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"Meant to have coil replacement"

About: Sidwell Street Clinic / Exeter Sexual Health

(as a service user),

When my coil was fitted I received the card saying I must replace my coil by a certain date. I explained this to the member of staff I spoke to and I was booked in. I had to drive 20 miles to another town and pay for parking and fuel and spend my time waiting. I had to rush after night shift for the appointment at 10.40, just to be told that my coil doesn't need replacing for another 3 years. All of this could have been avoided if the member of staff I spoke to had the knowledge or the staff reviewed my details and contacted me prior to the appointment to cancel.

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Responses

Response from Colette Pearse, Admin Lead - Exeter Sexual Health Service, Sexual Health Service - Exeter, Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust last month
We have made a change
Colette Pearse
Admin Lead - Exeter Sexual Health Service, Sexual Health Service - Exeter,
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Submitted on 03/03/2025 at 12:29
Published on Care Opinion at 12:35


Response sent from Liz Roddy, Senior Nurse, Devon Sexual Health.

Dear eagleqx44

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback regarding your recent experience with our clinic.

Firstly, we would like to apologise that you had an unnecessary journey for your appointment. We recognise there could have been a more effective management of this.

Due to the changing and varied IUD/coils available and the differing lifespans of these, this has now become a more complex area which we feel requires a change in our booking process. Your complaint has helped us highlight this and we have therefore now amended the process for booking coil refits.

Our reception team do not have access to clinical information and would have booked your appointment according to your request of requiring a replacement coil for the date you were given. However, there has been a recent change to the recommended lifespan for certain coils and it may only have been noted when you attended your appointment that your coil could be retained for a longer period.

Due to the vast number of patients we see, clinicians are not always able to review a patient’s medical history prior to their appointment. We also do not have access to any external medical notes such as GP & hospital medical records.

In view of this, we are now recommending that anyone requesting a coil refit is signposted to our comprehensive website which will guide patients through the procedure to book their appointment online. We can also arrange a telephone call with a clinical member of our team to book your appointment appropriately if patients cannot access this information, or would rather a direct book appointment. We hope that this new process for booking will assist in avoiding any similar occurrences.

Once again, we are sorry that you had this experience. Your feedback has been really helpful for us to review our current process and to implement a change.

Kind Regards

Liz Roddy

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