"Waiting room and triage is unsafe"

I believe triage staff require further training, and the layout of the waiting and triage area raises safety concerns for both staff and patients.

On arrival, a patient was already being triaged, so I sat in the designated chair for “waiting to be triaged.” There is only one such chair, which quickly became an issue as more patients arrived. There is no clear system for queueing, which led to confusion about order of attendance.

A man who had arrived before me but was not seated in the designated area approached the triage window ahead of me when it became available. While he may have arrived earlier, this highlighted the lack of structure and visibility in the process.

His triage assessment took over 10 minutes. As a health professional myself, I understand triage is intended to be a rapid, focused assessment rather than a comprehensive evaluation. If additional time was required, I believe a second staff member should have been allocated to continue triaging other waiting patients. I attended during double staffing time so the availability of extra staff was less likely to be an issue. 

During this time, more patients arrived and approached the triage window, only to be redirected back to the waiting area. When the nurse became available, I approached but was abruptly told there was a queue and that another patient was ahead of me. I had to advocate for myself to clarify that I was next. The waiting area, including the designated triage chair, is not, as I understand it, visible to triage staff, which is concerning as it prevents visual assessment of waiting patients and contributes to confusion about order.

After triage, I was taken directly to a room, which was appropriate and appreciated given my ATS category. However, I observed that it took approximately 30 minutes to triage the next three patients who had arrived within a similar timeframe. In my experience, this delay is excessive and potentially unsafe. Any patient with a time-critical condition could experience significant and avoidable delays before even being assessed.

Overall, while I cannot fault the care I personally received, I believe the triage process and environment require review. In my opinion, improvements are needed in staff training, adherence to triage principles, primary assessment, queue management, and the physical layout to ensure visibility and patient safety