"Doing their best under very difficult circumstances"

I had to take my wife to A & E late December. She had experienced pain in her chest just before Christmas which thankfully went away after a short period of time. A few days later she experienced the same pain but again she felt better after after a while. On the afternoon before we went in the pain came back but was persistent so we called at a local Boots Pharmacy for advice. The Pharmacist thought that it sounded like it was trapped wind / indigestion related so advised on a pack of tablets which could help with the symptoms. After arriving home my wife started to experience a tingling feeling in her left arm and the pain in the centre of her chest was getting worse so she phoned the out of hours Doctor who advised her to phone 999 for an Ambulance as he was worried that it could be a mild heart attack. On doing this she was told that there would be an extremely long wait and advised that she should go straight to A & E.

We arrived at around midnight to find an extremely busy Department with very few seats available. Her details were taken and about an hour later she was taken into triage for bloods, ecg etc and we returned to the waiting room, even then people were still coming through the doors. We were lucky to get 2 seats together and waited and watched what was going on around us.

People say that you have to see something to believe it and this was certainly the case on this occasion. There were a few people being very disruptive, however it was handled well by the and the situation didn't get out of hand thanks to the police that accompanied them and their professionalism.

My wife was finally called early next morning to see a Doctor and to be told (thankfully) that the ECG and Bloods were absolutely fine and after a very friendly and helpful conversation with the Doctor, the diagnosis was that it was Gastro related and although my wife hadn't realised it, he thought that due to the previous 13 months in which my wife had lost her Mother and Brother to Cancer and her Boss had committed suicide that she may have been suffering from stress unknowingly. A happy ending!

But the main reason I am writing this is because we saw the pressures that the staff were under during our visit and we know that they were doing their best under very difficult circumstances but we would both like to pass on our grateful thanks to all concerned (Reception staff, Triage Staff and the very kind and informative Doctor in the morning). This was only one visit and we are quite sure that what I have described probably happens on a daily basis and most of the time goes unnoticed by most of the public. Well done to all of you for doing a very difficult job under extremely difficult circumstances!

PS I'm not sure if it is possible but we would be grateful if this story could be forwarded to the Ulster A & E Department to let the staff know that their efforts are very much appreciated and that they are not just taken for granted.