Eastbourne District General Hospital
Kings Drive, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN21 2UDContact details and Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)
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Reviews
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Review titled Long long wait
Rated 3 stars out of 5
by John - Posted on 27 July 2022
My husband fell in the garden, he is 88 years old. He was in a lot of pain and having trouble walking. We got a lift to Eastbourne a&e dept. We arrived before 11am. I used the iPad checking system, my husband was booked in and saw a triage nurse quite quickly. We were told to wait to be taken for an X-ray. There was a screen in the waiting room saying the time in the department could be 5 hours, but an assurance that children and elderly would be priority. I’m not sure what age qualifies as elderly, but it would seem 88 is certainly not old enough. He was eventually seen by a very nice Dr. He was Xrayed and told there was nothing broken. The staff in X-ray were lovely, as were the Dr and nurses we saw. He was then told to wait for someone to come and show him how to safely use walking sticks. This never happened, each time he asked he was told, not much longer. After more than 8 hours without food or a drink, he decided to go home. We are aware there is a cafe, but didn’t want to risk missing his turn. We did think that he may have had a call the next day to check on an elderly (or not) man with obvious injury. But nothing so far. The department was very busy, but seemed very disorganised. It was our first experience at Eastbourne hospital and I sincerely hope it’s the last. We recently moved to Sussex from Surrey and their hospital service is far better, having experienced East Surrey, Epsom and St Helier. Eastbourne needs to improve.
Visited Accident and emergency services on July 2022
Review titled Eastbourne District General Hospital
Replied on 10 August 2022
Thank you for taking the time to leave us some feedback about the recent experience of care that you and your husband had at Eastbourne District General Hospital (EDGH); we do appreciate it. The Trust strives to provide a high and timely standard of care in what has been, and continues to be busy and challenging times, and we are very sorry to read this was not always the experience you had. Please accept our apologies for the obvious, but unintentional, distress caused to you both as this is not how we wish for anyone to feel. As you will appreciate the NHS, and particularly Emergency Department's (ED), up and down the country are experienced unprecedented demand on services. Our ED's are seeing ever increasing numbers of patients for a wide range of illnesses and injuries and in part, this is due to reduced availability of primary care services such as GPs, together with pressures on the 111 service. Unfortunately, this leads to longer waits for patients of all ages to be seen, for which we apologise. We continue to work with the wider healthcare system to identify ways we can reduce waiting times for patients, as we appreciate long waits can be unbearable for those in acute pain. In terms of refreshments, these are kept to a minimum in our ED's as often we require that patients do not eat or drink anything until they have been assessed in case they need to undergo further tests that may cause them discomfort if they have food or drink in their system, or may affect test results. Water is made available however, this may quickly run our if there are large volumes of patients waiting to be seen. You correctly point there is a coffee shop at the front of the hospital, but there is also a sweet shop near to it and vending machines are located just around the corner from the ED. We very much hope your husband is making a good and comfortable recovery from his injuries, and wish you both good health and well-being. Take care, keep safe and stay well.
Provided by Care opinion
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Review titled Disorganised
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Lance - Posted on 26 July 2022
I attended a&e after falling on some steps, I am 90 years old and was struggling to walk. I had 2 walking sticks to help me. I arrived and was helped with check in, and saw a triage nurse very quickly. There was a screen saying the wait could be 5 hours, but children and the elderly would be prioritised. 4 hours after arriving I was taken to see a Dr. who sent me for an X-ray, I then was taken back to see the doctor who assured me there were muscle tears but nothing broken. I would be able to go home after a safety assessment, I was supposed to be taken care of by a young nurse, as the dr went home. 3 hours after my X-ray I still wasn’t assessed, each time I asked the nurse, she told me they “are on the way to see you” After a total of 8 hours , with nothing to eat or drink, I told the young nurse I was going home, my son would collect me. At this time this nurse was chatting to 2 paramedics about a lady who had terrible constipation, and laughing ! She snapped at me that I could leave but did I realise I had interrupted her discussion about another patient, and sniggered. I found this to be very unprofessional. I was there for 8 hours , alone and wasn’t offered a drink. Seriously bad management.
Visited Accident and emergency services on July 2022
Review titled Eastbourne District General Hospital
Replied on 11 August 2022
Thank you for taking the time to leave some feedback about your recent experience of care and treatment in the Emergency Department (ED) at Eastbourne District General Hospital; we are very grateful for your comments, but disappointed to read that aspects of your attendance were a source of concern and distress for you. Please accept our apologies for this as this is not how the Trust wishes for any patient to be left to feel. We also hope you have made, or are making, a comfortable recovery from the injuries you sustained from your fall. The Trust works very hard to provide a high and timely standard of care in what has been, and continues to be, very difficult and challenging times, and so we are sorry to read of your experience. Unfortunately, our ED's are experiencing ever increasing rates of patient attendance for a wide range of illnesses and injuries and understandably emergency or life-threatening/changing attendances often need to be prioritised. ED attendances are unpredictable, and this does mean we cannot always forecast with accuracy the length of time patients have to wait to be seen, or cared for until discharge is appropriate. Despite the current climate we continue to work under, the Trust still expects patients to be treated in a professional manner that underpins the values of compassion, kindness, dignity and respect, and for all communications to be caring and thoughtful. We are particularly concerned to read of the way you describe being spoken to by a nurse, and apologise for this. Irrespective of whether the nurse was amidst discussion about another patient when you approached her, the reaction you received was not acceptable and we apologise for this. Finally, we are sorry that you report not being offered a drink whilst waiting. At particularly busy times, we do not always have the resources to offer every waiting patient a drink although water and a vending machine are available very close to the waiting area of the ED, and we are confident that any member of staff approached for assistance in obtaining a drink would be happy to help. We wish you good health and wellbeing; please take care, keep well and stay safe.
Provided by Care opinion
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Review titled Check-in with I pad not helpful
Rated 4 stars out of 5
by Philip Spani - Posted on 20 July 2022
I don’t know how long people have had to self check-in with an I pad at A&E, but cannot see any benefit for patients. Is it meant to be a cost saving measure? How can an ipad prioritise patients? I was here about six months ago, a nurse at reception sorted everyone out, no problems ( apart from the queue) which was fine
Visited Accident and emergency services on July 2022
Review titled Eastbourne District General Hospital
Replied on 11 August 2022
Thank you for taking the time to leave some feedback about the electronic triage system we have deployed across our Emergency Department's (ED); we do appreciate it. We also hope you have recovered from the symptoms that required your attendance. As you may be aware, ED's across the country are experiencing an ever increasing volume of patients attending for a wide range of illnesses and injuries, whilst also processing unpredictable rates of patients arriving in emergency or life-threatening/altering situations. Despite these pressures, our ED's remain committed to providing care and treatment in accordance with Trust values and to ensure patients are afforded dignity and respect at all times. We launched our electronic triage system in May 2022 for two patient-centred reasons; the first was to provide those who attend our ED's a greater level of privacy and dignity than our previous systems, and thus avoid the need to announce the reason for their attendance so that other people can hear. They can instead now capture this in a much more discrete way. The feedback we have received together with that from colleagues from other NHS Trusts across the UK has generated positive feedback on this higher level of privacy. The second reason was to reduce the chance of patients who are significantly unwell having to wait long periods of time for a face to face assessment. The electronic triage system means staff are now aware of potentially how unwell a patient is much earlier than before, which allows our clinical teams to focus on those who need urgent face to face assessments and those whose needs may be better met through another service. We hope this explanation is helpful; please take care, keep well and stay safe.
Provided by Care opinion
Information supplied by East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust