"The Emergency Department"

My elderly mother was very ill - having breathing difficulties and vomiting blood (and on the advice of the out of hours doctor), I called an ambulance for her.  The ambulance arrived in good time and the paramedics that arrived were fantastic - very attentive and helped make her more comfortable.  My mother was taken to the Royal Victoria, Belfast and admitted.  She stayed in a side room in RATU on the first night and while it was noisy and busy, it was adequate while she waited on a bed in the respiratory ward.  The next day, my mum was moved into the main ED ward.

When I came to visit her, I was shocked at the scene.  It was like a scene from a war zone - every bit of floor space was taken up by occupied trollies, even the aisles were blocked, and staff had to keep moving people to get about the ward.  My mother was placed in an aisle (going from one side of the ward to the other) and at one stage, there were 4 trollies side by side and my mother could touch the beds to each side of her.   

The trollies did not have tables, so there was nowhere for her to keep a glass of water and she had to ask for a drink every time she wanted one.  At one stage she waited 20 mins for a glass of water.  As there was nowhere to store it, she had to sit and hold it until it was finished.  We did of course bring her up bottles of water so she could keep them beside her and have a drink when she needed it.  When needing to go the bathroom, the staff moved occupants out of the side rooms into the main ward, wheeled mother into that space, got her to use a bedpan and then moved her back into the ward.  These side wards were only made private by a curtain which were never fully closed and therefore not sufficiently private.  One evening my mother waited 2 hours for someone to take her to the "bathroom" after asking several members of staff for attention.  

What was also interesting was that the ward did not seem to have a whiteboard with who was in the ward and where they were seated.  Several times, I witnessed staff just walking through the ward, calling out for certain people.  It was an absolute farce.

When I tried to get an update on my mother's condition, I was constantly told that she wasn't their patient, but no alternative offer of help given.  I had to go searching for someone to give me updates which wasn't easy.  I also asked when she would be moving to a ward and was answered rather brusquely that other people were there before her and they didn't know.

My mother was in this situation for 3 days before being transferred to ward 7 where she stayed for 1.5 weeks.  She had pneumonia, which on top of existing illnesses made her quite ill.  The care and attention my mother got when she moved to the ward was fantastic - I can only thank the staff for how they helped my mother while on ward.

I appreciate that the hospitals are under immense financial restraints and understaffed.  It's clear that the staff are greatly overworked and do the best they can, but I found the situation in the Emergency Department, totally unacceptable.  As an elderly lady, who was very ill, I would have expected my mother to have been shown a little more respect, dignity and care.  My heart breaks for the other elderly patients who were also in the same position as my mother (obviously very ill) but had no family there to support them, fight for them and allow them their basic human rights.