A week ago my terminally ill partner developed a high temperature during chemotherapy. We phoned the cancer unit as required regarding this . They phoned Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow to inform them he needed to be seen and treated.
We went to the Initial Assessment Unit where they were expecting us but a receptionist told us we had to wait in the queue like everyone else. The place was almost full. We waited just short of 6 hours with my very unwell partner sitting in a wheelchair from 8 pm until almost 2am to be seen at all by a nurse.
My complaint is that there is no triage system any more. The staff told us there used to be and that patients would be seen as soon after arrival as possible and some basic information and observations taken which meant the nurses knew what was wrong with presenting patients and could consequently prioritise urgent cases and at least knew what patients were presenting with.
The “powers that be “seemingly decided to scrap this system and so nurses/ Drs have no idea what health issue patients are presenting with until their name comes to the top of the list. We saw many people had been waiting over 6 hours, 2 with chest pain.
At least with the triage system patients felt a little comforted that they had been seen and possibly told approximately how long they might have to wait. As it was no one was able to tell us anything other than you have to wait.
Very unsatisfactory..
Appointments
Reception