To complain to PALS

[WhatTheSock]

This is a weird and long story and I really am not sure whether to make something of it or not.

Had a deep puncture wound with dirt stuck in it a couple of weeks ago. Went to get it cleaned out and patched up at a walk-in clinic. Was asked if tetanus boosters were up to date. They weren’t as I have terrible reactions. They sent me home saying if there was any sign of infection to come back. It healed up well after some initial swelling and pain but I thought nothing more of it...until yesterday morning when I woke up with my jaw in spasm! It only lasted a few seconds but enough to terrify me into thinking I had tetanus. I called 111 for advice and they told me to get to A&E ASAP.
Off I went. I was triaged and sent to a lady who introduced herself as Dr so and so, and then proceeded to tell me I had an “anxiety disorder”. I explained that I had a tetanus prone wound two weeks ago and that my jaw was in spasm when I woke up and she told me there was “no way” I had tetanus as it would have developed within 3 days and I wouldn’t be sitting there talking to her. I explained that I had read the NHS info on tetanus and it said 3 to 21 days for it to develop. She said “You seem to know a lot about tetanus” with a smirk. So then she starts phoning someone and asks if they need to see me, whilst chuckling to herself.. and then types “anxiety disorder” into the screen. I questioned this again and she claimed the computer wouldn’t accept “suspected tetanus” and she could ONLY put anxiety disorder. Next thing she does is examine the wound itself, and she started trying to pick off the scab! I asked her to stop it and she laughed and said “I’m just having a look at it!” and then she disappeared out the curtain and started discussing me with someone else whilst again laughing. She then phoned someone else to discuss me but this person asked her to send me to an emergency assessment unit. So I went there and was met eventually by a junior doctor who greeted me with “So I’m told you were here two weeks ago with a similar condition and you got us to phone the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine?”

WTF?!!

I had never ever set foot in the place! I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone!
They tried to find me on their system but obviously didn’t, as I had never been there before. They asked me about 15 questions and wrote down my answers. Then I was passed to someone else who asked me the same 15 questions and then disappeared. Then a nurse came in and asked me another load of similar questions...and then did a heap of blood tests and an ECG! They then asked me to sit in a waiting room. I was there from 8am until 6pm (along with some poor souls who were groaning in agony with various ailments) and then eventually the second guy came back and said I could go, because I’d had no further spasms, but if I had any other signs of tetanus to come straight back to A&E. He gave me the discharge form and I put it in my bag. As I was leaving he caught up with me and handed me another dis barge form and asked for the first one back. He’d changed “Initial diagnosis: Spasm in jaw” to “Initial diagnosis: anxious twitch in jaw”!!

I left.

I have been trying to process it and understand what on Earth happened. I don’t know whether to make a complaint to PALS or not. How do I even explain it all? Surely a case of mistaken identity? But to be so rude and unprofessional, trying to pick off my scab as if I’d stuck a fake one on... Laughing at me, claiming I had an anxiety disorder....

AIBU to make a complaint? It sounds so far fetched yet it actually happened!!

The rest does sound shit and worth giving feedback in writing.

That's horrendous... Definitely complain to PALS.
I had a similar situation a few years ago when I had rapid and excruciating abdomen pain, had to be taken to A&E in an ambulance on gas and air and when I arrived there the nurse that triaged me was so incredibly rude, insinuated that I must have taken some drugs or consumed too much alcohol (?!) because it was a Friday night.
When I was moaning to my friend about her in the waiting room - basically just saying how rude she was - she came over and said if I continue to bad mouth her she will ask security to remove me?! I was gobsmacked...
It turned out I had two blocked fallopian tubes, a massive ovarian cyst that had burst, and later diagnosed with severe endometriosis and pelvic inflammatory disease!
Absolutely terrible that these people work with the general public at all, let alone in a hospital!

I don’t think they have doctors in triage though, do they? She even said “We’ll see what the doctors say, hmm?” at one point which made me realise she probably wasn’t one. She did call herself a doctor.

I stupidly did say to the woman that I was feeling anxious, because my heart rate was pretty high. That was probably a red flag to her. Who wouldn’t be feeling anxious under the situation though? It’s never an excuse to treat someone as it they are a lunatic or time waster. Added to that she clearly thought I’d been there two weeks prior about some other “waste of time”. Maybe because I was wearing a mask she had me confused with someone else. I don’t have a particularly common name though.

022828MAN indeed, though I am very sure they do meet their fair share of loons and time wasters.

"The lady who was rude and laughing at me was a triage nurse, as far as I could tell, though she introduced herself as “Dr” something".

This gets stranger and stranger. You were triaged (" I was triaged and sent to a lady who introduced herself as Dr so and so, and then proceeded to tell me I had an “anxiety disorder"). So you were seen by the triage nurse then sent to another triage nurse who introduced herself as dr?

There's something else going on here, surely. It all sounds a bit strange.

A nurse might well introduce themselves as Dr x if they had a PhD. Plenty are.

What do you want from complaining? What outcomes are you after? You’re well. You were seen and assessed. They laughed a bit at what may well have been an overreaction from Dr Google self assessment. Hardly life changing. The NHS is under huge pressures at the moment and it’s unclear what complaining will achieve.

CherryPavlova the woman tried to pick off my scab!!

The NHS is under huge pressures at the moment and it’s unclear what complaining will achieve.

I hate this sort of thing so much. Yes the NHS is wonderful and under great pressure. Doesn't mean clinical staff can treat OP with zero respect. I was sent away from A&E with a broken leg because a junior doctor laughed me out of the door having misread an X-Ray. It's absolutely not on OP and you should definitely complain.

AwaAnBileYerHeid you are telling ME it’s strange? That’s the whole reason I posted!

I got to A&E and was briefly assessed by pleasant triage nurse off the A&E waiting area. I was then sent down a corridor to another lady in another cubicle with “Triage” above it. She said “I’m Dr...” but I didn’t catch her name. It doesn’t matter what her qualifications were. Her behaviour was rude, and inappropriate. She clearly believed I was someone else who had been in there time wasting two weeks prior. I had never been in there before. She was laughing at a person who had come in with a genuine concern about a potentially life threatening condition, on the advice of NHS111, and if you are ever unfortunate enough to be in such a stressful situation only to be laughed at and your wound questioned for fakeness, then you’d understand what the issue is.

Once the various medical staff realised I wasn’t who the laughing triage nurse/Dr thought I was they then took me seriously and got on with assessing me, so I have no complaints about that part of the experience. The “diagnosis” change as I was leaving was very odd, and the initial way I was treated was unacceptable.

Even if the nurse had a PHD which means she’s a Dr in another area I’m not sure it’s appropriate to use that title without further explanation of her role. I’m a HCP in an area where plenty of us have PHDs thus making us Drs but I don’t know one person who uses that title when speaking to ward staff/ patients. It would be especially confusing at a time when everyone is wearing scrubs and looks the same.
That’s beside the point, OP was advised to go to A&E by 111, she didn’t self diagnose using Dr Google! If she feels she was disrespected then she should absolutely complain. The pressure the NHS is under does not excuse poor patient treatment.

Haha, Dr Google? The nurses and doctors were all googling tetanus symptoms!!

It all sounds a bit...disjointed... That's my point. If you think it's reasonable to complain to PALS then do so. From your original post, it sounds as though a lot is being missed out from what actually happened during your appointment.

If it "doesn't matter what her qualifications are" then I'm not sure why you brought it up? I was simply responding to one of the points that you brought up, especially as it sounds a little...unusual.

They safety netted you the first time you went to hospital with the wound by advising you to seek advice if you developed any potential symptoms of tetanus , you felt you had developed a symptom, rang 111 and they advised you to go to A&E . I can't see how you have done anything wrong ?
What's amusing is they have safety netted you again with exactly the same advice !

AwaAnBileYerHeid of course I missed out a lot. It was a very long conversation and I posted a condensed version.

@CherryPavlova

A nurse might well introduce themselves as Dr x if they had a PhD. Plenty are.

What do you want from complaining? What outcomes are you after? You’re well. You were seen and assessed. They laughed a bit at what may well have been an overreaction from Dr Google self assessment. Hardly life changing. The NHS is under huge pressures at the moment and it’s unclear what complaining will achieve.

This. As if the NHS hasn’t got enough to deal with now. Just forget it, you’ve wasted enough time, don’t add to it.

How was I wasting their time VinylDetective? Tetanus is a medical emergency. I was advised to go by the NHS!

I would complain, but only about 1 thing and that is that they assumed you were somebody else and your initial treatment was affected because of that.

Todaythiscouldbe if I had been the person they initially thought I was then I’m sure there must be a process on how to handle people like that who make a habit of turning up to A&E with stuck-on wounds and pretend symptoms, but I don’t think mocking them is appropriate in those cases either. It has really opened my eyes to a lot of issues (such as the list of time wasting cases they produce) because I can see how they could say this woman turned up to A&E because she had an anxious twitch...completely leaving out the history of puncture wound and lack of tetanus immunity.

I understand what you're saying but that really isn't your complaint to make. You don't know the background of the other person, you are only guessing. PALS will deal with your complaint, not how you think another patient should potentially have been treated.

I know, and I wouldn’t complain directly about that aspect, but I wouldn’t expect them to use “we thought you were someone else” as an excuse either, which I assume is the response I will get.

Complain to PALS and keep to the facts of your case. Its irrelevant and disrespectful to discuss loons, time wasters, patients coming in with stuck on scabs.

Your complaint needs to be factual and not speculative. You need to know why it was thought you were somebody else, when it was realised you weren't that person and you need to complain about the treatment you received prior to the staff realising. Don't confuse the issues with anything else or it will be extremely easy to dismiss the concerns by saying they thought you were somebody else.

I know for a fact that nurses and doctors and hcas all laugh at patients at times

Don't be so fucking rude @Florencex

And yes complain!!