"No Social Distancing"

Thank you for your comments.

All patients are triaged on arrival and placed in either a red or green area dependant on what we are told and if these include likely coronavirus symptoms. This means patients are segregated if we suspect COVID 19 is part of their clinical picture to prevent cross contamination. We apologise if this was not made clear to you on arrival. The department including waiting area chairs have stickers to support the 2 meter social distancing rules. The department has worked very hard to identify when we are at 80% and 100% capacity taking into consideration the social distancing guidance and the department escalates to the clinical site management team 4 times daily when we are at 80% capacity. The department has introduced reverse queuing where safe to ask patients to wait outside in their cars or appropriate communal spaces until they can be seen. We have also introduced pre ED triage which enables us to stream patients to more appropriate pathways outside of the ED which is helping reduce the amount of patients waiting when a more appropriate service outside of the ED is available. Despite these efforts, we remain extremely busy and please be assured we review our infection prevention and control measures regularly as we are very aware of the current climate and the anxiety caused to our patients. We will however review communal areas and signage to ask that everyone asks responsibly and minimises breaches of the 2 metre rule where possible. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Should you remain dissatisfied and wish to discuss your experience further, please contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) at your earliest opportunity on telephone 0161 604 5897, or email pals@pat.nhs.uk quoting that you have been advised to do so via NHS Website, and they will do their best to address your concerns.

Kind regards

The Patient Experience Team