Think I've just seen the longest a&e wait time ever

I have only had good experiences too. If you go to A&E you are seen on clinical need and unfortunately far too many people go when they really shouldn’t. I also used to work in A&E or ED as it is now called.

It is better for some individuals, that is what I am referring to and you know it. I have not advocated for a US system. I have told you what I want.

It’s awful isn’t it? Whether it’s the “longest” or not.

They don’t even have comfortable places to sit whilst you wait, especially not in children’s A and E.

If they had decent reclinable chairs to sit in during your wait it would be something.

At our hospital, they have some of these in the adult an and e waiting room (not enough) but the chairs in children’s an and e are the most uncomfortable imaginable. I get why they don’t - parents of little kids leaving them unsupervised whilst they have a little snooze would be a disaster - but if you’re there for the long term, both the patient (especially if a teen!) and accompanying parent could do with a comfortable place to sit.

Normal here. I ended up discharging myself after twelve hours as I had to go home by public transport and it was about to shut down for the night. Sitting upright on a hard bucket chair, in a windowless, stifling, airless room, surrounded by very sick people, with not a single member of staff on duty in that room, no system on view telling you where you are in the waiting list, so unable to access healthy food or water, when in crippling pain didn;t seem like the best way to get better.

NHS A&E is a disgrace. I know they are horrifically understaffed, but our local hospital set up seems like intentional punishment for people who dare to get acute symptoms. Why design a waiting room for very sick people which is entirely internal - no daylight, no air circulation, no reception staff, nowhere to lie down if faint or in agony, when you know they will be stuck there for at least 12 hours?

We were there 26 hours once. Next time 23. Next time 15. These were about 18 months ago. Thankfully went recently and it was 4 which felt very quick!

You can go to pharmacy now for UTI’s

If you’re not able then you’re not willing. But yes I agree with your point - I said willing because the person I quoted said she’d rather pay. So I said as she was willing, she could.

If you are able to pay. Not willing.

I do find it interesting that I got better treatment when on a rural Indonesian island that doesn’t even have a hospital and I presented with appendicitis. Bed in a medic room, constant assesment and tests immediately then a 4 hour wait and transfer to another island, surgery the next morning.

Id honestly rather have insurance and be seen properly than have it all be free at point of use. Keep the free bit for those on very low incomes and let the rest of us pay for decent service.

But is it really necessary to wait over 12 hours then have to go elsewhere to wait again with broken bones?

Agree.

Many elderly have UTIs and doctors write prescription for them. It's not an accident or emergency department visit.

I’ve been forced to shell out my life savings for DHs treatment. £3,000 alone this month without insurance. Symptoms began last July, first saw a doctor Sept 2025, referred to specialist Feb 2026… still hasn’t seen them. No appointment set. They say it might be November. Almost a year after the referral.

DH is in constant pain. Can’t work, no money coming in, can’t even watch TV as it hurts his head to he just sits trapped in the house terrified that this is life now. He is 31.

I decided enough was enough in August and there’s so many available private appointments I got all the specialists he needed within a week, testing within a month, he sees his primary consultant again in the 22nd to start treatment. We’d already been paying for therapy, physio, acupuncture and MRIs and iron infusions privately all year to try and help.

The NHS GP kept wanting to ‘watch and wait’. It’s a neurological condition!

So you can get private treatment quickly and easily if willing to pay. Not A&E but everything else.

Do you think he needed to be in A and E or if another service like a HCP visiting him at the home would have been a better option if it had existed? IME with my elderly parents I wished that there was an alternative to being sent from the care home to A and E at night or over the weekend for something that the community nurse could have dealt with if it was on a weekday. I had this conversation with a paramedic en route to A and E on a cold December night and he totally agreed with me.

That's undoubtedly a factor, but another is that the proportion of the population that is "very elderly" (80+) or "very old" (90+) has risen as people are living longer. Those people will naturally have more health issues and need more health care, including emergency treatment.

My 89 year old mum with dementia was on a trolley in a corridor in A&E for 36 hours in December right by the door where the ambulances brought patients in, which kept opening allowing an icy blast to enter. She had actually been seen and plastered up within about 4 hours of getting there but was waiting for a bed of which there were none.

It’s awful.

I went the an and e with the most breathtaking hip pain I’ve ever experienced in my life. It was as bad as gallstones, but in my hip. Sat there for 7 hours in the urgent care thing and they knew I was immunocompromised and running a temp of 39.5c. They closed at midnight so gave me a dose of iv anti biotic and pain relief and told me to go home and that my paper work would be sent to the a and e at the top part of the complex and to present myself at 7am.

got there, and both places BOTH of them said they had zero record of me on the system and I had to start again from scratch. Then they sent me from one to the other, then back and the entire time I was howling in pain being jostled in a wheel chair. Took me 15 hours to get a corridor bed with a drip and that was only because I was starting to show symptoms off delirium and my temp hit 40.5c ( my DH took our own thermometer). Hooked up to more anti biotic and pain relief. Then got an MRI 4 hours later and was told I needed urgent surgery. Turned I had septic arthritis. To be fair once I was operated on and admitted they were fantastic, but I spent 4 days nil by mouth add they tracked the infection travelling across my lower body and at one point there was talk of more surgery and even warned about the risk of amputation which was terrifying. I was in for 9-10 days and on antibiotics for 12 weeks.

Why has it got so much worse in the last 20 years?
Massive population growth without the required increase in hospital beds to go alongside it.

12yo broke his arm. Waited for 6 hours when got sent home as wait too long and basically told by a&e nurse if you can go home or wait but the waiting list is another 10 hours and getting longer. Told to come back in the morning. Went to different hospital tbe next day and waited 9 hours. Was a nasty break.

I was told to sit and wait for a bed to become available. I sat on a hard chair from 6 30 in the evening until 2 45 the following afternoon. My leg was so swollen I couldn't put any weight on it and had to hop to the loo. I was 82 years old.

I waited 13 hours on a drip in a corridor. and when I was finally admitted I spent the night on a trolly by the loos as they didn't have a bed for me.

My dad is dead because he couldn't face another awful a&e experience. He decided to stay home despite the pains in his chest and go to the private clinic in the morning. So it was thirteen hours before his heart attack was dealt with and by then the damage was irreversible.

This isn't a popular view but I don't feel sympathy for a&e staff. I've witnessed and experienced horrendous treatment from them; completely unnecessarily too. It takes the same amount of time to speak in a kind reassuring voice as it does to snap at a patient.

And one of the issues with bed flow is elderly people who are too frail to look after themselves at home and are awaiting assessment and suitable care packages or care home places.

I live in an area with a higher than average proportion of "very elderly" people, and it's not uncommon for the process of assessing their needs and finding appropriate provision to take several weeks.

ETA: This is one of the reasons why I think that social care and the NHS should be integrated. There's no incentive for councils to put resources into speeding up NHS discharges.

I remember watching a news clip in the 90s where the news reader was talking about how a&e waiting times were now up to 4 hours. THAT made the news. Most people would love to wait 4 hours these days! It’s so bad, I really don’t think we can go on like this, something’s got to give. Why has it got so much worse in 20 years though? Is it just government cuts or are there other reasons too? I’m terrified of getting sick or breaking something because I don’t want to spend days in a&e

The New York Times has an article yesterday referencing first term Senator from Kansas who is campaigning for election.

He is an obstetrician gynaecologist. His business practices have come under scrutiny due to him suing 700 of his own patients over outstanding bills, 81 of whom were arrested. One patient was quoted as saying that she had every intention of paying her $129 bill, a charge due to post partum visit after the birth of her daughter. The senator sued the woman when her baby was nine months old and garnished her bank account. On the campaign trail he defended his debt collection efforts as ‘common business practises.’

Medical care = business.

This is what (some) posters want for the UK? And there is no way we would get European insurance system. American healthcare companies already exist within the uk and it is an American insurance system we’d end up with. Granted the NHS is struggling. But moving to fees is not the answer.

My 82 yr old Dad was sent to A & E by his care home last November. Waited 5 hrs in the ambulance to be assessed in A&E. He spent another 32 hrs on a trolly in a corridor...