"Horrendous Experience!"

I visited the A&E dept with my 97 yr old Grandmother over the w/e & was absolutely horrified by what I saw. There were no effective systems in place whatsoever & patients on trollies were just crammed into rooms like sardines & stuffed along corridors and left.

Having already waited EIGHT HOURS for an ambulance to attend, (they were called at 11pm and got to her at 7am) this confused 97 year old lady who had fallen, was then expected to sit & wait for approx 16 hours before she was allocated a bed! 16 HOURS with hardly any interaction or communication whatsoever. She was only given 2 cups of tea throughout the duration and that was only because we asked for them. One nurse stated that she needed a dressing on her arm, although this was never done because approx five mins later it was the end of her shift.

There was no evidence of multitasking and their attitudes of the staff seemed very uncaring. They were strolling through the dept (I can’t describe their movements as anything else I’m afraid) not paying attention their surroundings with no interactions at all. The service was just so inhuman. I was shocked & appalled by what I was witnessing. On numerous occasions, patients (multiple) were trying to get the attention of the nursing staff by calling out & gesturing, only to be totally ignored- some were left to wet themselves whilst others just gave up! It was truly heartbreaking.

There was an awful lot of “paper shuffling “ and tapping on keyboards. There was also an awful lot of “general chitchat “ between the nursing staff and sipping juice out of drink canisters.

Whilst I appreciate that you were extremely busy & resources are overstretched beyond belief, the current system & service has been broken beyond repair! It is NOT working & drastic changes desperately need to be made and urgently.

Having worked at the QMC myself,

I also appreciate that your staff have to face unacceptable & aggressive behaviours on daily basis which is simply unacceptable but would like to stress that not all patients are the same! However,

I can understand how situations can escalate into serious incidents - the attitudes of the staff in the A&E dept do not help. Their lack of empathy & caring is very worrying- people should be treated as people - with dignity & respect and not just as numbers. I understand that the sheer volume of patients is getting out of control and the lack of resources are getting beyond a joke, but nobody is bothered about trying to fix it?!!! A lot of the staff are in the wrong job or simply just do not want to be there.

The system is broken and it’s outrageous!

I’m not expecting anything to change as a result of this review. I’m not expecting miracles - I would just like to know why it is deemed acceptable to leave a vulnerable 97 yr old lady on a trolley for 16 hrs after an 8 hr wait for an ambulance???