A&E Watch

Healthwatch Cheshire East and Healthwatch Cheshire West visited three A&E departments at the Countess of Chester, Leighton and Macclesfield Hospitals on 22 January 2018 to understand people's experiences.  They spoke to 107 people.

At the time we visited, the three A&E departments all appeared far less busy than they had been over the preceding month during the well documented winter pressures. Staff at all three hospitals told us that this was the case, and were relieved that that particular day was quieter than usual. Waiting times appeared on average to be around two hours with a steady stream of people coming through. There was a slight increase around lunchtime and then a subsidence until around 3-4pm when attendance began to increase as people finished work and school.

7 out of every 10 people (71%) across the three hospitals rated the service received in A&E as four or five stars. Only 7 out of the 93 people who responded to this question across all three hospitals rated the service received as just one or two stars. 

Similar to the summer report, these findings show that at the time we visited the most common reason for people attending A&E across all areas was that they felt the problem was too urgent to wait. This was the case in 44% of responses at Macclesfield, 62% at the Countess of Chester, and 71% at Leighton.

 In the summer report, being advised to attend A&E by a GP Practice was one of the most common reasons for attendance, but this number appears to have reduced quite drastically in this report. However, it was still the most common NHS service to refer people to A&E, with 17 people across the three hospitals at the time Healthwatch visited having come from this route, compared to 11 from Walk-in Centres and 7 from the NHS 111 service. 

Almost three-fifths (59%) of people attending A&E on the day we visited did not consider going anywhere else before A&E. Of the 42 people who did consider visiting elsewhere, 26 people had either tried to see, or had at least considered, visiting their GP first. 

93 out of the 105 people (89%) who responded to this particular question, had been waiting less than two hours at A&E. 

More than half of people (56 respondents) across the three hospitals had been kept informed about timings and delays, whereas 45% had not. This figure is made of variations across each of three hospitals. At the Countess of Chester, only 42% of people had been kept informed about delays, as opposed to 58% who had not. Whereas at Macclesfield 77% of people had been kept informed, along with 56% at Leighton. 

Over three-quarters of people (76%) were either driven to A&E by somebody else or themselves, most commonly because it was the quickest or most convenient option. 

Healthwatch spoke to 18 people across the three hospitals who had arrived at A&E via an ambulance or paramedic; 15 of them rated their experience with the ambulance service as five stars, and three people rated it as four stars. 

On the day Healthwatch visited 39% of respondents had previously attended A&E within the previous 12 months, with 61% having not attended in the past 12 months. This shows a very slight 3% increase on people who had attended previously within the past 12 months when asked in July 2017.

70% (16 out of 23) of all respondents had been treated within three hours. This is consistent with the July 2017 report which found that 69% of people were seen within three hours. 

Over one in five respondents (22% - five people) waited for longer than the 4-hour waiting time target, which is a higher number than the one person (6%) who was not seen within this target during the July 2017 visit. 

Almost two out of every three respondents (61%) at the time Healthwatch visited would rate their experience of A&E as four or five stars, with 43% rating it as five stars. This is considerably lower than the 81% figure in July 2017. 

Only three people (13%) rated their service as only one or two stars, but in July 2017, nobody rated their experience as lower than three stars.