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No beds in A&E

Posted By smithy1985

"No beds in A&E"

About: Royal Gwent Hospital / Accident & Emergency

(as other),

My partner was out the kitchen last night, she collapsed against the cupboard and fell to the floor and started shaking from head to toe. I rung the ambulance service and they said they were really busy and the was no ambulance available, while waiting for the ambulance service my partner had another fit and went to sleep and I could not wake her back up.

It took half an hour for the ambulance service to arrive, when they came my partner had two more fits in the house. When they arrived, when we arrived at the hospital my partner was put on a trolley, when we were taken a room, the room was very dirty with half empty cup of tea and water on the side, there was an ECG result of a man just left on the side where anybody could look at. When she was seen by the doctor she was told she could not stay in because there were no beds available, the doctor told her she was better off going off and waiting for her appointment on Friday morning.

Also while my partner was waiting in the corridor there was an elderly patient on their own who told the nurse that they were incontinent and that they needed help. The nurse went and told another nurse about half an hour passed before any member of staff came and helped the patient.

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Responses

Response from Julian Hayman, Internal Communications Manager, Communications, Aneurin Bevan Health Board 10 years ago
Julian Hayman
Internal Communications Manager, Communications,
Aneurin Bevan Health Board

Submitted on 14/01/2014 at 17:12
Published on Care Opinion at 17:28

Hello smithy1985,

Thank you your feedback which was posted on the Patient Opinion website. I am sorry that your experience did not meet the high standard we aim to provide within our Emergency Departments. It is not clear from your post what was the date of the attendance. Nevertheless, I would expect all areas to be clean and in a fit state to receive the next patient. Both Emergency Departments are experiencing a high volume of patients during the winter period and all areas become very congested. There are dedicated domestic staff allocated to the Emergency Departments during the day, but unfortunately there is only an on call service at night which can be accessed.

Due to the acuity of the patients who present to the department, sometimes it is not always possible to completely clear the assessment area before the next patient arrives, however, please be assured that all patient equipment, trolleys etc are thoroughly cleaned between treatments.

I am sorry to hear that there were dirty cups and an old ECG within the assessment area. I will discuss this with the senior nurses for the areas to remind them to ensure that areas are checked and maintained between patients.

Should your partner have required admission to hospital for any further tests or investigations, her admission would have been facilitated and a bed sought for her. As I mentioned previously, demand within hospitals is currently very high, but every effort is made to accommodate every patient who requires admission, unfortunately sometimes this may take a little longer than we would like, but the safety of the patient is our main concern.

I offer my sincere apologies that your experience on this occasion was not as positive as we would have expected and I would like to thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention.

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