Our Patient Experience Team supports patients with both compliments and concerns that guide our staff to continually improve our care. The team works hard to communicate with compassion and coordinate responses to patients as quickly as they can.
During patient experience week 29 April – 3 May, we will share stories from patients to highlight some of the great feedback we have received. Watch the videos below to see how teams have made their own improvements to enhance patient experience.
Throughout the week, staff will have the opportunity to participate in training and workshops to learn more about how best to support patients.
If you have something you would like to raise with us, please share it with us.
Agata received care at the Leeds Dental Institute and forged a partnership with her clinician to manage her pain. Agata’s story interview video:
Agata’s story
Hi, my name’s Agata. I’m 31; I’m a vet, and this is my dog, Lazaro. So I have always suffered with chronic teeth grinding and jaw pain, which I just took as a normal thing that a lot of people struggled with. It wasn’t until I sadly lost a molar tooth due to a fracture of a root canal that the pain really worsened, and I developed unilateral tooth grinding and a lot of facial asymmetry.
That is when I spoke to my dentist about the pain and when I received a referral for potential temperamental joint issues. I look slowly over time, and if you do live with any degree of chronic pain from chronic illnesses, be that mental or physical, it’s just something you take as a given every day, so very often I would wake up with headaches.
My quality of sleep and the quantity of it would be affected as I would very often wake up during the night because my jaw was just short and tight, and I was grinding my teeth so badly it would affect how much food I could eat and what I could eat as well. You know, I had to adjust my diet to primarily soft foods as well, and the headaches became pretty unbearable and meant that I couldn’t really enjoy any leisure activities.
I couldn’t really go to the gym to exercise; I couldn’t exercise him as much or read the books or play video games or any other or engage in any other hobby activities really as the pain was pretty much ever present, and it did interfere with just my daily life, oh, so this included several sessions with the doctors, which were very convenient for myself as they were all done over the phone, so it meant I didn’t have to sell you know a part anytime for a face-to-face appointment.
I received a very good pain manual which explained everything about the anatomy of the temporal mandibular joint, and it really helped me learn about where the pain may come from and what I can do to manage it on a day-to-day and best basis, so the pain manual is a really useful guide for anyone regardless of their background to gain an understanding of um their pain and why the jaw may cause as many issues as it does to a lot of people it is actually a much more common condition than I was aware of and a lot of people still don’t receive the correct treatment which is where the pain manual really comes in it provides you with explanations of your jaw Anatomy which is really helpful and how it moves and how you can use your job better for your own health which sounds really simple, but it’s actually a lot more involved than you think.
It then talks you through different pain pathways and how your body actually perceives and receives signals from the jaw and how your brain processes them as well. It talks a little bit about the impact of chronic pain on your mental health and how over time it can really affect your daily activities, and then it has an entire section on how you should use your time and how you can analyse your use of time to ensure that you are dedicating sufficient amounts of it to good quality sleep as well as relaxing activities, so it very much takes a holistic approach.
I was very lucky to receive several guided sessions with the booklet, but because you all receive a copy of it as well, you can go back to it and read it as many times as you need to gain a good understanding, and it’s very much you can use the guide and tailor it to what you need and what you struggle with, so the impact has been quite big as it has really helped me improve my quality of life, which because my jaw issues developed slowly over a period of several months to even several years, it’s not something I appreciated.
I didn’t appreciate how bad of an effect the pain had on my daily activities, my quality of sleep, and everything else that we’ve already discussed, so it’s really helped to improve my quality of life and help me get back on my feet to really enjoy my hobbies again and my free time, so I can engage in more exercise. Now I get more good quality sleep and generally feel a lot more in control of what is a chronic illness, so I would like to say a really big thank you to the staff at LGI for everything they’ve done for me for the time they’ve taken to listen to me and really appreciate what big impact my job was having on my daily activities. I certainly didn’t feel like anything that I brought up was brushed under the carpet. I was very much listened to and very well cared for, and I had several follow-up appointments to monitor my progress and always know where to go back to for further help if I need it.
Donald shares his experience of laser treatment for a severe skin condition and the impact this has had on his life. Donald’s story Interview video.
Donald’s story
Hello, I’m Rachel Urwin. I’m a consultant dermatologist working at Chapelton Hospital. I’m going to talk to you today about Donald, who’s a lovely patient who unfortunately had a very severe version of a condition called Rhinofimer rhodimer. It’s a condition related to rosacea, and basically because of inflammation of the skin, lots of scar tissue and what we call fibrous tissue forms, causing a significant growth of the nose, and in Donald’s case, this was really quite substantial. When I met Donald, I could clearly see that he’d had a lot of problems and was really concerned about how much she was suffering, so we went through the procedure, and he coped really well with the treatment, and I was delighted to see him after about six weeks to see that the nose had healed really well, and he’s had a really good result, and to learn how this has impacted on Donald’s life was just fantastic.
My name’s Donald. I’m retired. I’ve been a bus driver for 38 years. I’ve suffered with relationships for, or probably, 20 years. It was something that I was used to, but it then escalated quite rapidly. It was affecting my breathing and my vision. I came actually in November, and although she started the surgery, I had to stop it because I was bleeding quite heavily. She was concerned about it; it was stopped, and she was fearful that it was possibly cancerous, but she said we’ll do a biopsy of some of the bulk that she’d taken off. I’ll get back to you as soon as I get the results, and I’ll get you back in for surgery at the earliest possible time. She told me about a week or 10 days later, saying that there was nothing untowarding the uh, the biopsy didn’t show anything that was remiss like cancer, and she said that prior to me coming back, she wanted me to take some blood clotting tablets a week before surgery. I came back at the beginning of well, the 11th of January, and this time the surgery was successful. I came back about four weeks later, and she was very pleased with the results, as was I.
If I say what I was hoping for, this is surpassed it what I was expecting. It’s well miraculous. Really, everybody that knew me is so impressed by the results that she’s got you living with something for so long, and you put up with things, but since the surgery, well, it’s been life-changing. Since the treatment, I’m enjoying going out. I’m more relaxed in other people’s company. My grandchildren are amazed; they just wonder what’s happened to me, and life’s just so much better. Prior to the treatment, I still enjoyed life, but I was always conscious of the way I looked, so it’s just made an amazing difference. I’m basically whatever normal is. I just like to say the treatment I’ve had here has been absolutely amazing; it’s 10 out of 10 with a star. All the staff, uh, Dr. Irwin especially, has been kind. I couldn’t have hoped for a better doctor, and um, this hospital, as far as I’m concerned, is way up there, way up there, so thank you.
David describes how Mike (a volunteer) intervened when he suddenly began to experience chest pains in the hospital reception. David’s story interview video.
David’s story
Hi, I’m David Johannes. I was recently in the hospital for a testicular cancer diagnosis and treatment at St. James. I’m 34, and I’m a software engineer, so I was supposed to be going in just for the day to have my second round of chemotherapy. Well, sorry, not the second round, to have the second week of chemotherapy treatments for my testicular cancer, so I went down to reception and was waiting for, you know, to be bleeped for my chemotherapy, when I started having some quite severe chest pains, so I was having a sort of stabbing pain in my chest; it was not like anything I’d experienced before, and I was quite concerned, so I sort of staggered over to reception to see if I could get some help. Before I even had the chance to ask, Mike jumped into action the moment he saw me sort of staggering over, clutching my chest.
He immediately gave me his attention and asked what he could do to help, and I explained that I was already in the hospital waiting for some chemotherapy, but I was having these pretty severe chest pains, and I wasn’t sure what to do, who I should speak to, or where I should go. He immediately got me in a wheelchair. He said I want to get you a wheelchair first because you look a little unsteady, and I just want to make sure you’re going to be comfortable, and he wheeled me up there.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the correct place to go, because when you’re having chest pains like that, there’s the worry that it could be cardiac-related. So they said I needed to be in A&E. So he then wheeled me down to A&E, and I was apologizing the whole time. Like I’m so sorry, Mike, because he introduced himself as well. I said I’m so sorry, Mike, that you have to wheel me around all over the hospital, and he said not at all, not at all, this is my job. He wheeled me down to A&E, and I thought at that point he’d just leave me there, you know, to wait for, like, treatment, but he said he was happy to stay with me, and you know, make sure he’s there with me while I get seen and that I get the treatment that I need.
So he ended up waiting with me for, I think, three or four hours or so, just because there was a lot of back and forth waiting to be seen and then, then running a test and doing something else, and he just sort of really calmed me down and kept me entertained. You know, we chatted about similar interests. He also previously worked in the IT industry, and he had the same love of music that I did, so it really, really kept me distracted from what was going on, whilst constantly reassuring me that if the talking is too much, I’ll just sit here and just be with you, but I liked that we got to talk; it really kept me distracted, and yeah, eventually I got seen and was sent up to the Jonah Department to just have a bed to rest in, and because it looked like I had a fever, I needed to stay there for a few days at that point, so yeah, I ended up staying for a few days, and that was the last I saw of Mike until I left.
Yes, I read out a very emotional nomination, uh, praising, not just him for, you know, going what I would consider way beyond the extra mile, but also praising just everyone. At the hospital, everyone I encountered had been so kind and patient, and I think I stressed as well that the NHS has it so tough. Things are so difficult at the moment, but they all performed their roles so admirably, and I just think it expressed just how grateful I am for him and for all of them, for all of you, for everything that you do for us.
