"A&E Experience"

I was admitted as an emergency recently in the evening which required surgery and was discharged four days later. My whole experience of being in the Victoria hospital from the time I saw a Dr in A&E, moved to AU2 and then from theatre on to ward 41 was excellent and I could not fault the care I received.

This was spoiled however by my initial experience in A&E. On arrival at 3. 50pm there were two other patients in the waiting area. I approached the reception desk where I was left to stand for over 5 minutes despite being the only person waiting. Two receptionists were at their desks and made no attempt to say that they would help me shortly. After being clerked in I then went to wait to be seen by the nurse. It then took a further hour for the two other patients to be seen by which time the department had become quite busy. A person who arrived some time after me was then seen and whilst I appreciate this is appropriate if the person was very unwell, the person was sent home by the nurse. By this time I had become increasingly unwell and felt faint. After approaching the reception again to ask how long it would take to be seen I was finally taken through by the nurse where my observations showed I had an extremely low blood pressure. From there the nurse quickly transferred me through to be seen by a Doctor where my care was then excellent.

Overall I feel that the attitude of reception staff in A&E let things down. I appreciate people will attend with things not suitable for A&E treatment but as someone who works is healthcare myself I certainly was not one of them. I also feel that the triage system is somewhat flawed. I believed it was meant for the most ill patients to be seen first but from my experience this does not happen.