Eamonn & Ruth: He says, she says
Ever since I was a child, I’ve always wondered why the most frenetic and scary place in a hospital tends to be overwhelmed and under-resourced. I’m talking about A&E departments – the sort of place no one wants to be spending their Saturday night in. The clue is in the title – accident and emergency. That is what they are there for, and that is why you would be there, too.
For me, it was when I was a 14-yearold, on a Friday night. Not just any Friday night – this was the first evening of my school summer holidays. But things had gone wrong.
Instead of being with the rest of my pals, kicking a football on that balmy June evening, I was with my mum and dad, waiting to be seen in the Mater Hospital, in Belfast. I was born in this very same hospital – and in that moment in time, as blood gushed out of my hand and wrist, I thought I was going to die there, as well.
The emergency came about after a bust-up between me and my older brother, Leonard, when – after extreme provocation, I would like to point out – I took a swing at his head, with a left hook. The problem arose when he decided to put a glass door between me and his face. Leonard lived to fight another day. But me and the glass door? We became the casualties.
I will never forget looking down at my wrist and seeing white bone, through a lot of red flesh. There was blood spurting everywhere from my wrist and hand, so, wrapped in a towel, dad, whilst telling Leonard ‘ he would deal with him later’, took me straight to casualty. Memory tells me that, because of the nature of my injury, I was seen to pretty quickly, and after a lot of antiseptic wound-cleaning and quite a lot of big
thick, black stitches, I managed to come through the ordeal without passing out.
That was one of my few encounters with A&E. But when I hear of four-hour waits, sometimes longer, overstretched resources, abusive patients shouting to be seen, I have often felt that something needs to be done. Surely, there has to be a better way?
Now, you are going to be asked to call ahead and book an appointment, before actually getting to the emergency department. This is a new scheme being tested by the NHS. Pilot schemes are underway in Portsmouth and London, to see if advance warning can better prepare the medical staff for things like X-rays, as opposed to wasting everyone’s time sitting in a waiting room.
It’s about sign-posting admissions to the most appropriate treatments. Speedy, more effective and safer.
The NHS has been pulled from pillar to post during this pandemic. As a result of Covid, many folk who would have been heading to an A&E department have had second thoughts. That will change as we emerge from lockdown, and things increasingly get back to the way they were. Phoning ahead may sound like a small thing, but surely it’s a more organised way of dealing with the unexpected. People are at their most vulnerable when they turn up after an accident. They’re scared, they’re frightened and, hopefully, streamlining their circumstances will be good for staff and patients alike.
While they’re at it, why not place a contactless card machine and breathalyser at point of entry? Let’s see what effect that would have, in regulating certain people’s excess drinking, and aggressive behaviour.