"Ulster Hospital experince and observations"

Hi Alexander2025

Thank your for taking the time to tell us of your experience when attending the ED last Saturday. We have a number of different streams within the ED and different staff working with their skill sets in those streams so some patients will get seen quicker and discharged than others. I wish to apologise that staff did not engage with you and other patients regularly as we would expect or pick up that you were cold, I will pick this up with the staff in charge on the day you attended and remind them of the need to engage and be professional.

15 months ago the South Eastern Trust moved to a digital system and all patient records are held on computer and can be accessed by phone including observations and medications. You may have seen staff on Trust phones checking and documenting care given and outstanding. There is no access to external internet sites on these phones so the staff are not using them for anything other than patient care.

The sister will have been informed by the triage team you were coming to ED and may be for admission following an assessment but the assessment needs to take place by an ED doctor before any admission can be confirmed. A nurse can not request your bed prior to the assessment being completed.

On the day you attended we had 290 patients attend with 36 patients waiting overnight from the Friday night for admission to a ward with that number increasing throughout the day. ED has 6 separate zones that can not be visualised from one area so it can be difficult to know how busy it is at any given time. I appreciate the time to be seen may not have been as long as it can often be giving a false sense of being less busy.

It is good to hear you were in the waiting area alone and separated from other patients for a period of time, we do our best to keep patients who are immunosuppressed isolated but often it is difficult to provide a more comfortable space in an ED where the footfall is high and patients move frequently depending on their needs. I am not sure where the private room was that you are referring to as we have very limited private rooms in an Emergency department. The majority of our single rooms have had to be split in half to facilitate the number of patients attending the ED.

I will pass your comments on to our support service managers about their staff shifts, starting times and breakfast times. We do meet with them regularly and look for opportunity for improvements. It is not safe and against health and safety regulations to leave hot drinks unsupervised as patients may burn themselves or those with a modified diets may take them if they are not able to make safe decisions or those who we need to keep fasting until after scans or speech and language assessments are completed. We recognise the need for regular fluids and keeping patients independent and patients are encouraged to ask for a drink and this will be provided by staff if it is appropriate. Staff have had hot drinks thrown at them and we have a duty to protect staff as well.

The toilet should have been marked out of use until staff were able to clean it. I will reinforce this action with staff and remind the team responsible for cleaning the toilets of the need to do regular checks.

I am unable to comment on times bloods are taken on the wards but I will share your comments with the lead for those teams.

I do hope this response helps you understand some of the decisions that have been taken. We will work on improving the areas you have identified. I hope you are keeping well and getting the support you need in your ongoing care with the MacMillan Unit.

Best wishes

Jenny

ED Lead Nurse