Poetry in A&E
A poem exploring A&E waiting times, NHS pressures and healthcare inequalities through patients’ experiences.
What does it feel like to spend hours in A&E, waiting for someone to help you or a person you love?
Long waits, crowded corridors and exhausted staff doing their best under enormous pressure. For patients and their loved ones, a visit to Accident and Emergency can be filled with uncertainty, frustration and moments of unexpected kindness.
In Poetry in A&E, poet Sarah Lasoye takes us inside an A&E waiting room, capturing the experiences of people caught in an overstretched healthcare system. Through powerful poetry and a carefully crafted soundscape mixed by Kitty Turner, the piece explores the emotional toll of waiting for care, the pressures facing healthcare workers and the people who depend on them.
The poem forms part of a Festival of the Mind exhibition inspired by University of Sheffield researcher Dr Joanna Sutton-Klein's work into systemic healthcare inequalities in Accident and Emergency departments. Working with Sarah Lasoye and Sheffield residents, the project uses poetry to bring personal experiences of emergency healthcare to life.
Listen to and experience A&E from a different perspective, where every hour matters and every person has a story worth hearing.
Credits
- Research: Dr. Joanna Sutton-Klein
- Poet: Sarah Lasoye
- Audio Production: Kitty Turner
Attributions:
- footsteps down long Victorian hospital corridor by odilonmarcenaro — https://freesound.org/s/274984/ — License: Attribution 4.0
- Hospital sounds 5.wav by ERH — https://freesound.org/s/69192/ — License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0
- Hospital Sliding Door Open & Close with general ambiance v1 by Sagnik_Basu — https://freesound.org/s/398869/ — License: Creative Commons 0
- Hospital by thef1like — https://freesound.org/s/412933/ — License: Attribution NonCommercial 3.0
