Edzell woman's blood test debacle slammed
THE family of an 81-year-old Edzell woman has slammed a policy that required she travel to Dundee for blood tests essential to her healthcare.
Joyce Hood is undergoing treatment for deep vein thrombosis, a condition that causes clotting of the blood in the lower leg, and requires a daily dose of the anti-coagulant drug, warfarin to remove the clot.
But in order to get the dose of warfarin correct and so as not to create further health problems, daily blood testing is required at the early stages of treatment to calculate drug's effectiveness and to ensure the blood is not too thick or thin.
Normally, a duty nurse would visit Joyce in her Edzell home to take the blood test, but on two subsequent weekends, Joyce was told by the Edzell Doctor's Surgery that she would have to travel to Ninewells Hospital as there was no nurse available. Because she had family, she was asked to make her own way there.
For daughter Wendy Morrison and her husband Iain, that meant a four-and-a-half hour round-trip from their home in Glen Lethnot.
Wendy said that situation was unacceptable, especially when Stracathro Hospital is, by comparison, just around the corner.
She said: "My mother requires blood tests every day, but on two weekends they more or less turned round and said 'you've got family, they can take you down to Ninewells.'
"I'm really angry about it because it's a 30 mile trip each way and she has difficulty getting in and out of the car. She can hardly walk and it's not really fun for her.
"I timed it and we were in the ward in Dundee for two minutes - yet it took us four and a half hours out of our day, from the time we leave our home, get her in the car, go to Dundee and back again. It's also 50 of petrol each time - plus the parking fee.
"Why can't they have taken the blood at Stracathro - are there no nurses there at the weekends?
"What if I can't do it or if this happens to someone that doesn't have family?
"Is this happening just here or is it all over the place? If it was because she was in Edzell I'd be angry."
A spokesperson for NHS Tayside said the matter was the responsibility of the local practice, who are in charge of Ms Hood's case.
Practice manager, Dr Marc Jacobs, is on holiday for the Christmas period, but district nurse Liz Murray said a trip to Ninewells was essential.
She said: "The policy is that, if the (patient's treatment] in unstable, they attend Ward 15 at Ninewells.
"They need dosing and we don't have the facility to do that at weekends because there's nobody here. This policy is in place for the safety of the patients.
"In this case, it was a clinical decision and made in the interests of the safety of the lady in question.
"Her treatment was unstable and now it isn't. This only happened during the first two weeks of treatment."
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Sunday 05 February 2012
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