"Staff are doing their best despite being understaffed"

My Father-In Law was admitted to A&E by ambulance as a result of severe pain suffered after a fall. My wife arrived at his care home at the same time as the ambulance and so observed the care he received. The ambulance crew were excellent in communicating with both my Father-in-Law and with my wife and I as was the level of care throughout. On arrival at A & E it was obvious that things were very busy, the ambulance staff having now joined a queue with their colleagues to hand over their patient. During this time we waited in the corridor where he transferred from the ambulance stretcher to a hospital gurney.

 I had ridden in the ambulance with my father-In Law as he has Alzheimer's and dementia. I also accompanied him into the A & E dept.

After a wait of 40 mins the ambulance crew handed over and departed A&E.

A&E appeared to be understaffed as different members of staff visiting his cubicle kept being distracted by other staff to attend another patients needs. That said, we were happy that given the circumstances he was assessed in a reasonable time and had a CT scan. An hour after the CT scan a Doctor came by and revealed no broken bones much to our relief.

As he was still in pain it was decided that he needed to remain in hospital and was transferred to the CDU consisting of 4 beds, all of which were occupied.

Basic levels of care here seemed to suffer here as there simply wasn't enough staff and they had too much to cope with. I felt sorry for the staff on duty as they seemed to be run off their feet and stress seemed high. Trying to field enquires from visiting relatives or requesting their attention because your relative needed the toilet or needed re positioning in their bed only added to their workload. This puts relatives and patient in an awkward position!

In summary it is clear that staff are doing their best despite being understaffed or overburdened due to the sheer number of patients. As a relative of an elderly patient you just want them to be able to leave as quickly as it is safe to do so, as you feel that their basic needs are not been met.