A patient who fainted while waiting six hours for an x-ray at Forth Valley Royal has spoken out about a lack of care.
The experience was shared at a board meeting of NHS Forth Valley on Tuesday.
And staff have pledged to learn lessons from the experiences of the patient, named only as Diane, who was asked to go to minor injuries for an x-ray but was instead sent to a very busy emergency department.
She said in a patient’s story video: “I was made to feel like I shouldn’t be there and I didn’t expect to still be there at 11pm after arriving at 5pm.
“They thought I was there off my own bat and made me feel like I shouldn’t be there.
“I told the emergency department that minor injuries had sent me there, and said why? I fainted in the waiting room and got up and was able to sit on a seat but I just feel I was made to feel stupid.
”I waited for another two or three hours and they said if I fainted again to call them.
“I automatically trust anyone when I go into a hospital but there wasn’t any care in there. I was very angry - I just walked away and it was a waste of six-and-a-half hours.”
Kirsty Meikle, clinical manager for the Emergency Department at Forth Valley Royal Hospital said: “I would like to apologise for Diane’s experience.
“We don’t want any member of the public to not feel valued or cared for in the way we want them to. Staff members would never have any intent to cause anyone any upset or distress.
“Our team interacts with high volumes of patients and we realise each patient should be treated with the same equal amount of care, compassion and respect as every member of the public.”
Frances Dodd, executive nurse director of NHS Forth Valley said: “Diane came last December and in the hour she arrived there were 20 patients.
“She has had a poor experience and we can learn lessons from this. But to put it in context we had 80,000 patients last year and just 153 complaints.”
