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Waiting times horrendous.

Story from nhs.uk

"Waiting times horrendous."

About: Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital

I brought my wife to A&E under the direction of our GP after suffering chest pains.

After triage during which vitals were taken we are now still waiting to see a doctor almost 5 hours later. The reason for the long wait is due to lack of rooms for consultation due to the backlog of patients waiting to be moved onto wards due to the lack of beds. Also a triage nurse told us that there is a shortage of doctors, they are currently ringing around to get help.

Don't come here expecting to get seen quickly.

Lots of impatient patients.

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Responses

Response from Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital 8 years ago
Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital

Submitted on 28/01/2016 at 15:55
Published on nhs.uk on 29/01/2016 at 22:34

Dear Sir

First of all I hope that your wife received the care she required and is now feeling much better.

I’m sorry that you and your wife experienced a longer wait to see a doctor than was anticipated, the hospital has been extremely busy recently and this is a trend we are seeing across the country.

While we would never want patients to wait as long as you did for treatment, we prioritise patients according to the severity of their condition and it sounds as though your wife was triaged quickly on arrival which is what we would expect.

The information provided to you by one of our emergency department nurses suggest to me that you visited during an exceptionally busy period.

Please accept our apologies and thank you for your comments.

Claire Riley

Director of communications and corporate affairs

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