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Waiting times in A&E

Posted By falconnx35

"Waiting times in A&E"

About: Craigavon Area Hospital / Emergency Department

(as the patient),

The waiting times are horrendous in Craigavon hospital A&E, myself and other family members have been made to wait for hours upon hours waiting to see a doctor as long as 22hrs after initially coming into A&E, meanwhile staff seem too busy chatting away about their weekends and how they spent them.

Not to mention that after waiting this whole time they will most likely refer you back to your GP and it will just be a back and forth referral cycle between the two where the patient most likely won’t get any answers .

The service was a disgrace. That’s not to say that there weren't some lovely staff there, however for the most part you feel neglected and forgotten about during your wait at A&E.

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Responses

Response from Stacey Hardy, Lead Nurse CAH Emergency Department, DHH Emergency Department and STH Minors Injuries Unit, Medicine and Unscheduled Care Directorate, Southern Health and Social Services Trust 7 months ago
We have made a change
Stacey Hardy
Lead Nurse CAH Emergency Department, DHH Emergency Department and STH Minors Injuries Unit, Medicine and Unscheduled Care Directorate,
Southern Health and Social Services Trust

Submitted on 24/10/2024 at 00:21
Published on Care Opinion at 09:19

Thank you for taking the time to share your recent experience at Craigavon Area Hospital Emergency Department. The department continues to be very overcrowded daily with a lot of patients awaiting a bed on a ward. Unfortunately this means we have limited capacity to see and assess new patients meaning the waiting time can be very long. All patients who present to the emergency department are triaged by a nurse promptly using the Manchester triage system. This system allocates patients a priority of which they need to be seen and assessed by a doctor.

The staff continue to work very hard despite the pressures they face daily. Thank you for also highlighting about the lovely staff.

In recent months we have made a change to our staff allocation and we now allocate a nurse to look after the waiting room. This nurse checks the clinical observations, administers medications if required and is available to answer general questions. This will not resolve the long wait to be seen by the doctor but we had hoped that it would alleviate the feeling of being forgotten about while in the waiting room.

I am very sorry for your negative experience and I hope you are recovering well.

Stacey

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