Medics ask frustrated A&E patients to show more understanding – as winter pressures hit | UK News

At Barnet Hospital, new winter pressures pile up on a workforce that has weathered many storms.

Outside, a woman arriving in an ambulance with difficulty breathing is a reminder of past crises.

Inside the Emergency Department, she was rolling past a man who had slipped on ice and had broken several bones in his leg.

In addition to the packed adult waiting room, there was a door separating the pediatric emergency department. It’s even busier here, and a security guard sits at the entrance.

He was put in place because the record long wait times for treatment here mean that sometimes parents of sick children are venting their frustrations on staff.

Sitting in the waiting room was Myriam Dimmock with her heartbroken son Max. He has a high temperature, a sore throat, and is coughing. The rash covered his face and body.

Myriam is worried about Strep A and feels she has no choice but to go to A&E. She said: “We tried to call the GP and they said send pictures, but they didn’t call back.

“When I arrived (the A&E section), it was so heavy, there wasn’t even a chair. We waited an hour and a half to be sorted out and we’ll probably wait for the doctor for hours more.”

It later turned out that Max was fine when he was discharged from the hospital, but the worry was that with the large number of parents using emergency services, some seriously ill children could be missed.

19-month-old Jahmaal and his mother, Melissa Hislop, sit in one of the adjoining rooms.

He has chronic lung problems from being born prematurely and when he is sick, he needs monitoring and access to oxygen.

Jehmaal started vomiting the night before, but Melissa was exhausted by the time she got to the hospital because of the scenes she’d been through while bringing him in two weeks earlier.

She said: “Parents sit on the floor with their children. The next room and the next room are full. So there is only chaos, children crying and parents getting frustrated.

“It’s sad to see them (the medical staff) really work hard, and it’s not nice when you see parents yelling at them.”

Advanced clinician, Samantha Milton said: “Waiting times are increasing – followed by frustration for nurses, some of the language used is very unkind and hurtful towards nurses nurse, this is very upsetting.”

She says the waiting time is down to parents being overly cautious, especially those worried about Strep A.

Ms Milton said: “There are a lot of parents worried about having a healthy baby who could take care of themselves at home if they used NHS advice or the Healthier Together Advice.”

Currently, the Trust is hitting its goal of less than four hours of waiting in just 65% of cases, below the national average of 69%. Staff at the hospital did not vote enough to trigger the nurses’ strike – but Mrs Milton supports it.

She said: “All we wanted to do was provide high quality care for the children and their families, but the pressure was so great we couldn’t really do that. Nurses feel frustrated because they can’t do the job they want to do.”

Consultant Pediatrician in the Emergency Department, Dr Robert Stellman told Sky News: “The NHS doesn’t have nearly as many nurses or doctors as it should have. That’s out of the question at the moment. And it means that our amazing nurses are on site often doing some people’s job under so much pressure I can’t do their job.

“I think one way the community can really help us take care of them is to remember that when they get to the emergency room, they’re going to have to face uncomfortable queues and long waits – but that’s not the case. It must be the fault of the nurses and doctors looking after you. We need their kindness and support to help us take care of them.”

Regarding group A streptococcus, Dr. Stellman said it is important for patients to know that this is not a new disease and that it is not yet clear that the numbers are radically different from previous outbreaks. that or not.

He added: “The key message to parents is to apply the same common sense – so if your child has a sore throat, a fever, a rash, a runny nose, but for the most part they look pretty good to you. , they should be mostly playful, active and well-hydrated, then we’ll direct people to really helpful resources like the NHS website and the healthier together website.

“If parents are concerned, they will see the features of scarlet fever described on those sites and then it may be reasonable for them to try to talk to 111 or a GP because the disease is often active. Works best when treated with antibiotics.

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“But for parents who are worried their child is seriously ill, our advice remains the same. Your local emergency department will want you to get your child in quickly.”

As we were doing the interview, a distressed man ran into the room, holding a limp child in his arms, a dark purple rash visible along the child’s legs.

And so it went back to work for the paramedics.