A&E Watch Leighton Hospital September 2022
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Healthwatch Cheshire East and Healthwatch Cheshire West and Chester wanted to understand people’s experience of A&E at various hospitals. They were approached by the Cheshire A&E Delivery Board to understand why so many people were attending Leighton Hospital A&E and why they hadn’t used other services. Healthwatch visited Leighton Hospital A&E on several days in late September 2022 and spoke to 187 people.
Three quarters of all respondents had spoken to someone else before attending A&E. The majority had been advised to attend from their GP Practice, 111 or 999. 81% had spoken to someone for advice or treatment the same day as attending A&E and 12% the day before. Other respondents had spoken to someone 2-7 days previously or had accessed numerous services before attending.
The majority (72%) had been advised to go to A&E. Of these half had been told A&E would be expecting them. Of respondents who had chosen not to speak to anyone prior to attending A&E, over half felt the matter was too urgent to access another service.
Awareness of GP services, 111 and 99 were high - Walk in centres and Minor Injuries Clinics scored lower.
Over half of the respondents had others drive them to A&E with the most popular other modes of transport being ambulance and driving themselves. Taxis and public transport scored low.
Of those that arrived by ambulance 55% said the ambulance arrived within one hour and in total 80% said under two hours. Of those who came by ambulance 88% rated it 5 out of 5 for service (5 being excellent).
The vast majority (81%) said they hadn’t been kept informed of their wait time whilst in A&E. 70% rated the service they’d received in A&E a 4 or 5 out of 5.