"Came to a&e with stomach pain"

Thank you for your feedback. We are sorry to learn that your experience was not as positive as we would hope when you attended in October 2015. It is important to us that comments are heard and seen as an opportunity to make changes and improvements wherever possible.

We are very sorry to receive your comments regarding being in pain and needing to lie down. This should have been addressed on arrival and if there was no capacity or space available for you to lie down this should have been communicated to you. Your concerns have been raised directly with the staff within the department to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. When you were eventually moved into a cubicle, it is unclear as to why your family had to wait to be told your location. When a patient is moved from the waiting room to a cubicle, the process is that they are also moved on the IT system. We are very sorry that this did not happen during your attendance.

The Matrons within the Emergency Department meet weekly with colleagues in Sodexo to address any issues with cleaning in the department. There have been some problems recently with the standards of cleanliness and these have been dealt with appropriately. These improvements are monitored daily by the Lead Nurse and Matrons to ensure they are consistent and issues escalated as appropriate. Please accept our assurance that cleanliness and infection control are our priority and we will continue to ensure that we provide healthcare in a clean, safe environment. The lead Nurse, Sodexo Matron and infection control nurse are now undertaking weekly walk rounds to check the cleaning is robust.

Mrs Kathryn Mitchell, Deputy Head of Facilities Management, would like to apologise that the standards of cleanliness in the waiting area and toilets in our Accident and Emergency Department were not of an acceptable standard. As you will have seen during your visit the area is very busy and the toilet facilities are very limited which does impact on our ability to maintain the standards that we would like to provide. Mrs Mitchell can confirm that the areas are checked regularly but will ensure that the local clinical team are aware of how to escalate areas of concern for additional cleaning when required and work with our colleagues in Sodexo to look at increasing the cleaning or maintenance frequencies in these areas.

It is difficult to comment on the last section of your concerns regarding being discharged without some further information. We are sorry that you felt this was an unsatisfactory experience and suggest that. if you would like to discuss this with us in more detail, please feel free to contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service on 0161 276 8686 or by e-mailing pals@cmft.nhs.uk