"waiting time"

Arraived at A&E at 19.30. Waiting time was 4 hours. My son was in a lot of pain but was not seen for an hour. He was cannulated and taked to majors where there was only one nurse working. The nurse from triaging stayed to help making that area short staffed. It took another 10-15 minutes for my son to finally be given IV fluids and pain relief. An agency nurse arrived, the traige nurse went away, waiting time was 5 1/2 hours and the two nurses in majors spent all night trying to assess their patients. Medications were late, visits to the x-ray department were delayed, observations were delayed, assessment times grew longer. The water fountain in the main waiting area was not working and a member of staff had to keep filling up water jugs, which took them away from their work. The water bottle in the Dart/sub waiting area was empty and it was not unitl the early hours of the morning that it was eventually replaced. The coffee machine did not accept cash, just cards which meant that only cold drinks was available to be purchased with cash.

On two occassions my son had to wait a long time to be given any pain relief. the Doctor was not able to see him until he had been there for about 6-7 hours and then we had to use a room in minors as there were no other consultation rooms available, There was a time during the morning hours that another Doctor held a consultation with an older couple behind closed curtains in the Darting area. There was no privacy nor confidentiality, all the other waiting patients could hear their conversation. And of course there was also the same old story of patients not being able to go to a ward because there were no beds.

All the staff worked very hard to assess and help their patients but they appeared to be hindered by a distinct lack of staff and consultation rooms.

On this occassion the waiting times were horrific and totally unacceptable and the staff were overwhelmed with the amount of people asking to be seen.