"System failure"

I have to start this by saying none of my criticism is aimed at any staff, it's a system failure.

Having being referred by the OOH GP Service to the ACU I arrived at around 9pm, the unit was quite busy and after a hour I was taken through for my basic observations & bloods taken. I was then put back into the waiting area.

I was finally seen by who appeared to be the only Registrar on duty at 3am, some 6 hours after arriving. You can't help thinking that this unit was established to avoid the clocks of ED performance standards.

An ultrasound was requested at 3. 30am, I finally had it at 4pm, over 12 hours after the request. I'm just glad my circulation wasn't compromised in my arm which I think was one of the concerns. As a Lymphoma patient my condition of a massive swelling was very concerning to me. By pure chance I had a CT scan the previous day at the request of Haematology and this was available to the doctors.

QEUH is described as a 'Flagship' I think 'Titanic' might be suitable. If it was a gearbox I'd say all the cogs are there, but have teeth missing & no synchromesh to make it work smoothly.

Staffing levels seemed to me to be totally inadequate and put the staff under unnecessary pressures.

I witnessed a patient who gave up & walked out after waiting 5 hours to be seen.

The Registrar was still there at 10 the following morning, surely the length of shift is not safe for the doctor or patients.

Perhaps the senior staff should do a shift on the ground floor & see whats going on and the pressures on the system.

In closing I'd like to say thank-you to the Registrar (I felt for you trying to cope), the Consultant who saw me on Friday morning and I think was frustrated as I with the delays. Staff Nurse on a bank night shift and a member of staff on Friday day shift. There was also another Staff Nurse who's name I didn't catch who chased & chased on my behalf.

If NHSGG&C want patients to use alternatives to ED's front door I would suggest that they need to ensure the alternative pathway can actually cope & deliver a service.