Children's A&E listening event, Whiston Hospital 29 April 2024

Listening Events are designed to gain a snapshot view of the Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments at our local hospitals. Healthwatch Halton, Healthwatch Knowsley and Healthwatch St Helens undertake Listening Events periodically to gain the experiences of patients, to understand why they attended, and how they feel services could be improved. The purpose of these visits is to explore any themes emerging from comments made and feed these back to the hospitals, and service commissioners, to help improve services in the future.

This visit was arranged in advance and took place to understand the reasons why people were attending the children's A&E at Whiston Hospital, specifically whether they had attempted to access any other services prior to going to A&E.  The event took place on 29 April 2024 and Healthwatch spoke to 31 people.

Children’s A&E provides a much better experience for parents and children than in the main A&E department. The area is very clean and offers a pleasant environment for patients, and offers some really good facilities, such as baby rooms, drinks etc. People’s experiences 

Nearly three quarters thought the service received in A&E was ‘good’ or ‘amazing’. 13% rated their experience as being poor or very poor. 

Over three in five said they had been kept updated on their child’s care and treatment. 

Nine in ten said their child’s privacy had been maintained as much as possible during the time at A&E. 

Over four in five said they had not been kept regularly informed about any waiting times or delays. 

Why people attended A&E rather than other services

Three in five said they had looked for help elsewhere before deciding to bring their child to A&E. Of these a third had spoken to their GP practice.  A quarter of these then been advised to attend A&E. 

Of the twelve people who chose not to seek help elsewhere before attending A&E, five assumed it was the best place for their child to be treated and five had been previously advised to come to A&E by another medical professional. One person suspected their child needed a scan / xray. One person felt it was an emergency and they need to attend A&E. Two people also said family members had advised them to attend A&E.

Transport 

Most people travelled to the hospital by car. Two people said ambulances had been due to bring them but due to waiting times of over 2.5 hours they came by car. 

Two people arrived by ambulance. They told us they waited less than 30 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. They rated the ambulance care as ‘Amazing’ 

One person told us they drove to the hospital but couldn’t find a parking space, so returned home and then walked to the hospital. One person brought their child by public transport. They told us it took over an hour by bus from Runcorn.