"The A&E reacted swiftly ..."

What I liked

The A&E reacted swiftly to treat my relative who had neutropenic fever after chemotherapy treatment. There was an initial delay when she was referred to the out of hours GP service but when it was realised how seriously ill she was, A & E moved swiftly to treat her.

She was admitted to ward 9 for further treatment. The nursing staff were caring and did their best to make my relative comfortable, although they were extremely busy. However I visited her one day to find her very distressed as she had been waiting over 3 hours for paracetamol.

What could be improved

The professionalism of the medical staff (doctors) was not always obvious. Although they were young my husband felt there was an element of ageism towards the older patients on the ward. My relatives treatment was delayed for over 24 hours due to a failure of the doctor to find out why a required blood transfusion was taking so long to provide. It turned out it had been in the pharmacy waiting collection. This meant treatment took place late into the evening making my relative very tired.

Anything else?

Patients need to be informed if treatment is delayed more than 6 hours. My relative became very distressed by not knowing what was going on.

I feel there is a need for greater supervison of junior medical staff by more senior staff. In addition, it seemed that treatment could not be admiinstered in a timely way due to lack of drug supply and my relative being hospitalised over the weekend.