St Peter's Hospital 2023-08-16 Person 3 5 0

All the staff were brilliant. They all seemed to be friendly and getting along with each other which helped the mood. But the cramped space made life difficult. Having to be constantly moved during the assessment phase and then waiting for a bed to be freed up on a ward. The porters seemed to be most times just moving us around in the queue. I was there on a day when the junior doctors were on strike, so A&E was manned by consultants, so I probably got more experienced hands. Even so it’s probably not a bad thing that the consultants get reminded of the experience the other way, every now and again.

I may have this wrong but it seemed to me (laying there for 9 hours) that if there was an emergency ward, with another 20 trolleys, then there wouldn’t need to be trolleys in corridors. I appreciate that you would still have to wait for a bed on a ward, is required for admission, but if one was not available then at least the emergency ward could double up as an overflow. It seems like we have a growing and aging population that relies on and efficient A&E department that hasn’t grown to match. Appreciate that funding and space is needed for this and selling off the area where the staff use to park ( my wife works in the hospital) May have given funds but at the expense of the space.