Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LUHFT), A&E Listening Events Report - December 2022
This report was produced jointly by Healthwatch Liverpool, Healthwatch Knowsley and Healthwatch Sefton. In December 2022 we held Listening Events at the A&E Departments at The Royal Liverpool and Aintree University Hospitals - both part of Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LUHFT). We spoke with patients, family members and staff at both hospitals and listened to what they had to say about their experiences of the A&E Departments.
The Listening Events, which are detailed in this report, were prompted by:
- recent feedback from local patients about long A&E waiting times and overworked staff,
- media stories focusing on the pressures on A&E Departments nationally and locally,
- an invitation from LUHFT to visit the A&E Departments at Aintree Hospital and the new Royal Liverpool Hospital during December, a month which historically sees ‘winter pressures’ in A&E and which was expected to be particularly challenging in 2022.
Staff from Healthwatch Liverpool and Healthwatch Knowsley visited The Royal A&E Department on Wed 14th December 2022, and staff from Healthwatch Knowsley visited Aintree A&E Department on Fri 16th December. Staff from Healthwatch Sefton were unfortunately unable to attend the visits due to sickness but were closely involved in the planning and preparation of the events.
The aim of the events was to engage with patients, family members and staff, to gather feedback about their experiences of treatment and care at LUHFT’s A&E Departments. We wanted to find out what people thought was good and what they thought needed improving.
28 surveys were completed at The Royal. We also spoke to several staff members.
At Aintree we spoke to patients in the Minors waiting area, the corridor and the Majors corridor. Again, we used our judgement about who would be appropriate to approach.
17 surveys were completed at Aintree. We also spoke to a number of staff members.
This report details all the feedback gathered.
We identified a number of themes on which we received feedback during our visits. These were:
- Staff
- Information and Communication
- Triage
- Environment
- Refreshments
- Parking
- Discharge
We received a comprehensive response to each of our comments and recommendations from the Director of Nursing at LUHFT which are included in full in the report.
