District nurses - who controls them

[RebelliousHoping]

Hi,

Can I ask who controls district nurses? Who can you turn to for complaints? I’d read somewhere it is ICB? but then I read somewhere a GP can tell them what to do, but in my case the GP refuses to get involved in the aftermath of my hospital treatment and hasn’t seen the injury and previously telling me I need to chase a hospital who already made it clear via hospital PALS a follow up is not due to happen, which has made me wonder before now if having the district nurse team assigned prevents me seeing anyone at a hospital level.

When they the DN claim they lost pictures or didn’t upload them properly last week, I’m just told the tissue viability specialist nurse works remotely when I asked.

I know the district nurses are only there for strictly housebound people but I really reached a point want to see some other medical professional as some of these nurses don’t read notes, how one nurse bandages differs to another then there is the differing points of view.

Do they have full access to someone’s medical notes as well?

Fuck knows, OP. You have my commiserations.

Our DNs do as they like, and my complaint to PALS only resulted in PALS asking me if I was open to talking to the DNs. I said no because I'd talked to them many times and was met with complete intransigence and an absolute belief that they were right in all things at all times.

Good luck!!!

District nurses work in the community so you need to find out who the community provider is and then contact them for their complaints procedure

DNs are separate from primary care. Practices have no control over them. The ICB are where you need to contact

https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/feedback-and-complaints/complaint/

There are often tissue viability nurses working in both community and acute hospital settings. If you are under the district nurses and at home it is more likely that the community TVN is your best option. Who runs your local community NHS trust? You need to find this out and get contact details for the TVN that works in the trust and contact them directly.

Thank you all 🙏 the district nurses are now pushing for this they admit yesterday they cannot see any improvement and out of their depth, the GP is now involved making referral to TVN and back on the antibiotics, the DN’s come out to me from the West Suffolk trust area but say I have to go to Colchester & Ipswich as I had surgery in Colchester so fair enough.

I hope they can get you seen soon. It’s a pain that you are on a border between trusts, I hope that doesn’t delay anything for you. One of my friends is a TVN and she rocks, really kicks ass (in a good way). Hopefully you will have someone as good sorting you out soon op💐

Around here they used to work for the local Community Health Trust but goodness knows if it's still called that. They seem to reorganise change names more often than I change my bra.

Sorry to ask another question I had a swab taken and 2x bloods (pink and brown tops from what I remember) on Thursday by the DN that called that day. Will these results show up on my doctors app?

Just I had a call from one of the doctors receptionists Friday afternoon urging me to go pick up antibiotics as they’d put it on the spine in case Royal Mail failed to deliver through Pharmacy2u, but can’t see any results yet lodged on patient access or nhs app.

Enormous thanks, the nurse on Thursday seemed to think it would show up quickly.

Well no results show up, it would seem the gp secretary’s are having a battle with Colchester hospital who now say it has to be the West Suffolk trust. The wound hasn’t changed since discharge from Colchester.

It is easy to bring a law suit against the hospital who originally treated me?
I have had enough.

I’ve booked day off work Thursday for when the district nurses refuse to use the key safe or trades entrance into my address as they nearly caused bother yesterday as I just had no second person here who can get up answer the door whilst I’m on a work call.

No physio has never shown up, denied a follow up by the very hospital who operated on me. A friend who was recently in after me for women’s problems believe they easily got a follow up after discharge from Colchester. They keep spouting I’m a diabetic but no recent tests prove this. I want to die if this pain is to continue. I so wish I’d said I’d risk it on the 27th April. If Colchester didn’t want to deal with this then why didn’t they put me in an ambulance to Ipswich or the West Suffolk?

I don’t think any of us can answer your questions as we have no idea what’s going on.

You can’t sue a hospital because your wound hasn’t healed yet.

Did you get your antibiotics? Can you ask a friend or family member to advocate for you if you are caught between two trusts?

I think lack of wound care is the issue here

I don’t think so as the OP mentions bandaging methods, antibiotics, swabs and TVN referrals so she’s obviously been receiving wound care. Must be a complex wound with delayed healing requiring specialist intervention, but she’s caught between teams/trusts?

All DNs have a line manager. All health trusts have a proper complaint procedure and all DNs have access to patient notes

In the meantime eat/drink high quality proteins which will help the healing process and take the full course of antibiotics. Perhaps you need a while off work too

Thanks, I’m just really angry with it all. I will look into all the ideas I just got upset as I brought a spa bath for my feet but then I don’t know when or if any of this is going to get better. It is over 8 weeks later and if they want me to now go into WSH why did they not transfer me there immediately after the operation.

Hopefully another trust can get to the root of why what happened and answer the many questions that just keep forming. Sorry to have troubled you I feel hapless.