"Paediatric ED"

Late on Friday evening I had to bring my very young child for assessment to the ED as an appointment with the out of hours team would have been 6 hours later, meaning bringing a sick child out very late. We were greeted by a wonderfully kind receptionist who I think was called Alison. She was patient, calm and professional. Following this we went through to the paediatric ED which was overcrowded and small. The staff worked efficiently on the most part with potential impressions that they were doing little as the main delay was to see a doctor. Two nurses and two doctors were present and the doctors were flat out assessing patients back to back with no break. The nurses were chatting at the nurses station, as if they were on their sofas at home, joking about whether they should go for the next band 6 or 7 which I gather means a promotion. 

They lacked any interaction with the children and babies in the department, nor their parents and carers.

They did initial assessments in a triage room. 2 nurses to one child, one doing the temperature etc and the other firing questions, neither offered any eye contact. Following this they returned to their seats at the nurses station until another child arrived.

They lacked a compassionate attitude when approached by parents and also when telling parents what treatment plans were - I witnessed this rather than experiencing it, on one occasion it was quite unpleasant to observe.

On a more positive note, the doctor on duty had a very nice manner which we observed to be consistent with all of the people in the dept. Also we witnessed a wonderful orthopaedic doctor who visited the dept, really connecting with the boy in his care to build trust before making his assessments.

More doctors are needed if possible to reduce waiting times as I didn’t see them have a break at all. However, as I have mentioned, this didn’t impact negatively upon their compassionate attitude and willingness to listen