Share review of King George Hospital

King George Hospital 2024-03-18 Person 3 5 0

I was brought to A&E by the ambulance crew on Friday 1st March 2024 around 4pm. I waited for around an hour and a HCA came around to do my cannula and bloods and then another 30-40 minutes later the doctor came to see me. I told her I was concerned about a pulmonary embolism as I had surgery last week and I came in with pleuritic chest pain and asked if she could make sure a D diner was done (which is usually done with anyone presenting with chest pain). She reassured me it will be done and also referred me for a chest X-ray. By the time this was done it was about 6pm or so and I was asked to sit back out in the waiting room. From there on until 10pm no doctors came to see me, my pain deteriorated and I saw the nursing assistant who asked one of the nurses to get some painkillers. I asked him whether the blood test results are back and when checking informed me that the d dimer was not at all which I was appalled about. They then proceeded to do another set of bloods and repeated the ECG which took another 2 hours for the results of the blood test to come back. By midnight my pain was really bad and the nursing assistant had to call for one of the doctors to see me. The doctor who then saw me at that point was very kind and acted promptly to organise my scan and get me a bed in majors and everything was smooth from there on. I was diagnosed with a PE and referred to medics. I was in majors until about 10am Saturday until I was transferred to the ward. The nurse in charge of my at night was amazing and very helpful throughout the night. I’m very disappointed that my PE could have been missed if I hadn’t pushed for a d dimer to be done. Whilst I understand the pressure the NHS and our doctors are under, safety should always be the upmost importance.

Better communication between the doctors, the day shift doctor did not handover properly to the night shift as they thought I came in with a chest injury. Could also be helpful to have more regular offer of painkillers. I was given morphine in the ambulance at 4pm and then didn’t get anything until I had to ask twice.