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Long A&E wait when bleeding in early pregnancy

Posted By Lauren Uren

"Long A&E wait when bleeding in early pregnancy"

About: Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital (Wonford) / Accident and emergency Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital (Wonford) / Gynaecology

(as the patient),

I presented to my local A+E department approximately 7 weeks pregnant with bleeding. I called my maternity triage unit who advised me that because I was under 12 weeks pregnant they could not see me and that I would need to go to A+E.

I also tried to contact my local midwifery team for advice but was unable to speak with anyone, when I spoke with them a bit later on in the day, they confirmed that going to A+E was the right thing to do.

I checked into A+E, was triaged and told to wait to see a doctor. After 6 hours of waiting and bleeding heavily in the waiting room I was seen by a doctor, who examined me and told me they wouldn't be able to do much for me and seeing as it was a weekend I wouldn't be able to have a scan as that service doesn't work over weekends, so they wouldn't be able to confirm for sure whether I was miscarrying or not. They referred me to Wynard (women's health) ward.

I was seen very promptly over there by a doctor who advised me to stay overnight for monitoring and then have a scan the next day. He also said that I shouldn't have had to wait 6 hours in A+E and that once I was triaged initially they should have referred me straight away to Wynard ward and I would have been seen straight away.

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Responses

Response from Louise Steventon-Fenn, Clinical Nurse Manager (Eastern Services), Wynard Ward (Eastern Services), Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 2 weeks ago
Louise Steventon-Fenn
Clinical Nurse Manager (Eastern Services), Wynard Ward (Eastern Services),
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 12/06/2025 at 13:02
Published on Care Opinion at 14:22

picture of Louise Steventon-Fenn

Hi Lauren,

Thank you for reaching out and telling us about your experience. I really am so sorry to hear about what you went through.

Once you were triaged in A&E, you should have been referred to Wynard Ward straight away and I am sorry that did not happen. Having to wait in the waiting room in A&E whilst heavily bleeding for that length of time is not appropriate at all and I will ensure I feed this back to the A&E team.

I really hope you are managing ok, please contact me on L.Steventon@nhs.net if there is any support I can help with or if you need to discuss anything further.

Kind regards,

Louise

Clinical Nurse Manager, Wynard

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Response from Michelle Ann Cruel, Clinical Nurse Manager - Emergency Department (Eastern Services), Emergency Department - RD&E (Eastern Services), Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 2 weeks ago
Michelle Ann Cruel
Clinical Nurse Manager - Emergency Department (Eastern Services), Emergency Department - RD&E (Eastern Services),
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 13/06/2025 at 14:42
Published on Care Opinion at 14:42

picture of Michelle Ann Cruel

Hi Lauren Uren.

Thank you for taking time to send us your feedback and let us know your experience.

I am sorry to hear that you had to wait for 6 hours in our A&E waiting room to be seen and be managed. But equally, I am glad to hear that you were seen straight away on arrival in Wynard Ward.

Our triage process for pregnant women presenting in our department who clearly needed an Obstetrician review is to refer directly from triage as soon as the triage nurse can. However, possible referral time delay might be caused by several factors such as the number of patients in the queue waiting for triage, or the capacity of the triage nurse to do the referral. There are also times when triage nurse have called the specialist doctor for the referral and was declined. This meant that the patient will have to be seen first by the ED doctor to assess and then make the referral to the specialist if need. Nevertheless, I totally agree that the 6 hours wait for referral is unacceptable.

I am aware that identification of the feedback sender is kept confidential. However, if you would like to help us improve our service, you can email us directly so we can further look into this incident and pick up the points where we can learn and improve our process.

Again, thank you for taking time to send us your feedback.

Kind regards,

Mitch

Clinical Nurse Manager

Emergency Department

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