I ended up in A&E on Monday night last with my 2 year old (pictured above but who is fine now thankfully) and I have to say that we received a really great service. I clocked into the car park at exactly 21.12 and clocked out again, all done, at exactly 22.12.The A&E unit was fairly busy, although not overrun but we were seen very quickly and she was dealt with and sent home in what I thought was double quick time. So no problems there - and in fact no problems at all with the people or the service.
I do though, think that the A&E department in WRH is woefully inadequate. It is small, cramped and the toilet facilities are abysmal. WRH is, seemingly, one of the busiest A&E units in the Country but it has obviously seen no investment at all for many a long year. I have been going up there for quite some time now - since my eldest was a baby - and she's 16 now. There certainly has been no change (except for the addition of a hot drinks vending machine) in that time.
This is quite unacceptable. The single male and single female toilets enter directly from the waiting area - can this be hygienic, or indeed suitably private for people? I have been waiting in that A&E unit - not this time I hasten to add - when the toilets have been completely backed up and unusable. The seating area is very small and certainly offers no comfort.
In fact the hot drinks vending machine is probably not even a good idea in one sense. The last time I attended there was a very obviously drunk girl also waiting for treatment. She decided to get herself a cup of what turned out to be very hot soup from the machine and promptly proceeded to spill it all over the place, narrowly missing a waiting elderly patient! In fact, in my opinion, people who are excessively drunk should have a separate waiting area as they can pose a danger to themselves and to others!
So top marks for the service - but almost bottom marks for the physical layout. There has been the promise of a new A&E unit for some time now. When can we expect to see that delivered? I have ogled at the shots of beautiful A&E departments in other (less busy) hospitals featured on the news lately, as they detail the increases in fractures etc. as a result of the ice and snow. Waterfords' turn is surely past when a new A&E unit should have been delivered. Why have feet been dragged on this issue for so long and when will we have a new department in Waterford. With the exceptional results that the A&E in Waterford turn out time after time, it's the very least the patients, and importantly, the staff deserve.
Another feature I didn't like was the €100 bill that arrived in my door for the visit within 36 hours. In this day and age I think it is a travesty to be charging people for access to an A&E unit. It would be very interesting to know if the charge has decreased the amount of people attending at A&E - and if it has, why? Are people who really should attend, deciding not to because they can't afford it? I suspect this might be one factor. At the very very least, children and the elderly should be able to attend free. (Drunk people should be charged double!)
And while I'm in the general area of health, surely a factor in the increase in procedures that the VHI is claiming as causing them the increase their prices yet again - this time by a whopping 8% in a time of national deflation - must be the proliferation of private hospitals and the Consultants in those hospitals recommending people to have what are often, in my opinion, unnecessary procedures - in their own hospitals, in which many of them have an interest! Many of those hospitals are as yet, still making losses - but as the procedures increase, so too will the profits. Surely, this has to be a contributory factor? Well? Anyone?
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