"A&E Department"

Thank you for taking the time to comment on your experience of our Accident and Emergency Department. Please let us first assure you that none of our staff allow queue jumping. All patients are treated according to the department’s normal procedure and exceptions are not made for friends or relatives of staff members. Our triage system ensures that those patients with urgent, time-critical conditions in immediate need are seen as soon as possible. On arrival at A&E, all patients are first assessed by a ‘streaming’ nurse before being directed to the most appropriate place for them to be treated. This can be A&E (which includes both a major and minor injuries area) or the new Urgent Care Centre (UCC) which treats less serious conditions. The UCC has its own patient waiting area separate to the main A&E waiting room and so patients treated at the UCC leave the A&E waiting area very shortly after they arrive and so it can sometimes appear that these patients have been seen more quickly when they have in fact been asked to wait elsewhere.