Need a virtual hand hold , husband vomiting blood

Actually my ‘period pain’ was a ruptured ovarian cyst which required emergency surgery hours at arriving at A&E.

I have no idea @diddl - perhaps she told them she had suspected cytotoxic poisoning? He also recalls someone with a blocked nose (i.e. a cold) being brought in as "struggling to breathe" and a rather chubby, post-prandial bloke, belching like Henry VIII at a feast, chomping Rennies, who'd reported "chest pain". One woman whose acrylic nail had bent in half, causing a bleeding nail bed, was happy to wait 12 hours or so for a Band Aid. People are stark raving bollocking mad.

There needs to be more, and better, triage imo. Those who actually need primary care should be redirected by the ambulance service, or when they get to A&E. At the same time, we somehow need to make the GP service less shite.

That’s so terrible 😟

had a patient who was blue lighted in after giving someone a blowjob. She had since found out the recipient of her affections was on chemo and was having the screaming abdabs about her hair falling out.

So who thought that she needed an ambulance & why?

Calling an ambulance for a sore vagina after having exuberant sex is not called for!

I can beat that - my DH (when SHO years ago) had a patient who was blue lighted in after giving someone a blowjob. She had since found out the recipient of her affections was on chemo and was having the screaming abdabs about her hair falling out.

However, the fact that some people are terminally stupid pondlife does not excuse the state of the NHS for the rest of us. The fact that there is no bed for the OP's DH is not her problem to solve and certainly does not excuse discharging anyone without proper investigations, never mind treatment. Isn't this why so-called bed managers are needed?

Incidentally, I went to my local Spire hospital yesterday and it was packed to the rafters - so either the NHS is sorting its shit out by subcontracting to the private sector, or people are voting with their feet. Either makes me uncomfortable - if the realpolitik is that we need insurance in order to receive proper healthcare in the UK, then let's regulate the shit out of the insurance companies and their policies to ensure people can get adequate cover and are treated fairly, without profiteering. We are heading for the worst of all worlds at the moment - terrible socialised care that actively harms people by rationing (like communist Russia) or self-pay/insurance (like the US) BUT with the added disadvantage of a private sector that prefers ingrown toenails to cardiac care, and can self-select its patients.

My DF was vomiting up what looked like coffee grounds. Paramedics thought it could be blood from a possible ruptured ulcer. The doctor in A+E thought the same thing. He had a camera inserted almost immediately and possible surgery being arranged. Turned out it wasn’t blood at all. He had a blocked bowel so it was actually fecal matter back flowing from the point of his blockage. He had a naso-gastric tube inserted which continued to drain his stomach over a few days.

From memory she waited 12 hours to tell us her vag was sore!

What is A+E Triage for? Is it useless, do 999 call handlers triage and direct ambulances to the most critical cases?

Nothing's going to stop idiots from clogging up the waiting areas in A+E, but if they have to wait for two days for their sore vag or hangover head, they might just go home or something.

What are the readmission statistics?

We are sending people home from ICU as there are no beds on the wards due to social issue and an aging population

But that’s my point - he wasn’t given a bed because there aren’t any.

Which is shocking but also making the situation worse.

Instead of treating and discharging, people get sent home, only for them to get worse and need to use more time and resources coming back in a worse state.

Get off that horse @Horserider5678 . I was a senior nurse in A&E for many years so have seen many many gastric bleeds. I wasn’t commenting on anything other than the fact that coffee grounds vomit is digested blood. And it is, no matter what you think you know.

Pray tell where this bed is that he should be given??

It is also caused by people going who have no common sense and would be better of taking 2 paracetomol!

Have I sat in A&E recently, as a patient no, as a nurse working there yes!

Calling an ambulance for a sore vagina after having exuberant sex is not called for! Neither is asking for a CT scan for period pains.

Please push for a CT scan. It could be a bowel obstruction

Get a big tub of Vaseline and tell DH to keep using it on his anus.

Someone told me this trick when I got a tear and it was so painful.

I assume if he does manage to pass his poo naturally then it might be quite painful and so Vaseline will help things slide out easier and tear less.

I’m really fed up with the state of our A&Es/NHS.

Someone like this should immediately be given a bed and given tests and treatment until they are better and then sent home.

He isn’t being discharged because he’s better, they are just delaying things.

Fobbing people off isn’t solving the problem.
Its worsening the situation, costing the NHS more money and putting an extra strain on services.

Last time I rang 111 (because I couldn’t get a gp appointment) it took 26 hours for a doctor to call me back (I had rang 3x because it was getting worse) and by then I was admitted to hospital with sepsis.
All I needed was a few antibiotics.

If they do send him home.
Get him to ring the gp for an appointment today.
If no luck, go to the walk in clinic (although they don’t usually have doctors).
If no luck there, then go straight back to A&E and keep going back.

Tell him to take time off work and keep going until he has a scan and possibly an enema - this may also be worth looking into privately but I don’t know anything about them myself.
I was once going to get one but they said it’s not recommended if you have piles and I did at the time but I’m sure lots of people on here have had them and can advise you better.

Also tell him he needs to be honest - no stuff upper lip.

Hi, I’m a student nurse in UK and I work as a nursing assistant in a+e. I’ve also just done a placement in a surgical assessment ward where people are sent from the GP or from a+e, this type of thing would be taken very seriously and patients would usually be sent for an emergency Abdo-pelvic CT scan with contrast, especially if an endoscopy wasn’t suitable (on the same day), can you advocate and push for this OP. Sorry about what you and your husband are going through, it can be very scary.

It's been nose diving due to every tory government failing to provide adequate funding - I'd like to know when the budget saved was spent.

We have a 3rd world free at point of use health care system in UK now.

@Justmeeeindie I hope the apologising doctor has sorted tests for him. It's completely unacceptable to just send him home. The ambulance service were sufficiently concerned for him. Def use the term negligence in your correspondence with the hospital.

They need to find out why he bled and resolve the constipation master, it could be a twisted bowl for all anyone knows and that will not right itself.

Have you sat in A and E lately? It's terrifying. And yes, it's been caused by years of underinvestment.

I’m surprised we haven’t had the usual ‘I don’t want to alarm you op, but……’ then comes out with something alarming!

Yes I did. Did you not read that she has someone on their way back to watch the kids? They were about 1.5 hours away so she could have gone when they arrived? I’m not saying that she should have gone in the ambulance, I’m saying she could have. Therefore she could also follow behind and meet him at the hospital to be his advocate.

Love how everyone is an armchair medic nowadays, watched an episode of casualty, or puts in symptoms to Chat GPT and boom they are an A&E consultant!

You’re one of the lucky ones - unfortunately stories like this one are very common.
OP please don’t let them discharge him. That is negligence

@Nomdejeur 10 days constipated. That’s a lot.
@Namechangerage did you not read about the OP having dc and no-one to look after them?

Are you a medic? Clearly not as if you were although it’s ChatGTP that is exactly the process that should be followed by any patient coming through ED with a suspected bleed! Perhaps reserve your comments to saying I hope her DH is doing ok and being treated rather than on something you know nothing about!