Princess Royal Hospital A&E (Emergency Department/Accident & Emergency) - Enter and View Visit Report

Report - 30 January 2017

A Survey was developed to capture the experiences of people attending A&E for treatment (or relative/carer for children) including facilities provided for waiting.

Summary

We wanted to learn about:

Peoples experiences of using PRH Emergency Department/ Accident & Emergency and to understand how patient dignity is being respected in the hospital emergency environment
The experiences of relatives/carers and friends
Observe the patients and relatives/visitors attending Accident & Emergency engaging with the staff and the facilities
Examples of good care practice

Key Findings

Staff are polite, friendly and professional, even at busy times. Patients told us they appreciated the hard work and care of the staff in the A&E service. Though A&E staff were overworked and under-resourced, patients acknowledged they did their best in the circumstances. Ambulance staff were also praised
Though patients reported that their dignity is respected most of the time, on a few busy occasions patient privacy was observed not to be appropriately respected
All people surveyed said they felt safe in A&E
Waiting patients and relatives found the facilities (including drinks and snacks provision) and the information provided in the Waiting area was adequate
Waiting patients (booked-in) wanted more information and clarity about the waiting time to be seen by doctor/nurse
There is no information provided for relatives of patients brought in by ambulance to guide them on what to do, and how to get to the patient
The reception process is timely, staff were reported as polite and professional and the booking-in process was rated 5* or 4* (good) by 44% of survey respondents
At times of volume pressure patients were left waiting for a ward-bed on a trolley in the A&E corridors (sometimes for more than 12 hours)
Though most patients said that staff did explain what was going to happen to the patient while they were in the examination/treatment cubicles area, some were not informed
Less than a quarter of the patients surveyed spend less than an hour in A&E, but over a third spend between 3 to over 4 hours in A&E