Care Opinion

Waiting time in the ED

Posted By lionqw99

"Waiting time in the ED"

About: Craigavon Area Hospital / Emergency Department

(as a parent/guardian),

We arrived at ED in the afternoon with our daughter who had a fainting episode. She has Anorexia Nervosa which we explained at the time. We were triaged on arrival and obs were done late in the evening.

We asked twice at reception for an estimated time and were told that admin staff were not told of waiting times. We explained her illness and that she needed to eat but were again told no one could give us a time we would be seen. Finally my husband managed to speak to a sympathetic nurse who did her obs again and told us that there was nothing showing up on ecg or bloods and we suggested we could go home and text if there was any issues of concern.

We did not see a doctor and after arriving that afternoon. We left in the early hours of the following morning.

We felt frustrated that no one was listening. We also felt the system was very much at fault that no one could have read the ECG and looked at the bloods and sent us home without such a long wait.

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Responses

Response from Paul Smyth, Head of Service Emergency Departments, Medicine and Unscheduled Care Directorate, Southern Health and Social Care Trust 7 months ago
Paul Smyth
Head of Service Emergency Departments, Medicine and Unscheduled Care Directorate,
Southern Health and Social Care Trust

Submitted on 08/04/2024 at 18:59
Published on Care Opinion at 18:59

I am very sorry to hear of your experience when you attended with your daughter. Unfortunately the waiting times to see the emergency department doctor are very long. The single biggest reason for this is that a significant number of patients are delayed for long periods in the emergency department waiting on admission beds every day. This causes the emergency department to become overcrowded and leaves little capacity to see patients in a timely manner. The inpatient wards are finding it difficult to discharge patients to create capacity for the emergency department patients. Unfortunately this situation is common in all the regions emergency departments and in the UK. Various initiatives are being piloted in Northern Ireland and an extra ward was opened on the Craigavon Hospital site to relieve the congestion. There is still a long way to go and this issue is being monitored and escalated to the senior management in the hospital.

The triage nurse is supposed to give an estimate of the waiting time. This can change as ambulance patients arrive at another entrance route in the emergency department. I will ask the ward sister to share with her staff as this estimate is best explained after the triage assessment.

Patients attending the emergency department will have their ECG checked by the emergency department Doctor just after it is recorded. This is a quick check to ensure there are no acute cardiac abnormalities. A patient history and examination is still required along with blood analysis for a complete patient assessment. The ED Doctor would also have to interpret the results. We regret the waiting time was so long and hope your daughter is feeling better.

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