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Concern about delay after breaking my ankle

Posted By Jaydriver

"Concern about delay after breaking my ankle"

About: University Hospital Ayr / Accident & Emergency University Hospital Ayr / Trauma & orthopaedics

(as the patient),

I attended A & E at University Hospital Ayr, was admitted to a ward, operated on and discharged.

On arriving at A&E, we told the receptionist we thought my ankle was broken. We were given no idea of waiting times but could see the waiting room was busy. There appeared to be only one triage nurse on duty.

After half an hour, my husband told the receptionist I was in a lot of pain and asked how long to wait. We were told there were a couple of people before us. The nurse brought out some painkillers.

After another 15 minutes, I was seen and became an emergency as my toes were going blue. After that everything happened very quickly and my treatment was very good but that 45 minute wait could have had a devastating effect on my future mobility.

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Responses

Response from NHS Ayrshire and Arran 7 years ago
NHS Ayrshire and Arran

Submitted on 02/06/2016 at 17:52
Published on Care Opinion on 03/06/2016 at 09:04

Dear Jaydriver,

I am sorry you broke your ankle and then had to wait a while before ending up in theatre. We aim to triage a patient within 15 minutes of arrival and I apologise we were not able to achieve this on this occasion. Without looking at your notes I can’t really comment further.

While every patient deserves to be seen immediately, but much as we would like this to be the case, this is not practical nor achievable. In an endeavour to improve waiting time in the ED we are working towards a consultant being involved with a form of Triage (Rapid Assessment) which should help speed things up for patients.

Regarding your other points:

At any time, all Emergency Departments (ED) locally only have a single Triage Nurse on shift for adults for the waiting room, while other nurses are triaging the ambulance patients in the main department. Analgesia being sorted in the waiting room is good The upgrading when your condition changed is excellent adherence to the nationally utilised Manchester Triage Tool, which is advised practice and used in both EDs.

I hope this response is helpful and your ankle is comfortable and on the mend. Should you wish to contact Eunice and provide more details, I will look into it further for you. Eunice can be contacted on 01563 826222 or by email - eunice.goodwin@aapct.scot.nhs.uk

Kind regards,

Dr A Krichell

ED Consultant, University Hospital Ayr

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