Doncaster Online,
your ‘one stop shop’ for everything Doncaster
All your news, views, businesses, events and much more – at the touch of a button and through your letterbox in the monthly magazine – and best of all, it’s FREE!
Your ‘one stop shop’ for everything Doncaster View online now
From Monday 7 December, a new ‘self-service’ system will be in place in the emergency departments at Doncaster Royal Infirmary and Bassetlaw Hospital as clinicians work to improve the sign-in process within the area and reduce overcrowding in waiting rooms.
The new self-service tool will help reception staff triage patients as they arrive into the emergency department and will allow some to check their symptoms themselves using a digital station, before offering advice on what to do next.
Patients are advised to present directly reception if you are having severe difficulty breathing, heavy bleeding, sudden rapid swelling of the eyes, mouth or throat or you feel like you are about to collapse.
All other patients will be asked to use the self-service system to input their symptoms. Based on the information you provide, you might be asked to wait in the emergency department or be directed to the most appropriate service such as an urgent treatment centre or a community service.
Support will be on-hand within the waiting room for those who are struggling to answer the questions on the self-service tool and for those who need extra support with reading.
The new system will help to reduce the number of visits where a patient’s symptoms could be treated elsewhere without a wait in the emergency department, and therefore ensure patients are treated in the right place at the right time. The information you provide will also be available to clinicians within the department so you’ll only need to tell us about your symptoms once.
Andrea Squires, Divisional Director of Operations for Urgent and Emergency Care at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals, said: “This new technological solution will help us to reduce the number of people we have waiting in our Emergency Department at any one time. This means the most appropriate care will be provided in the most appropriate place for everyone who attends and helps us to safeguard our emergency services for those who need the most urgent medical attention. Those attending the emergency department will also have a better, more efficient experience as they will be able to input their details and their symptoms as soon as they arrive and these will be available to all the clinicians.”
You can help to reduce the pressure on local emergency departments by choosing the right health service for you: