\n The County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (CDDFT) has now apologised to Mr Marshall care and has said it will investigate the incident to ensure standards are improved.\n<\/p>\n
\n Donald Marshall, 85 (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)\n<\/p>\n
\n A spokesperson said: \u201cWe are very sorry to hear that Mr Marshall had a poor experience during his recent colonoscopy at Darlington Memorial Hospital.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We have spoken to Mr Marshall and his wife and offered our sincerest apologies.\n<\/p>\n
\n “A senior member of the team will be looking into his concerns in detail to ensure any necessary improvements are made to enhance patient care.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The pensioner previously said he didn’t have time to raise any issue at the hospital, due to the nurse who looked after him “walking away” directly after the procedure.\n<\/p>\n
\n A Darlington Memorial Hospital sign (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)\n<\/p>\n
\n He also added that he had to drive home from the hospital in his ‘soiled’ trousers, which the pensioner described as a “horrific experience”.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said he was “astonished” that no effort was made by medical staff to assist him after the procedure or to offer facilities for cleaning himself up.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Marshall added that the incident had left him questioning the culture of care at the hospital and saying he now “fears” going to Darlington Memorial Hospital.\n<\/p>\n
\n Donald was left unhappy with his care at Darlington Memorial Hospital (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)\n<\/p>\n
\n Darlington Memorial Hospital (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)\n<\/p>\n
\n Following the ordeal, Mr Marshall said he attempted to raise a complaint through the hospital\u2019s Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS), but found it \u201cimpossible\u201d to speak to anyone directly.\n<\/p>\n
\n According to the NHS website, staff involved in endoscopy procedures are required to “follow strict hygiene and infection control protocols, including offering assistance and cleaning materials to patients where needed”.\n<\/p>\n
\n The CDDFT said anyone with concerns about care is asked to contact their patient experience team, on cdda-tr.patientexperiencecddft@nhs.net or by calling 0800 783 5774 between 10am and 4pm on weekdays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Darlington man Donald Marshall, 85, previously said he was shocked at a \u201ccomplete lack of care and attention\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-260313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}