Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust - Ratings and reviews
Reviews
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Review titled 9 hours and still waiting in A&E
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 21 February 2024
It’s more than 9 hours, we are still waiting at A&E, had surgery 2-3 days back and no body is sympathetic enough to provide bed to rest.
Visited February 2024
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust has not yet replied.
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Review titled The Worst ever Service at QEII Hospital Woolwich
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Subodh Shah - Posted on 07 January 2023
I was taken to A & E at 23:45 on 30/12/2022 and I was seen by the nurse, had the ECG, blood pressure taken and blood tests done and chest x-ray done within 2 hrs but then I was told to wait to be seen by the doctor. Still waiting to be seen time was about 5:30 and asked the nurse when will I be seen and was told as only one doctor the rest of the doctors will now arrive at 8am!! On 31/12/2022 waited the Whole day to be seen without any update, food or drink sitting on the chair with chest pains. At around 9-10 pm I again enquired why I have not been seen yet, and one of the nurses then asked the doctor for an update and was told there are no beds – this could have been updated to me earlier. I was also told that I should not be waiting in A&E but I was not told that or given any bed space. I was told to wait in the A & E again as I had to see a specialist. And being diabetic too no one asked if I had anything to eat or drink and was just kept on being told that I was to be seen by specialist my wife came at night and asked the nurse who had seen me previous night as she remembered me being there for 20 hours already. She was asked if they had asked me if I had any food or Drinks being a diabetic and soon after that my wife left to go home then the nurse came to me and asked if I needed a Sandwich or something to Drink after being there for 22 hours and they still didn't know what I was waiting for, I even told them let me go home and ring me up as soon as the specialist was available, and was told no if I left then I would be put back on the waiting list from start again. After 28 hours waiting, I saw one of the doctors walking past and asked her to check on what I was waiting for then she went in the department to check and 15 mins later I was asked to go inside and was told they had been waiting for a bed to admit me. Doctor saw me and told me I had kidney problems and my lungs were water lodged and that I needed water tablets. And was given 1 immediately then had to wait to see another Doctor to be told I will be discharged same day and about midday on 1st January 2023 they started doing the discharge paperwork. My health history is on the hospital computer, the nurse/doctor should have known how critical it was and also I was not being updated at all.
Visited December 2022
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust has not yet replied.
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Review titled Access to sexual health services in Lewisham
by jupitertk53 - Posted on 29 June 2022
I want to have my coil removed and contacted my GP to find out the process. Even though having a coil is a common, normal thing, my surgery has no trained staff to do the procedure. The borough has only two clinics that can perform it for me, the third one only serving under 25s. I called the phone number given (which is the same for both clinics) over 10 times, and after listening to a long and slow pre-recorded message, and selecting from 4 options, every single time the line rang for a short time and then was put down. No hold, no queue system, no indication as to why. I later found a page where I was offered the option to book online... no appointments available, even months into the future. The site says that if no appointments are available to call the number. Which as explained above doesn't work. So I called my GP back, who advised me to go to one of the clinics and see if I could make an appointment that way. With there being so few clinics, it took me an hour via public transport to get there, only to be spoken to I felt extremely rudely by the receptionist who told me I had to phone or book online. I explained that online there are no appointments visible online and that the phone line repeatedly hung up, but they didn't believe me and kept saying how they could see they were available on her system. I gave them my phone to see, and even seeing that it said no appointments, they continued to say there were some available and I had to call or book online. Both of these options I had already explained were not working. We ended up going around in circles with me being told to keep calling, me calling, and the line repeatedly going dead. The security person then started getting involved, telling me to not upset myself and asking me why I was upset, which was completely inappropriate. I was not upsetting myself - the receptionist and the dehumanising, inefficient, and frustrating system which had the effect of blocking me from getting safe and effective healthcare, is the thing that upset me. Later, another member of staff came out, and tried to help, but it ended with me having to share elements of my health history - in front of a waiting room of people - which was extremely uncomfortable and upsetting. Eventually, someone mentioned that new appointments are released every 48 hours, and that you can only book an appointment 48 hours in advance - which is not mentioned on the website. The staff member just told me to keep calling and keep checking online between the hours of 10:00 am and 3;00 pm every day. That's 5 hours of time per day, when I also work a full time job, just to get an appointment which is unlikely to be at a convenient time and would still require 2 hours out of work just to travel. The other centre they mentioned is a walk-in clinic, but patients can expect to wait 2-3 hours on the day. A completely ridiculous and inefficient system which devalues the patients' time entirely. That the borough expect patients to do a 2 hour round trip, and wait for 2-3 hours in a waiting room, or refresh a webpage and call for a 5 hour period every day in the hope of getting an appointment, to get basic access to safe healthcare is degrading, dehumanising, and completely disregards the patient and their time as worth anything. No acceptable solution was offered and I left feeling frustrated, dehumanised, and still don't know how I can get an appointment without having to spend hours off work - and therefore unpaid. To be told that "this is the system" is simply not good enough. The system is terrible and needs changing. Women in particular - who bear the burden of contraception in many cases - are bearing a huge burden in terms of time, which also equals money with time taken off work and even childcare, just to get basic access to healthcare. It's a genuine disgrace - I left in tears.
Visited June 2022
Provided by Care opinion
Review titled Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust
Replied on 06 July 2022
We apologise for the problems you experienced trying to arrange an appointment to have your IUD removed, including the issues you had not being able to get through to the service by phone and the interaction you had with a member of our admin team. We have taken on board all your comments and would like to speak to you about what we have done as result – some of which was already in progress and ensure that we can see you as soon as possible to have your IUD removed. If this has not happened already. We do not have your details so please contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service, (PALS) team on: Lewisham Hospital PALS 020 8333 3355 or pals.lewisham@nhs.net , with a number we can contact you on to speak to you directly. I can assure you we are aware of the issues we have and are working very hard to try and resolve them and again apologise that you were affected by a system that is currently inadequate. Kind Regards, Alison White General Manager - Women's and Sexual Health
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Review titled Can't get coil removed
by jupitertk53 - Posted on 29 June 2022
I want to have my coil removed and contacted my GP to find out the process. Even though having a coil is a common, normal thing, my surgery has no trained staff to do the procedure. The borough has only two clinics that can perform it for me, the third one only serving under 25s. I called the phone number given (which is the same for both clinics) over 10 times, and after listening to a long and slow pre-recorded message, and selecting from 4 options, every single time the line rang for a short time and then was put down. No hold, no queue system, no indication as to why. I later found a page where I was offered the option to book online... no appointments available, even months into the future. The site says that if no appointments are available to call the number. Which as explained above doesn't work. So I called my GP back, who advised me to go to one of the clinics and see if I could make an appointment that way. With there being so few clinics, it took me an hour via public transport to get there, only to be spoken to extremely rudely by the receptionist who told me I had to phone or book online. I explained that online there are no appointments visible online and that the phone line repeatedly hung up, but she didn't believe me and kept saying how she could see they were available on her system. I gave her my phone to see, and even seeing that it said no appointments, she continued to say there were some available and I had to call or book online. Both of these options I had already explained were not working. We ended up going around in circles with the receptionist telling me to keep calling, me calling in front of them, and the line repeatedly going dead. The security person then started getting involved, telling me to "not upset myself" and asking me why I was upset, which was completely inappropriate. I was not upsetting myself - the receptionist and the dehumanising, inefficient, and frustrating system which had the effect of blocking me from getting safe and effective healthcare, is the thing that upset me. Later, another member of staff came out, and tried to help, but it ended with me having to share elements of my health history - in front of a waiting room of people - which was extremely uncomfortable and upsetting. Eventually, someone mentioned that new appointments are released every 48 hours, and that you can only book an appointment 48 hours in advance - which is not mentioned on the website. The staff member just told me to keep calling and keep checking online between the hours of 10am and 3pm every day. That's 5 hours of time PER DAY, when I also work a full time job, just to get an appointment which is unlikely to be at a convenient time and would still require 2 hours out of work JUST TO TRAVEL. The other centre they mentioned is a walk-in clinic, but patients can expect to wait 2-3 hours on the day. A completely ridiculous and inefficient system which devalues the patients' time entirely. That the borough expect patients to do a 2 hour round trip, and wait for 2-3 hours in a waiting room, or refresh a webpage and call for a 5 hour period every day in the hope of getting an appointment, to get basic access to safe healthcare is degrading, dehumanising, and completely disregards the patient and their time as worth anything. No acceptable solution was offered and I left feeling frustrated, dehumanised, and still don't know how I can get an appointment without having to spend hours off work - and therefore unpaid. To be told that "this is the system" is simply not good enough. The system is terrible and needs changing. Women in particular - who bear the burden of contraception in many cases - are bearing a huge burden in terms of time, which also equals money with time taken off work and even childcare, just to get basic access to healthcare. It's a genuine disgrace - I left in tears.
Visited June 2022
Provided by Care opinion
Review titled Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust
Replied on 06 July 2022
We apologise for the problems you experienced trying to arrange an appointment to have your IUD removed, including the issues you had not being able to get through to the service by phone and the interaction you had with a member of our admin team. We have taken on board all your comments and would like to speak to you about what we have done as result – some of which was already in progress and ensure that we can see you as soon as possible to have your IUD removed. If this has not happened already. We do not have your details so please contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service, (PALS) team on: Lewisham Hospital PALS 020 8333 3355 or pals.lewisham@nhs.net , with a number we can contact you on to speak to you directly. I can assure you we are aware of the issues we have and are working very hard to try and resolve them and again apologise that you were affected by a system that is currently inadequate. Kind Regards, Alison White General Manager - Women's and Sexual Health