"Emergency Admission"

My mum was admitted yesterday afternoon, she suffers from Chronic Obstructive Disease and has a very nasty exacerbation. Community Matron nebulised her three times before calling the ambulance as she wasnt improving. The ambulance was delayed (the reason became apparent when we arrived), mum was taken straight through to the resuscitate room 2. The staff were absolutely wonderful, she had a consultant and senior nurse, who were both wonderful. The consultant was washing my mums arm when her cannula came loose and blood was everywhere - they never considered calling for a nurse to do the job, the consultant just showed how caring they were and cleaned her up themself. They were all very attentive, showed empathy to my mum and involved us all the time telling us what was happening. They did a chest xray which shows fluid on her lung and arranged treatment right away.

I cannot praise them enough, they were all run off their feet, people were on trolleys in the room waiting for beds and not once did we hear any negative comments from any of the staff at the work station - and all hands on deck when a young nurse called for help -everything was dropped right away to assist.

she has now been transferred to the MAU and I hope the treatment is as good and staff are as a caring as we found down in A&E - they were all wonderful, please pass these comments onto them all. (we were there 1.30pm till 8.30pm).

regarding the ambulance - when we arrived people were queuing at the front desk, a young girl in front of me was booking in 'cos she had felt sick for 2 days'...receptionist asked her had she rung her GP but no, she said she wouldnt get an appointment - what a waste of resources!! People were on trolleys in the corridors waiting to be booked in whilst the ambulance crew have to wait with them until they can hand them over - and until people like this young girl have the sense to ring their GP instead of keep turning up at A&E the people on the trolleys will have a longer wait, ambulance crews wont be available to attend to the people that really need emergency treatment.

The department is at breaking point - and to see how they all worked together and treat the patients the way they did whilst themselves being at breaking point was a priviledge to see - I cannot praise them enough.

Instead of people complaining about the service take a step back and think to yourself 'do you really need to go and sit in an accident/emergency department for three hours with something minor' or, could you access another service like your GP practice, Out of Hours service, Urgent Care centre, pharmacy or, self help - think about others before you turn up demanding to be seen, your actions could be the difference between someone being treat for emergency care or, being left on a trolley for hours....