Share review of Ealing Hospital

Ealing Hospital 2021-08-25 Person 3 5 0

The clinicians were all helpful and caring, but I had very poor experiences of the administration and co-ordination of services between departments: 1) there were problems with my initial referral to the Fracture Clinic by my GP. I had to chase it up a number of times by phone, and eventually was asked to present myself at the Emergency Department in order to be registered in the hospital system, despite having been told to attend the clinic at 10:30 on Friday 25th June, following an ankle fracture injury first treated in Urgent Care on 2nd June, while on holiday in Portsmouth. 2) At yesterday's follow-up Fracture Clinic Appointment (10:50 on 24th September), I was kept waiting for over an hour in the x-ray department, without being told I could not be seen owing to a problem with the x-ray request received from the clinic. The X-Ray Reception staff told me nothing, and I had to resort to asking a clinical member of the radiology team why my name had not been called. He advised that my clinical history had not been attached to the x-ray request sent by the Fracture Clinic, and that this was legally required. He said the team had been trying contact the Fracture clinic by phone, but could not get through. Since no member of admin staff offered to resolve this communication breakdown, and I needed to have my ankle x-rayed, I said I would go back to the Fracture clinic myself to explain the problem (the departments are on opposite sides of the hospital, so it is not particularly convenient to walk back and forth between them as a patient). The Fracture Clinic admin team told me no one had called them, and that they had no idea what the problem (with the x-ray request) was. One of the registrars called the x-ray department, and I was then told to go back there to be x-rayed. A young member of the clinic admin team apologised for the problem, and the physiotherapist happened to overhear I had been held up, and said he would see me later on, but other staff members failed to acknowledge that a communication issue might exist between departments. It is no good telling the patient "I can't understand what the problem is" or "this has never happened before" when the x-ray clinician clearly told me it was the 4th time that day. And how is that the x-ray team are unable to get hold of anyone in the Fracture Clinic? Surely, inter-departmental communication is possible by some means?

Enable GPs to refer a patient treated by another NHS hospital trust urgent care centre/fracture clinic; Enable another NHS hospital trust clinic to refer a patient directly to Ealing Fracture clinic; (I was seen three instead of the recommended two weeks' after my injury occurred because of the failure of the referral process.) Address the poor communication between Fracture Clinic and X-ray departments. In view of the distance to be walked, pre-book the patient into to the x-ray department, and advise them in the appointment letter to go there directly on arrival, instead of requiring them to report to the Fracture clinic, only to be told "you need to go for an x-ray".