"Lovely nurses at South Tyneside A&E"

I went to A&E one night this week. It was extremely busy with a very long wait to be seen by a doctor.

The staff nurse and sister on duty were very kind and friendly despite the obvious challenges they were facing. The sister could not apologise enough for the waiting time and personally took my mams bloods and made her a cup of tea.

My mam was very nervous about having her bloods taken, however the sister had a lovely jokey manner and put my mam at ease. My mam was then taken into a room where the staff nurse and sister continually kept popping into check on her. I was very touched to see that they both treated my mam with respect. The staff nurse explained everything to us and put us at ease and had a lovely bedside manner.

I'm very impressed with the professionalism that they both showed, especially as they were getting berated left right and centre from other patients and relatives in the waiting room. Neither of them lost their temper and went out of their way to accommodate everybody's requests. After a previous visit to this department which was less than satisfactory I must say how impressed I am with the two aforementioned members of staff.

My mam is now on the road to recovery and is very grateful to both nurses for caring for her and putting her mind at ease during a very difficult time.

On the down side, I found the doctor slightly patronising and felt like he did not listen to our concerns. Again this was remedied by the two lovely nurses mentioned earlier.

Also, the seats in the waiting room are very uncomfortable and when the waiting time is over 3 hours it can cause a problem, especially for elderly patients.