Daughter’s 10-hour A&E wait angers worried mum

‘NO-ONE WAS THERE FOR SPURIOUS REASONS, WE ALL HAD GENUINE EMERGENCIES...THEY WERE UNDERSTAFFED AND OVERWORKED’

A WORRIED and angry mother has told how she waited more than 10 hours for her daughter to see a doctor at Royal Derby Hospital’s A&E department.

Upset and fearful for the wellbeing of her daughter, the pair arrived at A&E at 10pm. The girl was seen at 9am the following morning.

During their stay, they say they witnessed people in severe pain, a distressed patient pulling out a drip from his arm, and a suicidal psychiatric patient.

Her experience has led her to believe too much pressure is being placed on NHS staff, and that they are being left unable to cope with patient demand.

The mum, who wished to remain anonymous, took her daughter to Derby Royal’s A&E department on the evening of Wednesday, April 27, after her daughter had swallowed a number of pills.

She was concerned that her daughter had taken too many and would cause herself harm.

She said: “My daughter did an impulsive thing and took a load of tablets after a falling out with her best friend. Luckily, she told me straight away and I bundled her in the car and drove straight to A&E.

“I naively hoped and thought that waiting times at 10pm on a Wednesday evening would not be too bad. I was distressed and scared; my daughter was calm and ambivalent.

“We were seen fairly quickly by the triage nurse, and then had another hour’s wait to be checked over by another nurse who took bloods.

“I was assured that my daughter was not in imminent danger of death, which was my biggest fear, but that we would have to wait to see a doctor.”

The pair were shown to another waiting room with a number of other people, and waited several hours to see a doctor. Other patients in the area were suffering from a range of problems, all enduring a long wait-time to see a medical professional.

The mother added: “It wasn’t until just after 9am the following morning that we finally saw a doctor. “Our waiting companions were an elderly lady with a broken wrist who patiently sat in an upright chair all night; a lady who was clearly in agony with a dislocated shoulder; a distressed man who finally pulled his cannula out and left; a mental health patient determined to kill himself, but able to talk in an informed and entertaining way about music, whilst breaking off occasionally to offer to get people cups of water, or to remind staff that we were enduring a very long wait; and a lady who had collapsed earlier that day, no sorry, now the previous day, but was anxious to get back to her autistic son. “No-one was in A&E for spurious reasons, we all had genuine emergencies which needed the attentions of a doctor. The waiting time for non-critical patients to see a doctor at Derby Royal A&E on the night of Wednesday, April 27, was 10 hours.” The mum insisted she did not want to complain about the staff working there, as it was clear to her that they were understaffed and overworked. Instead, she wishes to highlight the issues NHS staff are currently facing, not just in Derbyshire but up and down the country.

She said: “I will leave you to draw your own conclusions as to why, in this rich first-world country, our A&E departments are in such disarray, except to say it is not the fault of the hardworking and dedicated staff.

“But I would suggest that you keep yourselves and your loved ones safe, because I no longer believe the NHS is capable of meeting the demands placed upon it.”

This follows numerous complaints from patients who have previously mentioned that they are being forced to wait hours to see doctors at the hospital.

In November, the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS trust said that one out of every four patients at the Royal Derby and Queen’s Hospital were not being seen within four hours of arriving at A&E.

At Royal Derby Hospital’s A&E, the average wait for patients to be admitted to a ward was also reported to be eight hours and 20 minutes. The national target is five hours.

I will leave you to draw your own conclusions as to why...our A&E departments are in such disarray. Mother