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

I very recently had to go to A&E four times until I was admitted with an abscess in my spine. I waited 10 hours for a bed and by the evening the security guards were dealing with rowdy family members who just wanted to fight and people who were completely inebriated. There were bodily fluids on the floor, rubbish and sick bowls. Honestly it was disgusting. The staff were too overwhelmed to do anything about it. It was a desperately sad state of affairs. There was also no where to sit. It was like an extremely busy bus shelter in the middle of London.

I had to take my young adult to A and E recently. They have "revamped" it and it did work better, albeit we still had long waits.

Initially you were in a triage area. From there you were allocated A and E or "urgent care" which was like a walk in centre I guess, with GPs. That got rid of a lot of the people with minor sprains, tonsillitis etc. They had a tracker who called people in groups through to urgent care or A and E, so it was never too packed in any one zone. The trackers also took roll calls intermittently - presumably to ensure no one had left or died waiting (sadly not joking).

This was way better than everyone packed into one space like last time I went.

@Rocksaltrita ours has kiddie murals, even in the teen wards where everyone is there for overdoses or eating disorders, it's very childish! The staff are great though.

I notice the staff are very good in most places, but the places themselves are not very well-designed.

I agree, I have collapsed off a chair in A and E more than once, it's so silly when some people will be fainting/collapsing, I saw a man with a bad head injury collapse and hurt himself further, it's not a good place for the quite ill at all, ideally the severely ill go straight through but at ours pretty much everyone ends up in triage even if they are practically dying, unless they are unconscious.

There's also no pain meds, so you sit there with your broken body part getting more and more swollen, potentially moving it about to go to the loo, getting no pain relief and worsening it, I've wondered if a long wait injured me further.

Ours is pretty good once you get going, the triage is efficient, there is a GP for minor issues, and the A and E staff themselves are great, it's just the initial waiting area that is so awful.

As a nurse in a&e I completely agree, especially about the triage nurse and privacy aspect. I find it so awful that women are telling me they are miscarrying through a screen or that a whole waiting area knows someone has a massive anal cyst. We have brought this up NUMEROUS times and nothing changes. Chairs are shit aswell.

I now have a "hospital" pillow that I take in to a&e with me. It gets hot washed and then put back ready for next trip. I don't like going in, but the joys of being very poorly means I'm there regularly. I have a go bag with essentials and also a large jumper I can unzip to use as a blanket, and my hospital pillow to make the chair more comfortable until I get a trolley.

I assumed it was partly to keep you awake to hear your name being called (and because it is hard to instantly distinguish someone having a nap from boredom from someone dying).

Wow you are so right, I had never considered this before but why on earth are they so badly designed?

I once had to wait 8 hours with my finger hanging off, blood all over my arm and legs, just holding it up with a bandage from home wrapped round while blood seeped out. I fell asleep at one point and woke up with blood all over my face where I'd been holding my hand against my cheek.

All so unhygienic. I could have had any disease for all people knew.

Mostly infection control.

There are many poorly and injured people in A&E.

Just think of the amount of bloody fluids that those surfaces get covered in: blood, vomit, piss, shit, pus, discharge, skin.

The more equipment/furniture you have, the more difficult it is to clean properly.

I used to work in a kid's hospital, and often thought the same.
The A&E was small, but when you have an ill child... then the whole family comes, including their siblings. They are racing about and playing on the toys that are everywhere anyway, whilst the ill child is being soothed by a parent on the edge of a tiny plastic chair.

The standing in a queue to check in at A&E has worked in my favour twice due to my bodies inability to stay conscious whilst unwell or in severe pain. I have fainted in the A&E queue twice once with kidney stones and once with a broken and dislocated elbow and manged to get fast tracked to a trolley. Admittedly a trolley in a corridor but definitely more comfortable than an A&E chair. Its the multiple accompanying people that I don't understand. 1 person for company but the whole family?! Who wants to sit in A&E voluntarily!

I lay on a trolly all night in A&E having been brought there from a part time A&E by ambulance when it was closing for the evening (8pm). I was sent to the first (part-time) A&E by my GP that morning.

So In the overnight A&E I had a trolly to lie on in a busy cortidor but no blanket or pillow. Apparently there were none to be had. When I was finally admitted to a ward later in the morning (more than 24 hours after my GP sent me to the first A&E) and saw a bed with pillows and a blanket I cried.

I had a suspected stroke & was in hospital for a week. Still upsets me thinking about it.

Agree. The standing thing to check in. I was in a line of about 10 people. Women of 80+ crawling on the floor because they couldn't stand. People leaning against walls to get a breath.

Then the very very quiet calling of names "mr mumble?" Said at the level of a mouse whisper. Mr mumble can't hear it so waits another 4 hours before asking why he hasn't been called yet.

A&E here is weird. One person at the desk, next couple of people are in-between the entry doors and everyone else outside. Then you go right to the bottom of the corridor to turn around and queue to go back the way you came to speak to someone else, then back right again to wait for someone to take you all the way left past the initial reception (while everyone queuing has to let you through) it's such a poor design and winds me up so much

It’s like the children’s wards at our local hospital. Talk about migraine inducing! It’s like someone thought - yeah - kids - primary colours!!! and went all out on the bright red and yellow. The least relaxing environment you could imagine and must be doubly awful if you’re ND. Neve going to make anyone feel better or less anxious about why they’re there 🤯

It might be more spacious with more free seating if five relatives didn't also attend, with one sick relative, all taking seats, while sick people stand, or sit on the floor.
Also, with regard seating and leg injuries, my local A&E had some wheelchairs you can use parked at the entrance.

My experience is that clinical staff are not consulted either. I got banned from planning meetings for pointing out major issues with proposed plans. I'm a hospital consultant.

I have recently spent 3 spells of over 12 hours in A&E (heart problem) and it truly is hell. The basic problem is that the place was designed for about a quarter of the patients who are there. All the cubicles have been divided in two with screens to provide more space; the corridors are full of trolleys and people sleeping on the floor; there is no privacy - I knew all about the bowel movements and sex lives of several people around me; and I waited hours before seeing a doctor in spite of the fact that I was in the throes of a heart attack.

To put you off going I reckon. I was pretty unwell over a weekend a couple of months ago and probably should have gone, I spent the weekend crying in severe pain and unable to walk in preference to going