"under staffed and long waiting times"

Anything else?

16th Aug reception staff and triage nurse excellent xray within 1/2 hour of arriving at the hospital then we waited (4 hours in total) when my daughter was seen she'd torn a ligament and chipped her bone so needed to be put in plaster in the A&E department, nurses were being used to chaperone patients to Xray because staff could not be left as lone workers (this role could have been completed by a porter/nursing assistant), an additional nurse was used to 'man' the corridor (which appeared empty) again this left the unit very under staffed. used nappies (for adults) were left on a table next to a very distressed elderly lady in bed another elderly lady complained that she had not had a drink although she had requested one several hours earlier we could over hear staff members talking about how dissatisfied they were with their jobs and how they were looking for other jobs. we did not feel safe in the unit, it felt that if anything major was to happen the unit would not cope, it was barely managing the cases that presented which by and large appeared to be minor injuries cuts, brakes, sprains etc when we complained about the time it took to be seen we were informed that there was a shortage of doctors in the hospital and that A & E was being used to see patients. to support this there was a patient who had been admitted sitting in the reception area (she was in her night clothes and had a cannula in her arm) On a positive note the staff we saw seemed to be very competent and caring and it is unfortunate that there were insufficient staff or processes in place to enable the unit to run smoothly Finally one further observation the unit looked tired i.e. filing cabinets had no wheels on them and lent precariously to one side.