It can only get worse....
last week Caroline was called by a 92 year old neighbor who had had a fall getting out of bed.....
This was at 2am.
111 Called but our neighbour had enormous difficulty getting the person on the phone to understand that she didn't have, nor want, either a mobile phone or an internet connection. Eventually our neighbour rang off and called again and spoke to someone without an obvious eastern European accent. This resulted in a call back from 111 from a Doctor, who was helpful and understanding. An ambulance arrived about 20 min later and after a night in SDH, some scans and blood tests our neighbour came home. The wait to be admitted to A&E was 5 mins. Excellent service.
In the hospital our neighbour was expected to get into a bed that had just been vacated... infection control anyone?
When clean sheets arrived our neighbour was expected to make her own bed, and was criticized for not doing it correctly. As a retired RAF Nursing Officer she gave the A&E person the sharp edge of her tongue, with the result that the agency person simply disappeared: our neighbour's comment was that here seemed not to be anyone in charge.
So some excellent service and some that was distinctly wanting. Both the 111 call handler and the A&E department are getting a formal complaint, because the phone number our neighbour has is supposed to be flagged as from a vulnerable, old person living on her own.
