To wonder why A&E seems to be designed to be the worst possible place you could possibly be when ill?

This is what I was going to say. When I’ve taken one of my kids to A&E I’ve encountered entire family groups - like 3 or 4 adults accompanying one elderly person - taking over multiple seats and having loud phone conversations.

I had to take my DD to the fracture clinic to have her temporary cast replaced and it was super busy. I sat on the floor with DD in my lap but there were multiple able bodied people sitting in chairs while people on crutches with broken legs had nowhere to sit. A staff member had to come and tell them to move! I just cannot fathom it.

If the chairs were comfy or there was somewhere you could lie down it would probably be even worse.

Absolutely this. It's not a bloody family outing.

I have some knowledge oh hospital design and a lot of it is to do with infection control but we now have no personal check in, lines of people at iPads and a lot of people can't use them
So it just takes lingering and the screens must be a germ fest.

Write it on a piece of paper and slide it across the desk.

It's really crap going to the chemist for lots of reasons. Mine at least is usually empty.

I always thought they were designed to make you not want to go in, thus avoiding being a burden on the DNHS

@saltinesandcoffeecups Level 1 trauma is like our A and Es with the range of services offered. I know those centres in the US have a high number of patients who can not pay their medical bills. Many are left financially destitute as a result.

A couple of months ago, bad fall in the garden, on concrete, cut knee open, (looked like an open mouth!) extreme pain, lots of blood. Waited 6 hours in A&E, blood dripping on their clean floor. Nowhere to elevate it without spoiling their lovely new upholstered chairs, under the sign that said "Do not put feet on the Chairs".

YANBU

I had to go in for a mental health crisis, I was in obvious distress but had to announce my reason for being there in front of a waiting room full of people. I live in a very small town and whilst there shouldn't be a stigma when it comes to mental health issues there very much still is, I can only imagine I was the talk of the town the following day thanks to local gossipy twats. Great for my mental health that is!

I’m storing up this idea for next time one of us needs A&E and it’s unavoidable, God forbid.

Perfect!

If someone had been tasked with coming up with the most unpleasant environment possible, that is guaranteed to make sick and injured people feel as worse as they possibly could, deprive them of any possible comfort and prevent any healing, then they’d come up with something remarkably similar to an NHS A&E waiting area.

DD9 very ill with pneumonia recently, when told we would need to take her to A&E: ‘noooo, I’ll be so much iller once they make me wait on the uncomfortable chairs for 5 hours!’. This from someone so unwell she’s been sleeping on the sofa all afternoon and had cried from fatigue and pain when she’d had to walk more than a few paces. At 9, she’s already sussed that this is a shit set up that doesn’t take into account the needs of the patient.

It was Calais

and the staff were speaking to me in fluent English

It’s the only level 1 trauma center in the county, You go there with insurance or not.

My insurance policy doesn’t say I have to go to urgent care first.

It sounds like it would be quicker people in the south of England to get on the Eurostar, be treated in a French A&E and home in time for supper and a good nights sleep!

@MikeRafone that is what it was like in the UK before the conservatives destroyed the NHS.

Oh @CatMum10 big hugs. 🤗

I was treated in French A&E and it was fast, excellent and €80 euros but as I had my ehic it was € 20 not worth claiming on insurance

bright lights, plastic chairs

but not busy and in and out in 90minutes

Appalling treatment.

So you are supposed to be an urgent case to visit A&E, but not so urgent that you can't sit or stand.

It beggars belief.

In my local A&E you enter at one end of a long thin room/waiting area. All the seats face the way you come in, so everyone already waiting is watching you as you queue to give your details to the reception team. The drs/triage nurse calls you from the other end (which you are facing away from) so you are constantly turning around if you hear a noise to see if it's your name being called.
It's completely ridiculous as just changing the direction of the chairs would increase privacy for those arriving and be more accessible for those waiting.
Other issue is x-ray is long walk across the hospital. I went in to rule out a possible ankle fracture and had to hobble across the hospital site to get my x-ray, then back to a&e to wait again.
Agree it's probably to make the experience less appealing for those who don't really need to be there...

Just to say as a nurse, we have zero input with these things. I've also found it demoralising and embarrassing to explain in front of a room full of people as to why I'm in A&E. Chairs (If you can get one) are terribly uncomfortable. My trust have introduced portable drug trolleys, with computerised medication charts. they are absolutely not user friendly. We were never consulted about them, just thrown at us as 'progress'

If you can afford the top hospitals in the US, the care is very good.
Many insurance policies say you have to go to urgent care first, more like our minor injuries unit.

As a wheelchair user with bladder problems and a history of hemmorages and recurring DVTs I agree.

My chair won't go in an ambulance. I was taken in once when I lost a lot of blood. I couldn't use the toilet for 8 hours as I was dumped on an immovable metal chair with no staff around to help. I was told to pee myself if I didn't like it. It was fine because there was no water to drink anyway.

When I did take my chair I realised it was overnight and there was nowhere to charge it while I waited 14hrs. I always charge it at night at home. The next day I couldn't get home as it was flat. I'd had to keep moving around the fixed metal seating area as they hadn't left any space at all for a wheelchair user and a senior nurse kept coming out and shouting at me wherever I went as the edges of the room had to be kept clear. Where was I meant to go? One time she shouted me away from a door to a broom cupboard then came out of her office with an A4 sheet saying no wheelchairs in front of this door and stuck it above my head.

Another time, I collapsed from breathlessness from a proximal DVT and was taken by ambulance. They gave me one of the porter's chairs to sit in. The leg risers were all broken so I couldn't raise the leg with the clots in the thigh, as per their own advice.

The bins are all foot operated so I can't use any of them. I hate going and despise my body for making me need to go there so many times in my lifetime. I understand why people develop a phobia because the thought of needing to go to a&e again puts me on edge. It feels almost hostile.

Both my son and husband have been through our local a and e in the last couple of months . Both had a wait of 24 hours plus as we have this ward where they shove you if they don’t have room in wards . However it’s the same upright uncomfortable chairs !! Son ended up in hospital for 3 weeks so was rather poorly . My husband had an infected gall bladder that led to sepsis while waiting when it ruptured . He then spent about 2 weeks as an impairment while they sorted out the sepsis . That was in July we don’t have an appointment to see a surgeon to take it out until September. So he regularly has to go back to a and e when it gets worse agin !!!!! How does that make sense ??? Oh and 2 days after discharge our gp discovered he had dvt . You cannot make up how shit it is