AIBU to question my husband's treatment in a hospital waiting room?

My mum was in Aand E for 3 nights waiting for a bed,it was horrendous. A recent hospital visit was corridor care which was dire as the patients had no access to buzzers to call for help. Husband was in a few months ago and we spent 10 hours in A and E, it was 5 before he was triaged and the waited another 4 to go up onto a ward. They were concerned his BP was high and he was dehydrated - hardly surprising. It's really dire.

Of course it is! You can manage and plan the throughput which is often woeful.

I doubt that’s true given the hotel costs and nursing costs of housing them all. Hospital beds are well over £500 a night aren’t they? Vs patients bring themselves to community hubs for their IVs and their own food and drink. To my mind it’s crazy having people who are actually fairly fit and well anf just having investigations blocking up beds a lot of the time just waiting for said tests. It’s really stupid and happens all the time.

OP it’s fine to ask questions and escalate things. That’s not ‘kicking off’ or being difficult. It’s trying to find some answers. I don’t know what unit you are in at the moment, but it is perfectly acceptable to ask to speak to the matron or nurse in charge about a plan. They should be able to access the electronic records where a differential diagnosis and treatment plan will be recorded. At the very least they should communicate that to you. You could also involve PALS.

As a hospital consultant of many years, I urge people to alert staff to concerns politely. I don’t defend poor practice. I don’t know what the solutions are, but I do know that escalating things can actually lead to action. There is no harm in trying.

The most vulnerable people in hospital right now are the ones without advocates. I know that there are people out there who are not being fed or are being fed inadequately, often the elderly or those with special needs. I try not to think about it at times. I would advise anybody, if you have a loved one in hospital, do try and visit if you can, and make sure that their basic needs are being met. Be that squeaky (but polite) wheel.

Do you not think the main issue is planning and managing resources?

Not in the case of hospital beds. You can’t manage and plan what you haven’t got.

I can’t imagine he needs iv antibiotics though the night, could he have last one at 10pm and come back in for 6am dose?

They did this with a relative of mine in her 90s. Got her out of bed and put her in the waiting room early in the morning. She was there until nearly 5pm, no food not even a drink of water was offered.
It’s happening.

Do you not think the main issue is planning and managing resources?

I contacted the police this morning at 5.30 am as a man was screaming and shouting in my driveway obviously having some sort of psychotic episode. I'm on my own atm and was frightened. My neighbour also called as he was waking up the neighbourhood. This continued until 1.30 pm. The police would not attend. And yet our local pcso, both of them had time to do a litter pick.

It's not just the NHS, it's all public resources so tied up in costly public sector admin and ridiculousness they've lost sight of their purpose.

I think you mean our underfunded understaffed NHS @Boomer55. I promise you none of us want to do this, we all hate the trolleys in corridors and patients waiting for hours in chairs, but we are powerless as we can’t magically produce a bed from thin air. I have been staff (25yrs) and patient, it’s far from ideal, YANBU to say he shouldn’t be treated in a chair@SadlyNotATroll, but it wouldn’t happen if there was a bed or trolley available.

I can't help but think that rhythm and order makes life in the NHS as patients and safer harder than necessary.

I was admitted to maternity in August they kept me in for two days running tests. They decided I needed a CT type scan which can only be done as an inpatient but they only performed the scans on Friday. This was Sunday, I asked if I could go home in the meantime and they said yes. I got a call on Monday to say they would do the scan Tuesday morning first thing could I be on the ward before midnight? Yep no problem, arranged to have some bloods taken there rather than at the GP. In the morning I asked about the scan and they said it would be first thing. Then they said that the scan had been booked to 10.30 and the porter transport at 11.20. slightly confusing but there you go. Porter did arrived at 11.20 and I had the scan after a 20 minute wait. I was back on the ward at 12 15. I was told the results would take half an hour to come back and I could go once a dr had reviewed the scan report and the blood results.

I self discharged at 11.30pm when I still hadn't seen a Dr despite the midwives on duty phoning repeatedly. My consultant had been to see me at 12 but I had hadn't been told this and I hadn't been back from the scan. I knew she was running an OP clinic the next day so I phoned there to make sure I was on her list and I was able to go through my test results with her then and she booked me in for early induction and some follow up tests.

It had the opportunity to be fantastic service I was there overnight so no worries about issues getting there. They knew in advance where I needed to be and when so the porter could have been booked to get me to my appointment and the ward round with the consultant was set for a time when she should have had the results back and I would have had chance to discuss what it meant and sent home freeing the bed for the next person. Instead I spent a day feeling horrible in a hospital bed, in limbo between staying and going. If I had known I would be in all day I would have got comfy and got into bed and brought more snacks and things to keep me occupied. The midwives on the day and night shift wouldn't have spent hours trying to get hold of doctors. The midwife that did the self discharge paperwork was very apologetic and put on my notes that whilst I was self discharging I had been very patient, would seek advice in the OP clinic the following day and if the Dr reviewed my test results and found it was essential I returned i would do.

It took so long because it was only the senior registrar or consultant that could sign off my discharge which is fine but this rule meant I was discharged having not seen any doctor

What an unpleasant hyperbolic response to a struggling wife. She’s not blaming any individual.

And family cant care for them because the Government wants everyone in a job

OP, I am a doctor of thirty years and I believe you. Communication can be appalling in the NHS.

Community treatment needs more staff for procedures like IV antibiotics, it’s much more cost effective to have those patients all in one place.

This scares me no end. As another transplant warrior I always worry if I ended up in a&e and no special care.

I always said we would (DH) drive 100 miles to my transplant hospital as I know they would care for me.

Very sad time x

Society and its expectations that treatment can only occur when your arse is in a hospital bed are actually a huge amount of the problem. The answer is not more beds it’s better community treatment

Because they are generally elderly, frail people with no care arrangements lined up, because our social care system is inadequate.

I know my local hospital a&e wouldn't let you bring a blow up mattress or camp bed. They class it as lying on the floor which is strictly not allowed.

Really terrible. Seems so inhumane. I think they claim it's to deter homeless people?!

I was so scared of being forced to sit on a horrible chair that when I broke my hip and shoulder I lied on the floor in my house for 24 hours before I let the ambulance take me! Thank God they had me on a trolley but I was so scared they would try and make me sit.

The number of beds in the NHS has fallen by 25,000 since 2010. Maybe it’s time to start increasing again.

My ds was in hospital after an anoxic seizure a few months ago.

After initial assessment (he was admitted by ambulance) he was in the waiting room. There were people there who had been on drips for over 24 hours in the waiting room and still the few 10 hours later after ds was admitted to a ward.

i believe it.

Again the staff were wonderful and they don’t run the NHS so aren't responsible for this but it does happen.

I would not sit in a chair overnight. If I’m well enough to do that I’m well enough to go home and come back for any tests deemed necessary would be my argument. I have done exactly this some years ago and was allowed to in the end on the understanding I could measure my own fluid intake and output and attend daily for bloods. Many people taking up beds don’t really need to if we had a proper hospital at home system

Quite. I don't understand the passivity and acceptance and 'it is what it is' attitude of a failing service we're paying for. I mean, it's not like it's free (OK, free at point of use). If people had the same experience taking their pets to a vet, there'd be blood on the walls of the vet's practice! But somehow we have this floppy passivity when it comes to the NHS - just read the posts here!

Complain sure but it will not resolve the problem today.

Ask to self discharge and whether he can come back for antibiotics and bloods as a day patient since he does not appear to be dangerously unwell. That is what I would do and have done in pretty much the same position. It tends to cause Drs to magically appear if you ask for the self discharge papers

That is horrendous op and yes, I absolutely would complain. The NHS is a shit show and needs complete reform.