The Difference we made to A& E - DMWS

Defence Medical Welfare Service – DMWS is proud of our welfare officers Tom and Tim who recently received fantastic feedback from a Consultant in Emergency Medicine at the Royal Oldham Hospital, part of The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. The email below really highlights how our service does not only supports the patient and their family, but also the organisations and health care providers linked to the individual’s clinical care pathway:

“Dear Tom,

Thank you for your involvement with our patient who has been struggling for several years with frequent attendances to the emergency department. As you are aware he was homeless and has alcohol related health issues, causing problems with mental health and involvement with the criminal justice system.

Until your involvement he had attended the A&E department at Oldham more than 400 times.  Since the betinning of January he has not attended the emergency department in any Pennine Acute hospital. Clearly this is an outstanding achievement both for the patient and for your service. Despite all our efforts to link in with support from the rest of the health service and council it has only been spells in prison that have majorly impacted on his attendance pattern previously.

The staff within the emergency department at Oldham have been desperate to find a solution to his issues and are massively grateful that DMWS took him on. It will be a long haul with potential setbacks however we are hopeful that you and your colleagues will have the stubbornness to see him through. We wish him all the best for a happy and healthy future and for the first time this looks as though it may be a possibility. We are already noticing a huge impact in the Emergency Department thank you very much.

Kind regards,

Dr Tom Leckie”

Published: 31st January, 2017