"A&E: Clean; friendly staff; ..."

Thank you for sending in your comments. We are very glad that you noticed the clean and calm environment in the A&E department, as the Trust has been making a big effort to make the environment as pleasant as possible. New chairs have recently been purchased for the waiting area, and the importance of hygiene and hand washing is continually being reinforced.

However we are disappointed that you had to wait 90 minutes to be seen. We are not sure if you are aware that there are two separate entrances to the A&E department. In order to minimise distress caused to patients in the waiting area patients arriving by ambulance are brought in through a separate door. It seems likely that patients with more serious conditions were being seen at the time you were waiting. We do appreciate that it can sometimes seem as if you are waiting a long time with nothing happening.

The Trust is working hard to reduce waiting times in A&E. A big piece of work was carried out in 2007 to reduce time spent on paperwork during emergency admissions. The Trust achieved a 62% reduction in paperwork involving admitting emergency patients.

Please accept our apologies for the delay you experienced. If you would like us to look into what happened during your visit to A&E, please contact the East Cheshire NHS Trust Customer Care Team on 01625 661449, freephone 0800 1613997 or text phone 01625 663723.