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Great staff but ridiculous waiting times

Story from nhs.uk

"Great staff but ridiculous waiting times "

About: Northern General Hospital

A couple of weeks ago I was here with my grandad, we arrived at A&E at 9:15pm and me and my Nan left my grandad getting admitted into hospital at 6:30am after waiting all night to see a doctor due to lack of oxygen and an infection they didn’t rush to help him, I get hospitals are busy and there are emergencies but for a 95 year old man with heart problems and 87 year old woman who has Alzheimers to wait that long is ridiculous. A few days later he passed away not down to the staff but maybe if they caught the infection quicker they may have been able to save him.

Fast forward to today I am here again but with my Nan. We waited over 2 and a half hours for an ambulance then had to wait 1 hour 45 minutes just to get into A&E to register her in. Once we arrived inside A&E we waited 2 hours before a nurse came to see us. We got told my nan needed an X-Ray and we needed to wait to see the doctor. At around 1:30am (still waiting for X-Ray but been moved to another ward) we asked about the X-Ray to be told they haven’t booked her in for one, even though the two paramedics and 3 nurses told us she needed one. Fast forward to 6am and still waiting to be seen by a doctor, we’ve been told waiting hours for the doctor is over 9 hours and still continuing to become a longer wait. We didn’t come in with a true emergency, but for my nan to be able to walk this morning to now not even be able to stand up is an emergency to me as normal she can walk and move by herself. The staff have been absolutely incredible and so caring, kind and apologetic for the wait but how is this even allowed in a hospital the maximum time you should be waiting in is 4 hours but now it’s 5+ hours waiting to be seen. Like I say I get hospital are busy as we’ve been told there over 100 patients just in A&E and I know emergencies take priority but there’s more than 4 doctors working tonight and I’ve not seen 1 see anyone else in the ward I’m on.

I will give thanks and praise to all the hardworking staff and to anyone who works in NHS as I know from personal experience how busy and horrible it can be to work within this organisation. So thank you staff for being outstanding. But NHS sort yourself out.

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Responses

Response from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 8 months ago
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 08/11/2024 at 12:49
Published on Care Opinion at 12:49

Thank you ever so much for taking the time to share your feedback and we are really sorry to read that you had a poor experience of care, including waiting a long time to receive care. We are also sorry to read that your grandad passed away, sending our deepest condolences for your loss.

As you have noted within your feedback, we have been experiencing very busy service in our A&E department recently, with some of the highest number of attendances we have ever seen, which does lead to operational pressures and some very long waits to be seen and treated. Due to the nature of an Emergency Department, service delivery will be variable due to capacity, demand and clinical acuity, and we have recently been experiencing very high patient numbers to see- sometimes although the waiting room may appear less busy, there are high numbers of patients in other areas within ED being seen and treated. The sickest patient will always be triaged to be seen first. We endeavour to keep all patients up to date with projected waiting times and offer alternative options to be seen through our streaming and triage services if we feel a more appropriate option is available for timely patient review.

There are other streams for receiving care and treatment for non-urgent medical issues, such as the Minor Injuries Unit at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital which is open 8am-8pm every day, the GP Collaborative service which offers out of hours appointments (6pm-8am on weekdays and 24 hours over Weekends and Bank Holidays), offering treatment for patients with minor or less urgent illnesses, and the Walk In Centre on Broad Lane in the City Centre where advice and treatment can be accessed, which is open from 8am- 10pm every day. If you are experiencing an immediate medical issue which is not an emergency, you can call 111 for advice on the most appropriate service to access.

If you would like us to investigate this matter and provide you with more information specific to your situation, please contact our PALS team on 0114 271 2400 or by emailing sth.pals@nhs.net. The PALS team will ask you to share some personal details in order for us to investigate this matter for you.

Once again we are sorry to read about your experience of long waits.

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