"Patient safe areas"

While I waited in ED for several hours as a category 2, I noticed some concerning issues. I believe there were 4 COVID positive patients in this time who presented to the department, the waiting times were in excess of 3 hours for category 2 patients. I recalled these COVID patients were asked to sit in the corridor until they could be seen. Meanwhile people were using the corridor as normal & I witnessed these patients coughing & removing their masks, patients were lying over 3 or 4 chairs with blankets n eating food & drink. I felt it was very inappropriate for this to happen as there was no cleaning done once these patients left. It seemed to me they were treating the corridor like a takeaway area.

On the same day, 3 mental health patients I believe, presented & asked to be checked in. 2 of them were clearly distressed based on my observations, making it very uncomfortable & unsafe for an already full waiting room, as well as themselves in my opinion. I feel there is no privacy in ED, I believe the whole room can hear what the person's symptoms are. At times the staff were too loud explaining what's wrong with patient etc. Perhaps in the future mh patients need to be able to access the unit itself rather than ed. In my opinion, the corridor is not the place for patients. I feel they should have been isolated immediately, until they can be accessed further. I'm concerned when an ambulance brings a patient into hospital, is it possible to do handover to an appropriate staff member trained in critical care for in all categories, so that the ambulance can leave? Is this why there's a bed problem? In my opinion, it would be a good decision to have the ED waiting room cleaned every 4 hours particularly the floors at least including the walkway at the ED entrance near the ambulance bay. It's littered with masks, takeaway food etc every day I feel. I understand the building works in place however the public temporary areas are disgraceful in my opinion.