Patients have been left outraged as waiting times climbed from ‘11 hours’ to '19 hours' over the course of a morning on Wednesday (October 26). At around 3am, the delay time was 11 hours and by 11am, the waiting time was as much as 19 hours, according to another patient.
The patient claimed there were ‘sick people lying on the floor vomiting and senior citizens clearly with dementia waiting hours to be triaged’ in the meantime.
At around 3.30am, the waiting time for Tameside Hospital’s A&E was 11 hours, a patient has said.
"11 hours waiting in Tameside A&E. Sick people lying on the floor vomiting, senior citizens clearly with dementia waiting hours just to be triaged,” they told the Manchester Evening News .
“Sick people wait to see a doctor for hours not even being offered a glass of water.”
The frustrated patient also shared how they felt the CEO of the hospital should be ‘sacked’, adding: “Tameside Hospital’s A&E living up to its nickname of Shameside."
Later that morning, just before 11am, another patient said the A&E waiting time at Tameside had risen to 19 hours. The patient said: “It’s a disgrace.”
The emergency department is experiencing ‘unprecedented pressure’ much like other hospitals across the country, said Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital.
A trust spokesperson said: “The emergency department at Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, like many others in the country, is experiencing unprecedented pressure. Whilst we endeavour to treat everyone as quickly as possible clinical care is prioritised for those patients with life threatening conditions who require immediate interventions.
“When the number of this category of patients is high then the waiting times for less clinically urgent patients becomes extended. We are currently in a high level of escalation and are supporting the A&E teams with additional staff.
“As with other trusts we are experiencing difficulties in discharging patients who are medically fit to go home, which results in delays for those patients who are waiting in our A&E department. We continue to work with our out of hospital providers to ensure we can facilitate patient discharges back into the community where it is safe to do so.
“The trust is committed to providing high standards of care across the organisation and we have taken the comments made by this patient very seriously.
“We would like to take this opportunity to advise members of the public to only attend our emergency department if they really need to, patients can get advice on the right place for them to access care by calling 111.”
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