Glan Clwyd District General Hospital 2017-08-25 Person 1 5 0

Went to meet the "Patient Experience" lady in Glan Clwyd hosptial to talk to her about a very important patient experience. The lady was very ill-equipped to deal with the experience of the patient. She kept interrupting, she wouldn't let the patient finish what she was saying. She also claimed to be impartial and independent, yet upon being asked admitted that she worked for the NHS and has colleagues in the complaints department (so not very impartial). The patient experience lady was kindy asked to read a professional statement by a member of staff regarding the patient to allow her to gain a better understanding of what the patient was trying to explain to her, yet she very abruptly took the side of what was written on the letter. She made the statement without any professional background, training or qualifications whatsoever, and gave a mis-guided and wrong assumption as to what was written on the letter. She should not have even attempted to take a side. She was a disgrace for doing this. She carried on interrupting the patient and then at one point she accused the patient of being aggressive towards her, and said she was going to stop the meeting. As an independent observer of the meeting I can confirm that the patient was certainly NOT becoming aggressive in any way at all. The lady was clearly out of her depth in her job and didn't know what to do. She then went on to say that the Patient Experience team only deal with issues which have arisen in the past 48 hours, and she said she did not know why the patient had been given an appointment with her. She then tried to sign-post the patient to an external agency. It was very clear from the meeting that Betsi Cadwaladr only want to hear "nice" stories and experiences from patients and if a patient comes in with a negative experience there is absolutely no clear or simple way to express this - as the lady did not have the capability to help. It appears that the Patient Experience is just a marketing phrase in a vein attempt my management to make it look like they are listening to patients, when really all they are bothered about is sweeping negative experiences under the carpet. The lady made the experience of visiting the patient experience team a total and utter joke, it was stressful, unsatisfactory and appalling in every way possible. She also attempted (again without any validity) that Glan Clwyd Hospital and staff were not responsible for the patients experience, and tried to claim that it was a separate hospital. This again, was totally and factually incorrect, and the lady should not be making these assumptions, as all she did was highlight how appalling the service has been to the patient, which was the very reason why the patient was there in the first place, so they could discuss the experience with the lady from the Patient Experience Team!! Basically, if you want to bring up your experience which is over 48 hours old - don't even bother, as the patient experience team don't want to know, and don't know how to help.