The Accident and Emergency Departments at the Princess Royal Hospital Haywards Health and Royal Tunbridge Wells Hospital Pembury
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In October 2018 Healthwatch East Sussex visited the Emergency Departments at the Princess Royal Hospital at Haywards Heath (Brighton and Sussex University Hospital NHS Trust) and the Royal Tunbridge Wells Hospital (Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust) at Pembury. A total of 19 visits were conducted on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays in four hour sessions. They spoke to 121 people.
Overall the findings reflect the experiences of people attending busy emergency departments over several days and varying times. Most people expected to experience long waiting periods. People gave a wide range of reasons for their visit to A & E (including falls, stomach pains, chest pains and possible fractures). They were expecting to have scans, x-rays and other tests and were wanting to be seen by a doctor. Some were hoping to be prescribed antibiotics, whilst others were seeking pain relief.
Most people attending Royal Tunbridge Wells and Princess Royal hospitals approached other services before attending A & E and attended A & E based on a referral from those services (in 9 out of 10 cases). Only a small number of patients said that they had attended A & E after having difficulties making a GP appointment. Only one person had sought advice from a pharmacy or other community-based service before attending A & E.
Less than 10% of respondents had heard of the Help my A & E booklet and less than 15% of respondents had used NHS choices. Patients did know about 111 even though some who had used 111 were unhappy with the service.
Most patients waited less than 30 minutes before being triaged by a nurse.
Approximately 80% of patients said that they had been comfortable or very comfortable waiting in A & E.
The operation of the GP streaming services at the Royal Tunbridge Wells and Princess Royal hospital were rated highly by patients who had used them.
Patients were very positive about the care they received from hospital staff.
Patients reported waiting for one to two hours and more for an ambulance to arrive at their home. Whilst patients arriving in A & E by ambulance typically waited less than 15 minutes before being taken through to a bay one patient had waited for an hour and another had waited for two hours
Several patients who had been admitted as an in-patient in the previous 12 months reported that they felt that they had been discharged before they were ready to go home.