Last night, I visited the A&E department at wishaw general suffering from pains in my left arm, shoulder and chest. Fearing the worst, I thought it best to have it checked out.
The clinical and administrative staff were friendly,.courteous, helpful and proficient. I went through triage pretty quickly, and after an ECG check to make sure everything was good, I was asked to wait in the waiting room for results of blood tests. After waiting for 3 hours, it became pretty clear that I would be waiting in the region of 8 hours to be seen again. I decided to discharge myself and return home, check in with my GP to get blood results. The A&E department were obviously happy that I was not suffering from a MI.
It is clear that the department are understaffed. The volume of people in the waiting room, the average wait times, they were clearly under pressure. You could sense the air of tension in the waiting room with patients waiting to be seen, some who had been there in excess of 10 hours.
I think the NHS Trust needs to have a strong look at staffing levels and how they can improve on the end patient care and satisfaction levels.
"Accident & Emergency Visit"
About: University Hospital Wishaw / Emergency Department University Hospital Wishaw Emergency Department ML2 0DP
Posted by Bobalowski (as ),
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