"Security attitude at the Emergency Department"

I want to give feedback on my wife’s visit to the Emergency Department at Truro on the evening of 10th February 2022. The care and attention of the nursing staff and doctors could not have been better and for that we are very grateful.

The same could not be said of the Security Guards (that’s the only way to describe them), at the ED. We had waited in the Waiting Area for about an hour when at 17.50 three guards arrived and without any given reason they told everyone who wasn’t a patient to leave. Their attitude was as if they were policing at nightclub or rock concert not people who were vulnerable, in an alien environment and some who couldn’t stand let alone walk without assistance. One elderly lady who couldn’t stand without assistance was shouted at by one of the guards because he could not understand what she was saying. Their attitude was completely without compassion or politeness. When challenged they just said it was because of Covid crowding and the “rules”. Well nothing changed between 17.49 and 17.50 so why were we thrown out, because that’s what it felt like. Even later on when my wife was discharged at 22.00 they were still not allowing carers to enter even through there were only half a dozen people in there. I am 72 and my wife is 71 she was left on her own with a twisted knee, head injury, bruised wrist and sore neck in a hospital she didn’t know with anyone to comfort her. The guards very obviously had no training in caring for elderly and confused patients. I was told to wait outside in a temperature of 4 degrees without proper clothing. We were part of a coach tour and had arrived at the Hospital by taxi and so did not have a car to wait in. It was only after two hours that someone waiting with me told me that there was a main Reception area a few minutes’ walk away. How much better it would have been to have been told this earlier.

I will always obey instructions if they are sensible, reasonable and given in a civilised way these guards were anything but this. Your policy on how patients and carers are approached in the Waiting Area needs a serious review.