"fantastic staff who deserve a medal for keeping…"

Unfortunately I had to visit A & E after a fall on Saturday evening. I had a long wait to see someone but once seen by a nurse and a radiographer felt I had been looked after with professional caring ,kindness and understanding.

I had a few observations whilst sitting in A & E and one was that now that the G P out of hours service is sort of merged with A & E chaos ensues. The waiting area was full ,people were becoming almost abusive to the poor staff and there were so many people with chest infections wanting to see a GP that if you didn’t have a cough on arriving then you would likely leave with one. No one - even staff used the hand washes available which wouldn’t help with the transfer of bugs from one person to another . The only food available, bearing in mind a 4/5 hour wait was the norm, was a chocolate and crisp type snack machine( thought we were fighting obesity) and a jug of water with plastic cups. The drinks machines were out of order. Our NHS is one of the most valuable institutions we have in the UK. We need to support and protect it . It seems that austerity has caused its demise but as a person looking in from the outside with no expertise it would seem that some backward decisions have been made and it’s not just the increase in the population . Bring back the Monkgate GP out of hours medical centre and lets use the whole space at the hospital for A&E . Lastly to all the folks needing Emergency hospital treatment please respect the staff doing a very difficult job !