One-in-four unhappy with A&E departments, study reveals

ONE-IN-FOUR patients who attend accident and emergency departments are unhappy with the experience, a study commissioned by the Health Service Executive (HSE) reveals.

The study also found that half of the dissatisfied patients had to wait more than three hours to be examined by a doctor and nearly half said they did not get enough pain relief.

The survey, carried out by the Irish Society for Quality and Safety in Healthcare, in partnership with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Ipsos MORI, Ireland, was based on telephone interviews with 1,600 people who attended A&Es last year. More than 104,000 people attend A&Es every month, of which 22% are admitted.