St Peter's Hospital 2018-08-16 Person 3 5 0

My husband was directed to A&E by his GP for treatment of an infection in his elbow. He was prescribed medication and told by the dr treating him to seek advice if the infection spread beyond a boundary he drew on his arm. By the following evening (15 Aug) the infection had spread beyond that boundary and he was running a temperature. So we called 111. After 2 hours of to-ing and fro-ing he was instructed to go to A&E and not to leave it until the morning. We arrived a little after 1.30 am and he was triaged pretty quickly but it all ground to a halt then. He didn’t get seen until 5.15 am. When he did get treated, the dr who saw him saw fit to criticise him for following the instructions he’d got the previous day and from 111, before admitting that perhaps he had acted correctly given the infection was spreading. Throughout the evening, there was no information as to how long it would take to get to treatment and no one seemed very concerned that the infection kept advancing. Some form of information board or even a quick communication would help manage expectations. There was a board showing the target and actual number of staff for the department, but it hadn’t been updated since 3 August. We get the NHS is stretched and A&E departments in particular. But some information to patients as they wait would be helpful. And when you follow instructions, spend the night waiting for treatment and you’re told off for doing as you were told, it’s more than a little galling. Lastly, the question about whether you’d recommend the A&E department to friends and family is a ridiculous one: A&E is where you should go when you have no choice, and most people don’t have the luxury of more than one A&E facility to go to.