The experiences of parents using the Children’s Emergency Department at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital
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Healthwatch Brighton and Hove carried out a review at the Children's emergency department (CED) at the Royal Alexandra Hospital (RACH) in March 2018 on a Sunday morning and a Monday night. The main reason for our visit was concern over potentially growing numbers of people attending CED.
Healthwatch interviewed 39 people. They found over half sought help first from another service, but still ended up coming to CED, 86% of these were referred. All parents who sought help from the NHS 111 service were referred to CED. Parent knowledge regarding some services was very low. One third of parents provided negative comments on alternative services.
This report provided the following recommendations: clear messages to parents about services that can be used as an alternative
to CED, in particular pharmacies and the NHS Choices website, parent-focused communication, supportive and clear about which conditions
can be dealt with most effectively by a range of NHS services including CED, improve signage both inside the main hospital and outside, indicating directions to the CED.