Complaints outnumber compliments at UHG Emergency Dept

Complaints about the Emergency Department of University Hospital Galway outnumber compliments by a ratio of ten to one.

That’s according to an official log of complaints and positive feedback from patients and their families about the city hospital’s Emergency Department, released to this newspaper under Freedom of Information (FOI).

In 2017, UHG received some 76 official complaints about its Emergency Department, the busiest in the West, including about waiting times to get access and the standard of care.

During the year, it received just eight official “positive feedback” messages regarding the Emergency Department.

Similarly, the previous year, the hospital recorded 87 official complaints about its Emergency Department; and there were just six official compliments.

In 2017, almost half of all complaints related to “effective care and support”, while a quarter related to “person centred care and support” and “safe care and support”.

Some 20% of all complaints about the Emergency Department related to “waiting times/access”. A similar percentage of complaints related to “communication and information”.

In 2016, the largest category of complaints related to “effective care and support”, followed by “safe care and support” and “person centred care and support”.

Almost a quarter of all the complaints that year related to “waiting time/access”; there were five official complaints about “communication and information” at the Emergency Department and four related to “workforce”. Some complaints related to several different categories.

Overcrowding has been a feature of the Emergency Department for many years, and it regularly features among the worst in the country in nursing representatives’ Trolley Watch figures, which count the number of patients waiting on trolleys.