Quarter of A&E patients dissatisfied with experience
A quarter of all patients who attended A&E departments at Irish hospitals in the past year were dissatisfied with the experience, according to the Health Service Executive.
The HSE says a survey it commissioned found that more than half of A&E patients had to wait more than three hours before being seen by a doctor
The majority of respondents said they left without sufficient information or understanding of their condition.
Despite this, the HSE says major improvements have been made in reducing waiting times in A&E.
It says 70% of patients who needed hospital beds were admitted within 12 hours, while the numbers waiting longer than 24 hours fell from 9% last May to 4% in December.
The Irish Nurses Organisation, however, says the survey does nothing to tackle the problem of A&E overcrowding and fails to take into account the difference between problematic hospitals and those that have never really suffered from capacity problems.
