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Overall not very good experience

Posted By AntrimAEAttender

"Overall not very good experience"

About: Antrim Area Hospital / Accidents & Emergency Northern Ireland Ambulance Service / Emergency Control Northern Ireland Ambulance Service / First responder paramedic

(as a service user),

My son had a febrile seizure last night, one of the scariest moments of my life. We rang 999 and they put us down as a high priority emergency. 1 hr and 40 mins later (after a 2nd call redirected to the London Ambulance Service which was no help at all), a very lovely rapid response paramedic. He was very professional and reassuring and advised us to take our son to Antrim A&E and he'd follow behind. When we arrived at Antrim we were booked in by a receptionist who was honestly absolutely dreadful. They were borderline rude to the paramedic. They were honestly so unprofessional and unhelpful and in my opinion should not be working with the public. 

We were then triaged by two lovely nurses, both were so helpful and good with our son. We waited about 5 hours to be seen in the paeds waiting area. I understand that with all flu at the moment that hospitals are under pressure but this really was beyond what we thought a 2 year old post-seizure would ever wait- we considered leaving and just coming back in the morning but ended up suffering it out. It's also not ideal that a child with a fever has to sleep on a parent, it shot his temperature up which was dangerous post seizure. 

We weren't impressed with the locum doctor who saw us. They did at least know what they were doing (which was not the case the last time we unfortunately ended up in Antrim A&E), but they were not good with kids, he screamed all through their examination which could have been avoided. They didn't once speak directly to our little boy or try to make things less scary, they just ploughed on and we had to pin him down, prolonging the time we were there.

Also please hurry up and introduce card payment for parking at the machines, when you are in a rush leaving the house bringing coins is not a priority.

Overall not a very good experience, I understand long waits are par for the course in winter, but please in particular look at how receptionists deal with the public and the recruitment process for that role.

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Responses

Response from Maggie Hamilton, Experience & Involvement Facilitator, Quality, Safety & Improvement, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service last month
Maggie Hamilton
Experience & Involvement Facilitator, Quality, Safety & Improvement,
Northern Ireland Ambulance Service

The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) Experience and Involvement Facilitator is responsible for developing and delivering high quality, effective services and processes for NIAS Service Users, Carers, their Advocates, the Public and NIAS Staff across Northern Ireland (NI) to facilitate and enable them to fully contribute to and participate in experience and involvement in relation to the NIAS.

Submitted on 18/12/2025 at 10:19
Published on Care Opinion at 10:19

picture of Maggie Hamilton

Good morning AntrimAEAttender,

My name is Maggie Hamilton, I am the Experience and Involvement officer with Northern Ireland Ambulance service. Firstly I would just like to say how scary your son having a febrile seizure must have been and I would to thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We are always grateful to those who share their experiences of the services they have received. It was heartening to hear about the lovely paramedic who arrived at your home and that he was very professional and reassuring. Feedback such as this lifts the morale of the paramedics involved in what is a particularly challenging period.

With regards to our response times please be assured that we are working closely with the Department of Health and the Strategic Planning and Performance Group to increase our available resources. We are also working with the local EDs to try to ensure that our patients can be handed over to hospital clinical teams as quickly as possible so that ambulance are able to respond to further emergencies.

I hope your son is recovering well and that you have a lovely Christmas.

Kind regards,

Maggie

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Response from Cathy McCoy, Clinical Service Manager, Emergency Medicine, NHSCT last month
Cathy McCoy
Clinical Service Manager, Emergency Medicine,
NHSCT

Submitted on 22/12/2025 at 12:04
Published on Care Opinion at 12:04

Dear AntimAEAttender

thank you for taking the time to provide feedback to our service. I am sorry you experience a wait to see the doctor and were not satisfied with his bed side manner.

I will ensure that your comments are shared with the medical team. We appreciate that seizures whether febrile or otherwise are stressful for parents and understand that this is compounded by a wait to see the doctor.

Unfortunately, the paediatric department in Antrim is only 6 cubicles and there is a requirement for patients and families to spend some time in the waiting area which is not ideal but essential to keep flow within the department.

I do hope your son has made a good recovery and looking forward to Christmas

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Response from Donald McWhirter, General Manager, Corporate Support, NHSCT last month
Donald McWhirter
General Manager, Corporate Support,
NHSCT

Submitted on 23/12/2025 at 09:20
Published on Care Opinion at 09:22

Good morning AntrimAEAttender,

My name is Donald McWhirter, I am the General Manager for Portering and Site Services in the Northern Trust.

I am very sorry to hear about your experience of trying to pay for your car parking ticket at Antrim Area Hospital and thank you for taking the time to bring it to my attention.

In 2020, the Northern Trust had commenced on a project to introduce the card payment option at all of our car parking payment machines, unfortunately this was paused during the pandemic.

As part of our reset of services it was planned to restart the project to get these facilities installed, but in October 2021 the Northern Ireland Assembly tabled a bill namely the Hospital Parking Charges Bill to prohibit the imposition by Health and Social Care hospitals of charges for car parking and for connected purposes. The bill will come into effect in May 2026, ultimately removing charges and the requirement for service users to pay for car parking.

A card payment provision at the main reception has only recently been introduced on a temporary basis and with the introduction of the Hospital Parking Charges Act in May 2026 the introduction of card payment options at the payment machines will not be progressed

In the interim period any users that require assistance in relation to car park issues should request help from reception or security staff who will be able to assist.

I hope that this information addresses your concerns and I hope your son is recovering well and that you all have a lovely Christmas.

Kind regards,

Donald McWhirter

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Response from Sarah Arthur, Patient Client Experience Facilitator, Patient Experience, Northern Health and Social Care Trust last month
Sarah Arthur
Patient Client Experience Facilitator, Patient Experience,
Northern Health and Social Care Trust

Submitted on 23/12/2025 at 12:45
Published on Care Opinion at 12:45

picture of Sarah Arthur

Hi Antrim AEAttender,

My name is Sarah Arthur, I facilitate Care Opinion in the Northern Trust, please see the response below I am posting on behalf of Martina Clarke - ED Admin Manager.

Response:

I can only offer my apologies that staff in the Emergency Department on the night you visited did not adhere to the Trust’s core principles to treat patients, staff and visitors with respect and you were witness to this in a time where you needed understanding and compassion. These comments will be shared with the team and we will work towards improving our customer care moving forward.

Martina Clarke

ED Admin Manager

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