"The excellent, caring staff who ..."

Thank you so much for your kind words and we very much hope that your daughter is making a good recovery!

You also raised the very important point of how we keep people informed about the length of time they have to wait while in A&E. The biggest challenge our emergency teams face is that they never know who or what is going to come through the door next - and that applies every hour of the day, every day of the year.

So sometimes - especially when cases of major trauma arrive - our doctors and nurses have to balance everyone's needs, with the emphasis being on saving lives. Other causes of delay can be that our A&E staff require the advice and input of doctors and other specialist staff who do not work in A&E - for instance around the need for admission as in-patient, surgery, additional investigations, etc.

But these are reasons and should never be seen as an excuse as to why our patients waiting to be seen aren’t kept as informed of possible waiting times we would like. We've tried several approaches with some success, but we have high hopes for our latest idea – we will soon be installing an electronic information display system. While this will no doubt be a major help, our staff, of course, will still be expected to talk with patients about what's happening - especially those already being treated.