"A and E staff treated my partner ..."

What I liked

A and E staff treated my partner very quickly when he arrived with a chemical burn to the face with eye injury. The nurse that dealt with him was very friendly and helpful, and explained everything as time went on. He was referred to the eye ward, out of hours, where he jumped the que for the consultant due to his injury. Fantastic for my partner, not so good for those already waiting who were not infomred of how long they were likely to wait or why they were being shunted to the back of the que. The appointment the next day with the consultant was not 'on the books' but he made time to come out of surgery to check on my partner. Although quick, he managed to put minds at rest about recovery. Follow up treatment has been swift and effieicnt - keeping to appointment times and giving good advice and information when asked. I feel my partner has been well treated at SMH on this occation.

What could be improved

A and E seems very small for the number of people it handles. The consultant sent us away without explaining clearly what the medications were for, or more importantly the side effects which with hindsight would have saved a lot of distress and worry to know the medication causes blurred vision when you've had an eye injury and told the eye will heal within 24hrs - we had a 4 day wait to find out this information (due to bank holiday weekend) to have minds put at rest that sight was not damaged to the degree it appeared. the consultants seem to provide minimal information to the patient unless asked specifically about a particular worry - this is probably due to time limitations.

Anything else?

While in the eye casualty area (which seems to be in a corridor on the way to somewhere else with lots of nurses and staff walking past all the time) the nurse called a patient and promptly disappeared round a corner. the poor patient did not know where to go and could not read the signs for directions as had an eye injury, what with him being in the eye casualty area this seemed terribly insensitive!!!!!