Glasgow Victoria Infirmary A&E on access point signs

[Frankton Junct]

Access point signs in the southside of Glasgow state that the nearest A&E is the Victoria Infirmary.

The Victoria Infirmary closed in May 2015 and A&E services were transferred to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. There is a New Victoria Hospital but that has no A&E department, only a minor injuries "ambulatory care" facility.
See Glasgow Victoria Infirmary

Is there a requirement to state the name and telephone number of the nearest A&E department on these signs, and if so, shouldn't they be updated?

 

[pdeaves]

shouldn't they be updated?

In general, yes. However, they can only be updated if the relevant person knows details have changed.

 

[MadMac]

Access point signs in the southside of Glasgow state that the nearest A&E is the Victoria Infirmary.

The Victoria Infirmary closed in May 2015 and A&E services were transferred to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. There is a New Victoria Hospital but that has no A&E department, only a minor injuries "ambulatory care" facility.
See Glasgow Victoria Infirmary

Is there a requirement to state the name and telephone number of the nearest A&E department on these signs, and if so, shouldn't they be updated?

View attachment 136217

Memory refresh needed: QEU is, essentially, what we used to know as the Southern General?

 

[InOban]

Yes. Heaven knows why they renamed it. I think it was a decision of the then Chief executive of the Health Board. Certainly not of the Scottish government.

 

[John Webb]

Is there a need to specify the location of the nearest A&E unit at all? Surely if there is an accident warranting attention at A&E the first thing to do is to call '999' for an ambulance! What is then critical is the location of the accident or the location of the access point - which is already on the information board.

 

[59CosG95]

In general, yes. However, they can only be updated if the relevant person knows details have changed.

There is a possibility that the board will be updated as part of the Barrhead/East Kilbride works, as any isolation details (i.e. listing Cathcart ECR) will need to be added.

 

[zwk500]

Is there a need to specify the location of the nearest A&E unit at all? Surely if there is an accident warranting attention at A&E the first thing to do is to call '999' for an ambulance! What is then critical is the location of the accident or the location of the access point - which is already on the information board.

It's still useful to be able to confirm the nearest A&E if an ambulance would be a long wait and 999 advise driving the casualty directly to hospital, or if it was a matter not serious enough to warrant an emergency response but still required hospital attention.

 

[td97]

Is there a need to specify the location of the nearest A&E unit at all?

It is a requirement to provide this information to staff working on or near the line as part of a COSS brief. One would hope the COSS's information pack includes the correct location.
The OP could inform Network Rail through social media (such as Twitter DM)

https://twitter.com/NetworkRailSCOT

 

[matchmaker]

It is a requirement to provide this information to staff working on or near the line as part of a COSS brief. One would hope the COSS's information pack includes the correct location.
The OP could inform Network Rail through social media (such as Twitter DM)

https://twitter.com/NetworkRailSCOT

Before I retired, I worked in the construction industry. Before starting a job, a Health and Safety Plan had to be produced. An essential part of this was the location of the nearest A&E facility.

 

[John Webb]

It's still useful to be able to confirm the nearest A&E if an ambulance would be a long wait and 999 advise driving the casualty directly to hospital, or if it was a matter not serious enough to warrant an emergency response but still required hospital attention.

Fair enough! I spent some 24 years as a works first-aider and every time I renewed my certificate they pushed more and more that an ambulance should be summoned if there was any doubt....

 

[zwk500]

Fair enough! I spent some 24 years as a works first-aider and every time I renewed my certificate they pushed more and more that an ambulance should be summoned if there was any doubt....

for sure, always better to call if in doubt. But sometimes it's easier to just drive somebody directly down to A&E, especially if you know the injury isn't serious enough to tie up an ambulance (I play Rugby, we've had plenty of people take themselves home and freshen up before heading to A&E just to make sure they haven't broken anything).

 

[alxndr]

One would hope the COSS's information pack includes the correct location.

It does, and gives various options.

Realistically, in order of incident severity, it's likely to be a case of calling 999, 111, using local knowledge of the quickest destination for the time of day, or the injured parties preference. In a panic it's unlikely anyone would think to hunt out the sign, especially as not all access points are equipped with one.

 

[Mordac]

Fair enough! I spent some 24 years as a works first-aider and every time I renewed my certificate they pushed more and more that an ambulance should be summoned if there was any doubt....

No wonder ambulance waiting times are going through the roof.

 

[Benjwri]

Putting just the name and a phone number of the A&E is fairly useless anyways, which I assume is why it hasn’t been updated. The name won’t help you find it, and any sat nav will have the location of a hospital. The phone number of the A&E is also fairly useless. The correct thing, as many have mentioned, is to call 111 or 999 if you need to call for advice, A&Es are far too busy to handle calls.

 

[zwk500]

Putting just the name and a phone number of the A&E is fairly useless anyways, which I assume is why it hasn’t been updated. The name won’t help you find it, and any sat nav will have the location of a hospital. The phone number of the A&E is also fairly useless. The correct thing, as many have mentioned, is to call 111 or 999 if you need to call for advice, A&Es are far too busy to handle calls.

Although in my experience 111 are fairly useless, and simply talk you through the online survey anyway. I'd use the 111 website unless it's clearly a 999 matter. The number of times I've gone through 111 either way (various bumps and scrapes from things like Rugby and falling off bikes) and they've advised me to make my own way to A&E, leading to me wasting hours in low-to-moderate pain as I'm clearly bottom of the priority list, only to be told to be careful, take ibuprofen and give my GP a ring if it doesn't get better in a couple of days.

 

[Benjwri]

Although in my experience 111 are fairly useless, and simply talk you through the online survey anyway. I'd use the 111 website unless it's clearly a 999 matter. The number of times I've gone through 111 either way (various bumps and scrapes from things like Rugby and falling off bikes) and they've advised me to make my own way to A&E, leading to me wasting hours in low-to-moderate pain as I'm clearly bottom of the priority list, only to be told to be careful, take ibuprofen and give my GP a ring if it doesn't get better in a couple of days.

Yes I agree 111 are particularly useless, however can be useful as they have access to wait times and could advise between 2 close A&E's where one has a significantly longer wait. As you say they just follow a flow chart and aren't medically trained, but it's a useful way to find an A&E for those who can't use a mobile device.

 

[zwk500]

Yes I agree 111 are particularly useless, however can be useful as they have access to wait times and could advise between 2 close A&E's where one has a significantly longer wait. As you say they just follow a flow chart and aren't medically trained, but it's a useful way to find an A&E for those who can't use a mobile device.

Fair enough.

 

[alxndr]

Although in my experience 111 are fairly useless, and simply talk you through the online survey anyway. I'd use the 111 website unless it's clearly a 999 matter.

I could be wrong and just not delved deep enough into the website, but as far as I know there's no Scottish equivalent of the NHS 111 Online survey that England has. I think there might be an app, but can't be bothered to download it to find out.

Not used NHS24 for accidents or injuries yet, but they have been more useful for my partner in providing an emergency prescription than NHS Direct was when they were down south.

 

[zwk500]

I could be wrong and just not delved deep enough into the website, but as far as I know there's no Scottish equivalent of the NHS 111 Online survey that England has. I think there might be an app, but can't be bothered to download it to find out.

Not used NHS24 for accidents or injuries yet, but they have been more useful for my partner in providing an emergency prescription than NHS Direct was when they were down south.

I mean, you can always answer the English survey to find out whether it's a matter for further treatment. Will be interesting to see how some of these services have changed when I get back to the UK, especially post-covid.

 

[alxndr]

I mean, you can always answer the English survey to find out whether it's a matter for further treatment. Will be interesting to see how some of these services have changed when I get back to the UK, especially post-covid.

Provided know, or think to look up, an English postcode you could. It will give you an idea of the type of facility you might need, but obviously won’t give local details of where to actually go.

Plus, if you search “NHS24” as I suspect most Scottish people would because that’s the name for the service you get if you call 111 in Scotland, NHS 111 online doesn’t come up. I don’t know how well known it is here that there is such a webservice in England.

 

[XAM2175]

Although in my experience 111 are fairly useless, and simply talk you through the online survey anyway.

Yes I agree 111 are particularly useless, however can be useful as they have access to wait times and could advise between 2 close A&E's where one has a significantly longer wait.

I could be wrong and just not delved deep enough into the website, but as far as I know there's no Scottish equivalent of the NHS 111 Online survey that England has.

NHS Scotland does publish "self-help guides", but calling 111 will get you a consultation with a clinician. There's a little walkthrough for it here, should you remain curious:

When to phone 111 | NHS 24

The 111 service provides urgent care triage if you think you need A&E but its not life-threatening, and advice when your GP, pharmacy or dental practice is...

www.nhs24.scot

They've been very helpful both times I've needed assistance out of hours.

Nevertheless I do see the point that a phone number of any sort isn't going to be all that helpful at an access point.

 

[Benjwri]

but calling 111 will get you a consultation with a clinician.

It should be made quite clear that 111 operators, and 999 operators these days, are not medically trained, and definitely not clinicians. Especially 111 is known to be famously useless in the NHS, just following a flow chart, which in recent years has had a similar version made public in England to reduce the burden on 111.

111 might organise a callback from a nurse/doctor out of hours, but they themselves are not clinicians.

 

[John Webb]

It should be made quite clear that 111 operators, and 999 operators these days, are not medically trained, and definitely not clinicians. Especially 111 is known to be famously useless in the NHS, just following a flow chart, which in recent years has had a similar version made public in England to reduce the burden on 111.

111 might organise a callback from a nurse/doctor out of hours, but they themselves are not clinicians.

I recently called 111 regarding chest pains, having had a heart attack in 2021. Spoke for about 30 minutes to the initial operator, she then got a Clinician attached to the 111 service to call me back. The Clinician after 15 minutes said she was calling an ambulance and it was on the doorstep ten minutes later. They took me off to a local A&E who did bloods and ECGs and who concluded it was muscle strain rather than anything else. Probably from doing the first mow of the lawn a couple of days previously! But I thought the system worked very well on this occasion.

 

[Benjwri]

I recently called 111 regarding chest pains, having had a heart attack in 2021. Spoke for about 30 minutes to the initial operator, she then got a Clinician attached to the 111 service to call me back. The Clinician after 15 minutes said she was calling an ambulance and it was on the doorstep ten minutes later. They took me off to a local A&E who did bloods and ECGs and who concluded it was muscle strain rather than anything else. Probably from doing the first mow of the lawn a couple of days previously! But I thought the system worked very well on this occasion.

I can’t really

I recently called 111 regarding chest pains, having had a heart attack in 2021. Spoke for about 30 minutes to the initial operator, she then got a Clinician attached to the 111 service to call me back. The Clinician after 15 minutes said she was calling an ambulance and it was on the doorstep ten minutes later. They took me off to a local A&E who did bloods and ECGs and who concluded it was muscle strain rather than anything else. Probably from doing the first mow of the lawn a couple of days previously! But I thought the system worked very well on this occasion.

This should probably have been a 999 call anyways, but this is actually an example of the system failing you. Even moderate chest pain with a history of heart attacks should be an immediate ambulance. The 111 operator scheduling you for a clinician was hugely dangerous as the wait time can be 24 hours sometimes.

There are huge queues for ambulances, and have been since Covid. How quickly you get one depends how serious your issue is. That you got one in 10 minutes should tell you how serious they thought your condition was.

 

[PeterC]

The one time that I called 111 I was transferred ro a nurse fairly rapidly and then had a callback from a doctor.

Our nearest minor injuries unit now has a sign on the door saying that you must first call 111 for a referral.

 

[olddriver]

111 might organise a callback from a nurse/doctor out of hours, but they themselves are not clinicians.

It might be different in England but in Scotland, NHS 24 (111) directly employ a number of clinicians, including nurses, mental health nurses, and pharmacists.