Amanda Pearce
Due to a congenital condition I spent a lot of my teenage years gaining patient experience of primary, acute and tertiary services in the NHS. This experience as a whole has been good. I have received quick, good quality treatment as and when required. However there have been a number of incidents over the years where near misses and mistakes have occurred. Most of these have been minor and in most instances the mistakes were quickly rectified and I received swift apologies from the medical professionals involved.
During one such incident, I had to undergo two corrective surgeries and spend an extra three weeks in hospital after mistakes were made during an emergency procedure. I received a full apology from the consultant in charge and from the surgeon who made the mistakes. As a consequence of the incident the surgeon received additional training and mentoring to enable him to learn from his mistake. Though traumatic at the time I am happy with the way the incident was dealt with. The mistake was quickly rectified resulting in no lasting damage to myself, the apology came quickly and steps were taken to ensure that all of the staff involved were able to learn from the mistake.
I believe that in general the NHS is run safely but it is not perfect and there is much room for improvement of patient safety. I have become involved in this project so that I may improve and give something back to the service which has done so much for me and continues to do so.
