Hospital trust apologises over family's 6-hour Derby A&E 'despair'

Hospital trust bosses have apologised to a Derbyshire family who claimed they were left waiting more than six hours for their baby's case to be escalated while in A&E. Mum Charlotte and partner Simon said they were rushed to the emergency department at Royal Derby Hospital with six-month-old son Elijah but that when they arrived they felt repeatedly ignored by "dismissive staff".

Charlotte said her son he had gone "floppy" and had a rapidly rising temperature. She said a 111 call handler had deemed Elijah's condition as serious, and Charlotte spoke out about her ordeal when the trio arrived at A&E.

She said they were told they faced waiting five hours for the youngster to be seen by a doctor in the early hours of Tuesday, January 14.

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Charlotte and her partner said they waited for two hours after they were initially triaged, but were worried their young child's condition was worsening as time went on and they were desperate to see a doctor. She said: "I went to the desk and said look... he is getting really floppy, and his temperature is still rising. The nurse then said that he was getting hot because we were holding him.

"She told me to put him down, so I had to lay him down on the floor of the waiting room, it was so distressing seeing him there. They then did another temperature check, and he was 39.2C, at which point he should have been rushed through. We were just in despair. We waited another two hours, and we just got to the point where we couldn't believe what was happening."

Charlotte said that after six and a half hours of waiting in A&E, she approached the desk in tears to ask how much longer it was going to be before her child would be seen by a doctor. She claimed that the staff told her "how long is a piece of string?"

In the end, she and her partner made the decision to leave the hospital. The couple then travelled to their local GP who they said urgently referred them to Queen's Hospital Burton where Elijah was promptly treated as an emergency inbound patient.

Charlotte added: "We got there at midnight and we left the hospital at 6.30am, the only checks that were done [happened] when we went to the desk ourselves... I was begging for help and they just weren't interested."

In response to Charlotte's experience and concerns, Dr Gis Robinson, Paediatric Emergency Consultant and Executive Chief Medical Officer at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton, apologised to the family.

Dr Robinson said: said: "We are really sorry to learn of the experience Elijah and his family had at what we know would have already been a stressful time for them. While Elijah was seen by an experienced nurse three minutes after arriving at Royal Derby Hospital, at very busy times unfortunately patients may need wait longer than we would like while our teams care for the sickest children and adults first.

"Patients are checked by clinical staff regularly and our teams always try to make sure patients are safe and as comfortable as possible, so we are sorry that the environment in A&E didn't meet the family's needs at this busy time.

"We are glad to hear that Elijah is now recovering well and that the family had a positive experience at our Queen's Hospital Burton site, and we would welcome them contacting us directly so we can fully investigate their feedback about Royal Derby Hospital and look at where we can improve."

Elijah has since been discharged from Queen's Hospital, and his parents say antibiotics prescribed have made a big difference. The family say the exact infection couldn't be determined in the official diagnosis but added Elijah's condition has since improved.