To share ways to make A&E more bareable

111 sent a blue light ambulance out for my daughter when she was 5 months old, caught the flu off me & developed bronchiolitis. The PARAMEDICS encouraged me to throw some stuff in a bag & they watched her whilst I ran upstairs & whatnot.

@silvershark22 Nope it’s in the US in a midsized city. Think Liverpool or Glasgow sized.

Thanks were glad it resolved itself and wasn’t kidney stones!

There are some very condescending replies here. Due to a genetic disorder I've had numerous hemmhorages requiring transfusion, and undiagnosed (until attending hospital) proximal DVTs. They are life threatening emergencies. I can still pack a bag. Yes, they can and do leave you 12 hours because you can sit breathless on a chair without causing any fuss. No, it is not like trip to the theme park and no, we don't treat it like one. How many times am I going to A&E? All the time - because the NHS don't have anything else in place to keep me alive, and no private health care will accept a sick patient. Think yourself lucky if you don't understand.

My GP sent me to the Emergency Department (as they now like to call A&E around here) - and I waited 24 hours in a corridor on a trolly with no blanket or pillow to be admitted with a suspected stroke- in two different EDs (the first one closed at 8pm).

In similar circumstances (which please God will never happen 🙏🏻 ) I would bring a blanket & pillow with me.

@listsandbudgets sorry I didn't mean to quote you, it was another poster...but I managed to grab you by mistake

I do agree with layers. A&E's are freezing and then the back rooms could be anyone's guess

This is rubbish.
I like many are A&E frequent fliers as the NHS system has no where else to put us.
I have a very rare autoimmune disease and am very immunosuppresed.
If I get an infection that lingers eg a chest cold that lasts over 5 days, a UTI with fever or as I often get back to back UTIs I'm sent to A&E.

I've heard from other patients like me in other areas they will have ward access for bloods etc.
I don't so I've to go to A&E for a usual very long wait as fairly I'm at the bottom of the queue for a simple blood test.

So I take my time to pack my bag to make my wait more comfortable.

Last time at the beginning of July I waited 23 hours for the bloods to be taken, 3 more hours for the results to come back and then admitted for 6 days for high dose steroids and IV antibiotics.

Looking at me sitting there for over a day, reading my kindle app, wearing a dryrobe to keep warm and cosy, in the "best seat" in the waiting room - beside the sockets, away from the toilets and in shelter from the doors. With my feet resting on a stuffed bag - 2x waterbottles, 1 sheet of each of my meds, pj's, changes of underwear, bed socks, washbag, notebook and pen. I look like a total fraud...if I was actually sick would I be there for 26 hours?

Lots of these replies are again MN at its best, clamouring into a conversation to show off about how little they know about something.

Nope no history.

It ended up being not kidney stones and not a UTI. A weird blood clot was found on the ultrasound that was a result of his vasectomy, but that was not the issue.

He was sent home with pain meds (gabapenton(sp)) and a follow up with the dr that did the vasectomy 2 days later. The next day he passed ‘something’ that wasn’t a kidney stone but wasn’t nothing either. (He described it as a gelatinous cloudy blob that was in a starfish shape). I guess he about hit the deck as it passed but once out he was 100% better.

His doctor the next day was a little confused at the description of what passed but assured him the blood clot they found was nothing to worry about. That it was normal and after the snip there was no place for it to go.

Nothing since 🤷‍♀️ Everyone including his dr thinks it was probably related to the vasectomy.

I can think of better ways spend a Sunday morning, but he was in a room in the ER before I could hand off the car to the valet. So I can’t complain about the wait. I think the longest wait was after the ultrasound and before speaking with the on-call urologist.

One thing our ER does to keep beds turning over is they have what I’ll call side rooms that they use. It’s for people who are either waiting to be admitted or those they don’t want to discharge right away but may not be admitted.

My neighbor who was having TIAs spent the night in one. Same level of care that he would get after being admitted but without all of the fuss of being admitted. Also freed up the ER exam room for other patients. In his case they wanted to make sure the TIAs were done as it appeared they had finished so that meant a couple of CAT scans at regular intervals over a period of time.

Pics below are the exam rooms in the ER, which I’ll admit are a little nicer than most (they’re nicer than the picture, TV and a comfortable chair for visitors). Some do still have the bays with curtains but those are being phased out as hospitals renovate.

I got wrong streamed when I went in with a kidney stone. After crying for 3 hours they finally realised and moved me from walk in centre queue!

I’ve never waited more than 15 mins but all my admissions have been with acute pancreatitis so it’s probably up there with priority to be seen, and I never make it out of triage back to the waiting room. Waited a couple of hours with DC but never anywhere near 12hrs. Went to get my arm checked out at local minor injuries today after a fall and thankfully was in and out in an hour

When I went in with kidney stones I got given an anti emetic and told I'd pulled a muscle in my neck and sent home.

12 hours later I was back and they were like "well obviously it's kidney stones why didn't you come earlier?"

Well of course it’s the wait time to be seen and assessment. And yes you do get a bed while you’re waiting for tests and results.

The last time I went to the ER was with my husband for a suspected kidney stone it was a couple of months ago. He checked in and was immediately brought back to triage and went straight from triage into an ER room/bed. We were there for about 3 hours for ultrasounds etc.

@cornucopiaoflove I too have spent many many hours in waiting rooms between seizures! I once face planted a pool of vomit (not even mine!) which was pleasant I'm used to this after years of it but ironically I was recently accompanied by a family member who works in this area of NHS who said I should have always been classed as a "falls/injury risk" (?) and always should have been put on a rails up trolley/bed under supervision. Funnily enough when she took me to A and E this actually happened for the first time! Apparently I should have been put into minors (it was just a broken bone) with the cubicle door sheet open, but as they didn't have a free cubicle I was in the corridor. I didn't give a fuck as I was so very grateful not to be on a chair - it's awful that our bar is so low isn't it!? All I have been offered by receptionists in the past, even post waiting room seizures, is a wheelchair rather than a waiting room seat but NHS relative said wheelchairs are considered more risky than a seated chair?! So next time I, or whoever takes me, will be asking for a trolley at triage!

@RobynsMama it's very interesting to hear from an experienced professional viewpoint on the thread. I'd be interested in your opinion on trolleys for epileptic patients! Firstly though, thank you as it's a fucking hard area to work in - sometimes I read "NHS staff member was rude to me" type threads and think I would have told them to fuck off, and the staff member involved sounded like an angel Some of the patient behaviour I have witnessed has been horrific. I think a lack of security staff can be as bad as a lack of clinical staff. A patient (and this wasn't A and E) punched my DD - they should have been having 2 to 1 care but of course there wasn't enough staff, and security took forever to come from the other end of the hospital. Two strong HCAs pinned him (and so many patients complained their call bells weren't being answered in the meantime of course!) Your comment about hoists is also interesting, a lot of wards where DD has worked haven't had enough hoists and expect manual handling instead from staff - DD is 7.5 stone and five foot!

(After the inside advice, I also now take in boxes of pens as thank yous rather than chocolates/biscuits as they are apparently more appreciated, and can be used by everyone! I also take two boxes so night staff don't miss out )

Re meds, I have a dosette with a daily box marked with the day and four compartments divided into times. This goes in my Proper Hospital Bag but I also keep two duplicate days boxes in my Outside Home Handbag. All my meds are listed in my NHS records but staff seem to find it much easier and quicker to see the green prescription paper slip so I take that too. There is no way I would expect A and E to stock them as a few are very niche and hard enough for chemists to obtain with plenty of notice. I genuinely had no idea that some people expect A and E to keep and dispense every single patients already prescribed usual medication!

That's like saying if you haven't called an ambulance you probably don't need to be at A&E. Because surely if it's emergency you call an ambulance?

If you've got time to charge your devices before leaving then you probably dont need to be at A and E. I agree though it's nicer if they are.

Mine is wear layers.. a and e seeks to verge between icy and boiling

Some breathtakingly naive posts here, from people who have been lucky enough to not have to go to A&E for many years.

About six months ago I lost my vision while I was out at the shops- everything went dark and I was totally blind. I went to A&E where the triage nurse thought I might have had a stroke- I had to then wait in A&E for 14 hours for an MRI, totally blind the entire time. I was incredibly scared.

The NHS is on its knees, if you haven’t experienced that yet then you are very lucky.

That must be the wait till the initial assessment though. After that there can be lots more waiting for tests and tests results and you aren't always going to get a bed while waiting