An inspection of Morriston Hospital's emergency department found delays in the assessment and review of patients with chest pains and heart attack symptoms. The length of wait between arrival and triage for one of these patients was two hours, said Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) in a report.
It said another patient had been lying on a spinal board for a significant period and that there was a delay in providing appropriate interventions, including an MRI scan, despite a "neurological deficit" being recorded. Inspectors were critical of some aspects of infection control. "We observed nursing and medical staff not changing gloves in between attending to patients and switching between clinical and non-clinical tasks," said the report.
The inspection team, which attended unannounced over three days in September, painted a picture of an over-stretched department facing unrelenting demand, caused by the volume of admissions and difficulties getting patients onto wards. "Patients were not always receiving the experience that they should expect," said the report. "This is because of a lack of timely care and treatment, despite constant efforts demonstrated by the health board to increase patient flow. However, patients were generally happy with the care provided by staff once they were seen."
