Experiences of Patients Attending A&E at the Royal London Hospital
Project Background
The Tower Hamlets Place of North East London Integrated Care Board commissioned Healthwatch Tower Hamlets to gather feedback from patients waiting at the Royal London Hospital’s Accident & Emergency (A&E), Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) and the Children’s A&E to find out their experiences before coming to the hospital and whether their reason for attending the hospital was driven by their inability to secure an appointment with their GP within a desired time frame.
The project aimed to collect feedback from patients walking into the A&E, UTC or Children’s A&E at the hospital to help understand their prior experience and if they would accept a redirection to primary care services.
This project is part of the Same Day Access Programme supported by the Tower Hamlets Together partnership and seeks to reduce patient demand at the A&E, UTC and Children’s A&E services at the Royal London Hospital.
Methodology
We spoke to a total of 425 patients who shared their feedback. The feedback was collected through in-person visits to the A&E, UTC, and Children’s A&E. Healthwatch Tower Hamlets staff and volunteers visited the hospital 38 times in total over seven weeks between July and September 2024 to interview patients in waiting areas on a one-to-one basis.
The visits were arranged in two shifts: a morning visit between 10am and 12.30pm and an afternoon visit between 2.30pm and 5pm.
The majority of the visits were conducted to the A&E department which acts as the front door for walk-in patients after which they are triaged and redirected to the UTC if appropriate.
Recommendations
- Improving access to urgent, ideally same-day, GP appointments for people aged 16-54 with no disabilities who are more likely to attend A&E because they cannot get an urgent appointment with their GP.
a. Creating a promotional campaign to raise awareness of improved access to urgent GP appointments using multiple communication channels and tools to reach the target audience and reduce A&E attendance. - Creating a promotional campaign about NHS 111 services to encourage patients to contact the service for advice before going to A&E and creating tailored campaigns to promote services to people from different backgrounds.
- Informing patients about alternative services to drop in or self-refer to, such as pharmacies, sexual health clinics, and Tower Hamlets Talking Therapies to ensure that patients can receive timely care even when appointments at their GP practice are not immediately available.
- Raising awareness around local Pharmacy Services to educate people on the minor conditions qualified pharmacists can treat to reduce A&E attendance and creating tailored campaigns to promote services to people from different backgrounds.
Downloads
If you need this document in a different format, please email info@healthwatchtowerhamlets.co.uk or call 0800 145 5343.
