"Three observations"

From my recent experience I would make three suggestions to improve the A&E service for patients:

1 - You need to improve your system for ensuring that the next of kin of patients are notified. I was in the A&E department for several hours and had asked a few times if my wife had been contacted and told this was the case. As she hadn't arrived I asked a nurse to call her when I worked out where my mobile was and the call was the first time she had been contacted. This did not affect my treatment, but it seems a simple enough thing to have happened. It is not clear if this fell somewhere between the police and the NHS.

2 - I seemed to be lost between the A&E ward and the Xray rooms for quite a while, to the point where on my return to A&E they had been considering sending someone to find me as I had been missing so long. This did not inspire a lot of confidence.

3 - I received a Wound Therapy Clinic sheet when I was discharged, but this shows the number to call as 01634 810925 which is a discontinued number. The real number is 01634 382247 which I found using an internet search. This might have been harder for people without internet access or the confidence to use it. As the number of people referred from A&E to the Wound Clinics must be quite large this needs changing. The aftercare instructions for wound dressings could be clearer as the small leaflet provided was of limited use.

Hope this helps.