Shorter wait at A & E

by MIKE KINGWAITING time for non-emergency cases in the Accident & Emergency Department (A&E) of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) has been reduced by nearly three hours, says chief executive officer Dexter James.The CEO said six nurses had been added and four additional  doctors recruited to the A&E in a bid to improve the pace of health care  in that unit.“Our target we have set for emergency care is from door to the triage nurse is 45 minutes and door  to the doctor is one hour. We have made some impact in relation to the non-urgent that require some amount of hospitalisation, as well as the non-urgent who require some amount  of diagnostics.“In both cases, those are the ones who would wait a long time. They are not life-threatening, but some do require lab work [and] X-rays, and it takes a while. We have begun  to see a reduction in  times for those from almost eight hours to around five hours,  and that is a major reduction,” he said.James also told the DAILY NATION he was pleased with the response to the hotline that was established last month  that allowed the public  to dial 22-TOUCH and speak to any one of the several volunteers  who were manning  the lines.He said it was the hospital’s way of putting power back in the hands of the people. “Whether it be in terms of waiting times, the aesthetics of the environment or the interaction with health care providers, we want  to hear from you.”He spoke about encouraging feedback  in relation to the  service at the pharmacy.“The public have expressed positive feedback on the recently launched pharmacy improvement project, where there is now an orderly flow of patients going to have their prescriptions filled,”  James said.