Share review of Diana Princess of Wales Hospital

Diana Princess of Wales Hospital 2021-08-03 Person 2 5 0

I’m having problems with NHS system since December when I came to A&E. it’s a bit complicated but took me months to learn & months to suffer my heart becoming too damaged whilst waiting & wondering why nobody gave out simple remedial advice that could have prevented my terminal heart damage being so severe. Basically they found AF -very high heart rate. I didn’t know this till I read it on the discharge summary several days later. No patient care plan or self management advice is attached to this . That is my biggest complaint. Everybody in NHS thinks everyone else is responsible for doing this but nobody is doing it at all. It should be attached to discharge summaries for conditions that it applies to -at the point of diagnosis . Then patient knows immediately they need to start managing their own condition -in my case a chest strap heart monitor 24/7 as much as it takes for me to get general idea of my condition & it’s response or failure to medication administered- rather than 2 months useless medication , HR sky high & stretching left aorta & ventricle to cause mitral valve failure & 35% ejection fraction.

Recommend, for high heart rates presenting at A&E and in AF , that risks of stretched heart chambers apply to this condition. That there are reliable ways of general self assessment to self manage this to keep HR as low as practical & inform medics if it’s off scale (a scale NHS should state for rest HR & continuous activity HR) . That way a patient waiting 2-3months to see cardiology would already be limiting further damage prior to them discovering it. Also that Cardiology should be advising the above (which they defer from doing) & aware this information is auto attached to A&E discovering AF in high HR zones ( it took them 7 hours of double dosed bisoprolol to get mine below 100). Nobody explained the situation. Just pass problem to another ward who never use an ECG to monitor HR but rely on the totally inappropriate finger pulse oximeter to record AF heart rate. Patient (me) is clueless what’s going on & that nobody is monitoring escalated HR on 3 successive days. I came across this on repeat visits. Nobody uses ECG as standard record of AF heart rate. I discovered this myself after buying my own medical ECG & oximeter . Finger pulse 50 whilst ECG was 140 -after activity. Therefore nobody in hospital was monitoring or reporting AF was too high when discharged or that medication was ineffective-till months later in cardiology. Even then I went home & had no idea my own HR still was sky high another several weeks. Even the new medication was far too low & HR average >160 hours of every day - further ruining my heart beyond any possible recovery!! Far too late -I tested a Polar H10 chest strap linked to my phone against my 12 lead ECG for accuracy. This has become my information supply for controlling my own activity & checking efficacy of medication & it works. BUT ITS TOO LATE FOR ME. So please ensure it is not for others!!! If it was Covid you’d all be jumping to the tune. Risk aversion! You’re welcome.