This is Care Opinion [siteRegion]. Did you want Care Opinion [usersRegionBasedOnIP]?
Care Opinion

A Tuesday night in A&E

Story from nhs.uk

"A Tuesday night in A&E"

About: Lister Hospital

Having worked in QE11 A&E and having recently had 3 occasions to attend A&E Lister with family members I can only say how disappointment I was with the overall experiences.

Bins were over flowing, staff didn't seem to know patients names, drugs and some care being administered in communal areas,.

Staff run ragged - seems not enough staff especially doctor's as that seemed to be who most people were waiting for.

Having to wait over 12 hours for a bed, meaning that not only my brother but others were left sitting in chairs having treatment etc.

When I was there with my daughter she was sent home with a dislocated/locked knee with no crutches and with a 6 week baby to look after.

On a second visit the next day she was admitted as a matter or urgency and operated on - this treatment on the 2nd visit was what I would have expected on her first visit.

Staff try very hard in the circumstances and its not them that I am complaining about but the lack of more staff to deal with the situation.

Who in their right mind thinks shutting the QE11 was a good idea with the increasing population.

Traveling further for treatment and the backlog of ambulances needing to off load is also another problem which needs sorting out as this means that ambulances are not getting to urgent calls if the turnaround is taking so long.

More about:
nhs.uk logo
Do you have a similar story to tell? Tell your story & make a difference ››

Responses

Response from Lister Hospital 8 years ago
Lister Hospital

Submitted on 24/03/2016 at 15:31
Published on nhs.uk on 25/03/2016 at 01:30

Thanks for getting in touch and we're sorry that you have been disappointed by the care provided by our staff in the Lister's emergency department to your family.

The Lister’s emergency department, supported by the 24/7 urgent care centre at the New QEII is a completely different service to that which existed previously.

The new service is not only bigger and better equipped than what existed before, there is also far more staff - we've invested around £3 million in extra doctors and nurses over and above what we had before.

The real challenge that we face is that levels of attendances are up considerably on anything experienced previously - we used to get around 350 patients a day across the old Lister and QEII A&E services combined; that rose last year to an average of 420 a day; this year so far, daily attendances of over 500 have not been uncommon.

So the problem our doctors and nurses face is how about to evolve the service again to meet these new challenges, which had gthe QEII A&e remained open would have meant no investment in new services and an old service that was already at breaking point.

But your observation about yoiur experience of the Lister's emergency department will be fed back to the team - we're sure that they will welcome your views and accept them in the spirit in which they were meant.

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
Opinions
Next Response j
Previous Response k