nurse and we rely on a variety of temporary nurses, who are not always familiar with the surgery. On the day of your first visit, a locum nurse had placed the ECG machine in the wrong place and on your second visit the ECG software had a problem which the supplier had to resolve. Unfortunately, the third visit was a combination of language problems and the nurse not clearly identifying the patient. As a surgery we take this incident very seriously and I have spoken to the nurse concerned, making sure that we have all learned from this. I have also put in place several additional safeguards and updated our procedures to make sure this doesn’t happen again. We believe in open and transparent communication and both patients were notified of what happened, immediately. The temporary nurse involved has subsequently left our employment and we are working hard to recruit a permanent replacement. Once again, I’d like to apologise to you for what happened, although it is reassuring that you are pleased with the level of care provided by our doctors. If you do have any further problems please ask to speak to me. Thank you. Sheamus