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

I have to go to a&e a lot and I hate the waiting, I worry I am going to catch flu too. There is now a company that does video calls with actual a&e consultants, it’s wonderful, called something like The emergency doctors. You can get medicines delivered to your home too, it’s marvellous.

It's totally normal in all cities in the UK now. Took a relative to A&E with her heart hammering in her chest, London hospital near Pinner, can't remember the name (I don't live there). Sat in A&E for 12 hours, upright in uncomfortable chairs, druggies and fuck knows what else in the room with us. We were sent home with a bit of paper with some information on how to look up her heart issue - information she already has as it is ongoing. No doctor saw her. People will pretend they think I'm lying, but everyone knows I'm not.

Triage can get it wrong. DS2 was struggling to breathe when he was 2 months old. Had the same issue with DS1 so I knew what was going on and took him to A&E. He was crying when being triaged so the triage nurse couldn’t see the breathing issue or take his obs properly so she put us in the non-urgent queue.

I went up to the nurse at the desk 4 times to say he’s struggling to breathe and she didn’t even look at him, probably assumed I’m a paranoid first time mum. When they finally came round to do routine obs 2 hours later, his oxygen level was at 84%.

Obviously I filed a PALS complaint but the experience left me feeling like I failed my child as I tried my best to advocate for him but the so called professional nurses ignored me.

So it really is possible for triage to get it wrong.

Took DS to paeds A&E one night and as it was an emergency, we were taken straight through. As we arrived the waiting room was busy. When we left the following morning, so around 12 hours later, some of those same families were sat in exact same seats. Must have been awful for them.

I feel so sorry for the people waiting so long when they are ill and in pain. I'd be scared to death living there now. I won't even visit the UK because of the healthcare that's provided now.

Here it's very different. We live very rurally in the United States. I've personally used three ER's (A&E) within a 50 mile radius of us. There is no wait time at all. You walk in the door and are helped immediately. A nurse helps you into a wheelchair and takes you to one of the beds behind a curtain. At 2 of the hospitals I've never seen another patient there at the same time I was. At one hospital there was 2 other people being attended too at the same time I was there. That particular hospital is near an interstate freeway and tends to the traffic accident victims, so sometimes there's a mad rush of patients in a major accident.

The towns have a doctor who lives locally and sometimes a doctor from another bigger town on-call. The out-of-town doc will stay in an apartment within the hospital, so a doctor is at your side in about 5 mins. During the day you go to the clinic if you're unwell. You don't have to make an appointment for the clinic if it's acute/sudden onset. You get seen very quickly.

The treatment is top notch. A few weeks ago my husband was hit in the head by a tree and they took great care of him. They even did a CT scan of his head! The hospital has X-Ray department, lab, all kinds of things and the population is under 1,000. They have a helicopter pad on the roof, in case they have to get you to a big city quickly. We're retired and on *Medicare now. We even have separate insurance for the helicopter ride. My husband used the helicopter a few years ago when he got flattened by farm equipment.

I feel secure and well looked after here. It used to be like when I was a young girl in England. I remember the doctor making house calls when I was poorly. At the local clinic (in England in the 50's and 60's) you didn't have to make an appointment. You just sat in the waiting room and everyone was very polite as to who was next. The only medical staff in the entire building was the doctor. There wasn't even a receptionist back then.

*Medicare is federal health insurance for people 65 or older, and some people under 65 with certain disabilities or conditions.

I don't live in the UK, and things like this make me worried to ever return.

I know it is free at the point of use, which is amazing, and where I live it isn't free (people have a type of national health insurance which covers most things, but you still pay a small amount)

But I would rather pay a small amount - low enough that it isn't a barrier for anyone working (and for those who aren't able to pay, there are special programs to help), and get to see a doctor within 10-30 minutes, rather than have it free but have to wait hours...

My dh had a 12 hour wait with sepsis.
When he finally got to see a doctor, things moved fast, he was admitted for the best part of 2 weeks.

The triage nurse was an absolute bitch, despite him telling her he felt like he was dying, classic sepsis 🙄
I should have complained really but I was just grateful he made it out alive.

The NHS here has completely collapsed
We all know the NHS is not fit for purpose, but who do we trust to modify it to as effective an organisation as possible.

13.5 hrs to be seen by a dr is extreme. In my dept minors is a separate wait time to the rest of A&E as it is run by minor injuries nurse practitioners not A&E drs who will see unwell people.

those people above waiting for wards for 3 days….this is sadly also the norm however these people will be having their treatment in A&E it’s just they are physically not on the ward so this is not the A&E waiting time that OP is referring to.

Im in NI, pharmacists can not prescribe here

I got bit by a Clegg a while back , my arm trebled in size, was red and hot. Went to the pharmacy- directed straight to GP - got told to take photos and send in and Id get a telephone appointment . Heard nothing till the following lunchtime when I was informed, the GP couldn't tell much from the photos and I was to make an appointment - the soonest was 10 days

The NHS here has completely collapsed

We cant get a timely appointment, when we do get one, we are sat in a state of the art building - alone. No one else is waiting, and this is a surgery that boast its the biggest in NI with 14 GPs

No
It’s not damaged because of your actions
It’s damaged because of the state of the NHS

Not your fault at all.

Is there another option for that person? If I break my foot do I have to sit in A And E or could I go to doctors or somewhere else? I think half the problem is people don’t know what to do and everyone’s in an and e and maybe they don’t need to be. I don’t know but would be good to know really x

agreed, see a pharmacist.

I don't go if my pancreas flares up. I just can't face it. I take whatever meds I have and knock myself out and hope the pain resolves by itself. I went once, but it was terrible and I returned home for pain relief. My pancreas is permanently damaged because of my actions.

I waited 12 hours when i broke my ankle in 2000. Long waiting times in a&e are par for the course, especially these days.

I thought our local hospital wasn't too bad but a friend of my mum's was there on the worst night they'd ever had-sat on a plastic chair waiting for two days after having had a stroke. Never got a bed the entire time.

When my parents have been severely ill they've not been able to face A&E so didn't bother (and this was before wait times got so bad) if you're that ill it must be absolute hell. I feel so sorry for people can't believe this is Britain in the year 2026.

It's awful but I can't say I'm surprised. I phoned GP for an appointment for dh and got told nobody could see him, they will ring when he can get an appointment. So people are going to a and e instead and clogging that up too.

How are you driving and messaging us OP?
Presume the patient isn't driving with a broken hand!

If you have a UTI, can’t your GP send you a prescription without seeing you? Pharmacists can usually prescribe for UTIs, I’ve ordered the meds online and picked them up later that day before.

22 and 24 hours for elderly mum on two occasions.

@Greenismyfavouritecolournow I don’t know how you did that, I was delirious when I got home. You’re made of strong stuff!

@nairobi9 I hope your friend gets treated very soon.

He was in for 3 nights. He never got a proper bed but a makeshift trolley thing in a small side part of the entrance to the ward. The staff were amazing and very thorough but the wait Time was beyond shocking .

I took my dh to aand e last week. Arrived at 10pm. I arrived home the following day at 6pm. He was in a chair on a drip until 6 am the following morning so 32 hours !

Mum was an expected patient to A&E, waited 5 hours in the waiting room, then 28hrs in A&E before they found her a bed

One lad had been there 72 hrs

And the saddest thing? We were grateful that she at least had the privacy of a cubicle and a bed rather than a trolley for her time there. Our A&E's are now wards, bunged with patients on trolleys who can be there 3 or 4 days before getting a ward. And Im grateful that they at least could do the tests she needed from there, but if I wasnt there, there was no nursing. No one to help her to the toilet, change wet sheets, change her - because the nurses were just swamped

Im sat here with a UTI - proven with urine sample last Monday - GP appointment - 29th of this month