Princess Alexandra Hospital responds to concerns about staffing at children’s emergency department
Princess Alexandra Hospital has answered concerns about staffing levels at its adult and paediatric emergency departments.
A worried father from Bishop’s Stortford contacted the Indie after he took his nine-month-old daughter to the Harlow hospital with breathing difficulties in the early hours.
At 5am, an hour after they arrived, nurses were able to help the little girl, but no doctor was available to follow up or authorise her safe discharge. He said the medics had been sent to deal with an even bigger backlog in the adult casualty unit.
The dad described the scene: “Parents with sick kids in tears as they are being told there is no doctor to see their kids after spending seven-plus hours overnight in A&E waiting to be seen and there’s no ETA [estimated time of arrival] on when they will be available.”
A board in the department warned patients faced a wait of up to 10 hours last Wednesday (January 8).
He said: “By 8am there was a shift change and we were told there was no ETA for a doctor becoming available and the 10-hour wait was quoted again, so we took the decision to discharge ourselves and arrange a GP appointment of our own accord as that would be quicker than waiting an unknown amount of time for a doctor who may not turn up.
“In the cubicle next to us was a child whose mother broke down in tears having waited over seven hours to be seen by a doctor, only to be told there was no ETA and she’d be better off organising a GP appointment.
“In another cubicle was a teenager who had been there 12 hours without being seen by a doctor who was also ready to give up and leave.
“I absolutely do not blame the medical staff, but it is clear the hospital is overwhelmed and is not coping with a fairly typical winter flu season.
“We’re just praying we don’t have to go anytime soon as they are overwhelmed and cannot provide a reasonable standard of care.”
The Indie asked the Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) if paediatric doctors were unavailable in the children’s accident and emergency because they were all deployed to the main emergency department.
Chief operating officer Stephanie Lawton said: “We have recently managed a very high demand for our adult urgent and emergency care services, which also impacted elective, non-urgent operations.
“Patient safety is our absolute priority and we ensure that safe staffing is maintained across our wards and departments.
“This can mean reallocating staff to meet patient demand and acuity, with clinical colleagues supporting each other in either the paediatric or adult emergency department (ED) when required. However, reallocation can impact waiting times and we recognise the effect on patient experience.
“We encourage patients to call 111, visit their GP or pharmacy if they do not have serious or life-threatening illness or injury.”
On average 90 children a day visit the paediatric emergency department at PAH and the numbers so far this winter are comparable with those of 2023-24.
The adult department treated an average of 238 patients a day in December and so far in January the daily average is 234.
Overall numbers are comparable to the 2023-24 winter. However, more patients are acutely ill and need to be admitted to the hospital for longer stays. This impacts patient flow, including waiting times and discharges.
In December, the average waiting time for adults who received treatment and went home was 5.7 hours and in January the wait is 4.8 hours.
Last month, the mean for adults admitted to the hospital was 18.7 hours and this month, so far, it is 15.7 hours.
Last week, the average wait for children treated and sent home was just under three hours (178 minutes) and almost five hours (291 minutes) for youngsters admitted to hospital.