Mrs S attended the Birmingham Children’s Hospital on 7 December 2014 after her daughter, 3, began coughing up blood. She had initially called the 111 service, who after 2 hours called her back and told her to take her daughter to a walk-in-centre. On attending the walk-in-centre she was told that her daughter really needed to be seen at the Children’s Hospital.
Mrs S and her daughter were seen by a triage nurse at 01:00 a.m. after a two hour wait. However, it was not until 05:00 a.m. that they were actually seen by a doctor. When her daughter was eventually seen by a doctor she was diagnosed with a minor stomach illness and discharged within 20 minutes.
Mrs S said, “It was horrendous. I really can’t fault the staff as they were trying their best, but there weren’t enough of them there. Children were lying across the chairs because of the time of night and being sick. Parents were getting annoyed and having a go at the receptionist.”
Another mother has taken to facebook to vent her frustration with hospital stating, “My son was admitted with glandular fever and a secondary bacterial infection. There was a six hour wait in A&E although we only waited an hour as he was prioritised as an emergency. There was nowhere to sit and at one point I sat on the floor. There was far too many children there that shouldn’t have been there, running around and playing whilst my son slept through all the commotion.”
Recently released figures have shown that Birmingham Children’s Hospital was the worst hospital in the West Midlands at meeting the Governments four hour wait target – only meeting this target 81% of the time in the week to 12 December. The hospital have reported that numbers of attendances at A&E are higher than those last year with an average of 205 attendances this year compared with 180 last year.
Dr Ben Stanhope, a consultant in paediatric in Emergency Medicine, said, “We have seen this problem in the last three to four weeks. There are an unprecedented number of children presenting in our department and we are seeing 20 to 30 more patients a day than we normally would. This is a massive increase. And it means that everyone is waiting longer.”
Local MP Liam Byrne said, “These shocking figures show A&E queues are spiralling. Our NHS staff do a great job but they’re being overwhelmed. The government’s huge cuts to Birmingham’s social care service mean it’s harder than ever to get older residents home from hospital. That means it’s getting harder to get people in the front door through A&E.”
Patrick Oliver, Senior Associate and Head of Clinical Negligence at Swain & Co Solicitors LLP says, “I am very concerned to hear of the lengthy delays affecting people attending A&E departments across the country. This highlights the importance of staffing levels in hospitals to ensure that patients can be seen in a timely and effective manner.”