Emergency Department (ED)

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About this service

The Emergency Department (ED) is open 24 hours a day for the treatment of serious and potentially life threatening conditions. We also have an Urgent Care Centre at West Cornwall Hospital in Penzance.

ED is an area primarily used for the stabilisation of very unwell patients. These patients will be referred on to an appropriate specialty team within the hospital for onward care or receive treatment, ensuring they are ‘medically fit’ for discharge home.

If you are attending ED or bringing someone here, please come straight to reception and our trained team will take your details and make sure you end up in the right place.

Patients who attend ED will arrive through one of two areas:

• Patients who self-present will do so at what we call the ‘walk-in’ entrance (or the Minor Injuries area).
• Patients brought in by ambulance, will enter through the ‘ambulance arrival’ entrance – also known as the Rapid Triage and Assessment Area (RATS, for short).

Once booked onto our tracking system by our trained reception staff, patients will be treated in any and all available areas of the department – to improve efficiency within our ED. Please note that if there are several very unwell patients present in the department, this will undoubtedly affect waiting times for all, as the focus of our senior clinicians will likely be fixed on these patients.

There are specified sections of ED, which are denoted as follows:

• Minors: Minor Injuries area.
• Majors: Major Injuries area, side 1 and 2. Patients who are seriously ill with conditions such as chest pain, difficulty breathing, and neurological complaints are likely to be situated here following triage.
• Paeds: Paediatric area for children and their families. A separate waiting room is used in this area.
• Resus: Resuscitation room, an area specifically for our critically ill or injured patients.
• Main Corridor: A clinically-appropriate area for patients to be cared for, in times of extreme operational pressure.

Stages of an ED attendance

Attendance via ambulance:

• Arrival with paramedics, who will then perform a handover to the ED triage nurse.
• Rapid assessment to be performed.
• You may be allocated a space in any of the following three areas (Resuscitation, Major Injuries, or Minors Injuries).
• You will, after an appropriate period, either be discharged from ED, or admitted to a ward elsewhere in the hospital (under the appropriate specialty team).

Attendance via walk-in:

• Our receptionist will check you in. They will need to ask you some personal information and about why you are here today.
• You will be called by the Minors’ Triage nurse in order of priority – this nurse will assess the urgency of your injury or illness.
• You may be allocated a space in any of the following three areas (Resuscitation, Major Injuries, or Minors Injuries), or even be asked to attend another provider more suitable to meet your care needs (e.g. 111, GP, MIU, Pharmacy, Dentist).
• You will, after an appropriate period, either be discharged from ED, or admitted to a ward elsewhere in the hospital (under the appropriate specialty team).

Contact information

• Telephone: 01872 253 111 or 01872 253 113
  If you know the number you wish to call for a specific area within ED – please use this. If you do not, and only if you are calling regarding a patient who is currently being cared for by us, please use the above numbers and a receptionist will vet your call, directing your call through to the relevant area.
• Email: rch-tr.EmergencyDept@nhs.net

Where to find us

The Emergency Department is located at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro. The Emergency Department is on the right-hand side of the Trelawny Wing but it has its own entrance, so when you arrive at the hospital site, follow the signs for the Emergency Department (which are highlighted in red).

There are a few short stay spaces outside the Emergency Department, and you can drop people off outside, but please don’t stop in the hatched area directly in front or block access for ambulances.

Patient taxi and transport information

The Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust has no legal obligation to provide paid taxi services to any patient, especially those who are medically and / or financially able to obtain other means of transport.

The Trust can provide a bus ticket to appropriate, discharged patients, which will enable the recipient to travel anywhere in Cornwall (single journey) free of charge.

A taxi may have been organised for you after a previous Emergency Department attendance, however this does not mean that you will be allowed one on this occasion. The costs incurred by numerous unnecessary taxi journeys in the past is something we are doing our utmost to reduce, so this money can be better spent elsewhere.

Feedback and queries

Whilst we strive to treat patients alongside our Trust values whilst in ED – Respect, Compassion, Honesty and Teamwork – we acknowledge that this doesn’t always happen. Oftentimes this is unavoidable, however if you ever have any feedback to give, or queries to make, there are two paths open to you.

Contact our Patient Experience team

• Phone: 01872 252 793
• Email: rcht.patientexperience@nhs.net
• Postal address: Patient Experience Team (Complaints), Clinical Governance Office, 2nd Floor Knowledge Spa, Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro, Cornwall, TR1 3LJ

Contact our ED Medical Secretaries team

If you have questions about ED documentation, referrals, or similar, our secretaries will do their best to resolve your query.

• Phone: 01872 252 452 or 01872 253 219
• Email: rcht.edsecretaries@nhs.net

Contact ED secretaries

If you have any queries post discharge, you can contact the ED Secretaries.

• Email: rcht.edsecretaries@nhs.net
• Phone: 01872 253219

Patient Information (Leaflets)

Click here for a list of our Patient Information Leaflets.