"Disgraceful!"

Dear Sir/Madam I am so sorry that you have had this experience of emergency care at North Tyneside. We appreciate how frustrating it can be to wait, especially whilst in pain and would always expect our staff to keep patients informed of their approximate waiting time and to explain any unforeseen delays. It would never be acceptable to tell a patient who was in pain” to get themselves away” and I can only apologise. I will be passing this on to the team so that the staff members involved can refelct on the impact of thoughtless throw away comments. The anonymous nature of your feedback makes it difficult to act on in a meaningful way however - it would be helpful if you could provide us with a little more detail. I would be really grateful if you could contact me at annie.laverty@northumbria-healthcare.nhs.uk Many thanks for bringing these shortfalls in care to our attention, Annie