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Care given over the past year

Posted By januarymc87

"Care given over the past year"

About: Scottish Ambulance Service / Emergency Ambulance University Hospital Hairmyres / Emergency Department

(as the patient),

I am a teenager and have been diagnosed with hypermobile elhers danlos syndrome, which if you aren't aware is a rare connective tissue disorder that affects the connective tissues within the body such as ligaments, tendons and muscle. Due to this condition I experience a high volume of dislocations in my joints along with immense pain.

Over the past year I have experienced over 50+ dislocations, all with my knee, and the care the Scottish Ambulance Service and Hairmyres Hospital has given me has been nothing short of disgraceful.

Having been through this many times, I know myself when this happens I require ambulance attendance to either manipulate my knee back into place or to assist with transfers to hospital. Now having said this, multiple times I have called 999 to be transference to the Scottish Ambulance Service to request attendance. I appreciate they are extremely busy, however 9/10 times they say that an ambulance will not be requested and I have to contact NHS 111 instead, even though NHS 111 9/10 times refer me back to the Scottish Ambulance in the first place!

Now, as I have said, I appreciate the strain on the National Health Service however this is not on, leaving anyone in immense pain for excess time when they could just cut out the middle man is ridiculous, let alone prolonging the pain and distress of an autistic adult makes the situation worse.

I hope in writing this, something can be done so at the minimum it can prevent others from experiencing this level care or rather lack of.

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Responses

Response from Mark Hannan, Head of Corporate Affairs and Engagement, Scottish Ambulance Service 5 days ago
Mark Hannan
Head of Corporate Affairs and Engagement,
Scottish Ambulance Service

Submitted on 24/04/2025 at 15:31
Published on Care Opinion at 15:31

Hi januarymc87,

I'm really sorry to hear about your hypermobile elhers danlos syndrome and the pain and discomfort you are regularly having to go through due to dislocations. That must be extremely difficult to deal with and I hope you're doing ok.

I'd also like to apologise that you feel you've had such a poor experience when trying to get some help and assistance. I can only imagine how frustrating that must be for you feeling like you are being passed from one part of the NHS system to another - all whilst being in pain.

You are correct in that we are under pressure and do have to prioritise ambulance responses but from what you are saying, your experience has been very poor from a patient care perspective and I'm sorry for that.

I'd like to have this investigated for you to look into the circumstances of your case and see if there is anything we as a Service could have done better or anything we can do better in the future moving forward to improve the situation.

If you'd like that, we can arrange for it to be looked into. To allow us to do so, we'd need a few more details from you such as your full name, address, date and time of most recent incident and the description of what happened as you have outlined above sent to sas.feedback@nhs.scot. We can then take this forward.

Thanks for letting us know about your experience and I'm sorry once again that it has been a poor one from your perspective.

Take care,

Mark

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Response from Jennifer Montgomery, Improvement Coordinator, Quality Directorate, NHS Lanarkshire yesterday
Jennifer Montgomery
Improvement Coordinator, Quality Directorate,
NHS Lanarkshire

Operational Lead for Care Opinion in NHS Lanarkshire

Submitted on 29/04/2025 at 00:22
Published on Care Opinion at 00:22

picture of Jennifer Montgomery

Dear januarymc87,

Thank you for sharing your experience of University Hospital Hairmyres, Emergency Department.

I can only imagine how distressing it must be to dislocate your knee as often as happens for you, and that you would be looking for prompt treatment on arrival at hospital. I am sorry that you have faced lengthy waits.

If there was something you wished to discuss further, please do not hesitate to contact patient affairs on the below email address who can record and investigate your concerns and provide a personal response.

patientaffairs@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk

Best Wishes,

Jenni

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