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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 not just the NHS. People are waiting in beds in corridors in the US and European countries.

Longest wait was around 4 hours for DS’s pulled elbow so I learnt how to pop it back into place again myself to avoid going back. Thing is, we pay for private health insurance through DH’s work but in an emergency in the UK your only option is the NHS.

How does a video call help?

If your in A&E its usually because you need either urgent imaging or urgent treatment, thats the point of A&E. If what you need is a prescription, expecially if that prescription can wait to be delivered, and that can be determined over a video call then what you needed was a GP. All that essentially is is an online GP service run by not GPs?

I have to say I got fantastic treatment at my local a and e( London). My GP had sent me as I had chest pains and low BP. I was dreading it as it was a hot day and I just want to lie down. The staff were all lovely, I had a blood test, 2 ECGs , an x ray and saw the Dr twice all within 2 hours. Thats how it should always be.

Ours is a mixed bag: we have an urgent treatment centre attached to a and e that runs 24/7. When we've been triaged there is been a few hours in and out. We also have a pretty good out of hours doctors service: I rang at 9pm on a Friday night, had a clinician call back within 5 mins ( non blanching rash), and doctors appointment where I was seen before 10pm.

However, if you need admitting, life is very difficult. We spent 30 hours on a and e a few weeks back because every single bed in the hospital was full so there was literally nowhere to put my relative. The matron came round and saw her and said she was setting up an overflow ward in a random room essentially, so she came down to see if my relative could cope there but concluded she was too frail to be somewhere makeshift. But we had done well because we'd got a side room in a and e, I think because my relative was so old (92). There were others sleeping on trolleys in the corridors.

It is just a nightmare, certainly here mainly caused by a lack of beds.

Go to a pharmacy and they will prescribe you antibiotics.

At my local A&E we have a nurse who triages you as you go in. I recently took an elderly friend who has a very serious long term illness for a booked routine X-ray (which is next to A&E) one evening. As she was very unwell he triaged her and sent her immediately over to the out of hours GP and we were home with antibx in less than an hour.

my dm was on a bed in A & E for more than 24 hours before being admitted.

Derriford by any chance? I know a few people who’ve wound up in A&E there recently and faced similar waits.

Just wanted to say it's not always so bad for those fearing return to the UK etc.

Went last year with a swollen ankle on a Tuesday morning. In and out within 2.5 hours including having done the xray, bp taken etc. London hospital.

There are still too many people who go and don't need to be there. Appreciate that's not helped by lack of GP appointments etc.

I went to A and E on Sunday with unexplained pain, bruising and swelling Tommy ankle. I knew it was neither an accident or an emergency but the only way to access an X-ray. If I had gone to my GP on Monday, if I would have been able to get an appointment he would, most likely send me to A and E. I was then sent to the Urgent Treatment Centre. Cynical me thought that was how then waiting times at A and E were kept down. I have a fracture to my fibula. Xrayed and assessed and in and out in two hours.

Ive only ever been to A&E for a child, longest wait was 6 hours, but honestly felt like sooo much longer.

@GeorginaWilby but you are praising the American private healthcare system.

According to most on MN, that is spawned by the devil, and they’d rather die, well wait 13 hours in A&E, before considering that the NHS is not fit for purpose anymore.

My most recent experience of A&E was last Spring when I was excessively bleeding from my vagina. I am peri so my body is responding in all kinds of weird ways. I was advised to go there by NHS111 on the phone. The Triage nurse was bitchy AF. I understand she must be tired and had the day from hell but really, that wasn't my primary concern, it was the fact I was losing so much blood.

To the nurse's credit though, she farmed me off to urgent care, and they took care of me. I subsequently had an appointment with the emergency gynae department (7 days later!) and got sorted out. My local hospital is actually quite good and using the resources they have. They will take people out of the A&E waiting list they consider to be medium to lower risk and put them in services that are more appropriate. Quickly too, because I was back home within a couple of hours.

I've visited A&E in another hospital in South London when I lived there a few times for myself or with DD and we were always sent home within 4-6 hours.

Maybe my experiences are unusual.

That’s awful! My two both had similar issues so we spent a few trips in A&E and they always put us in the urgent queue even when their obs were slightly more stable. They made it clear they wouldn’t err on the side of caution with babies. That is genuinely awful, I’m not surprised you complained!!

They can prescribe antibiotics for a simple UTI. A non simple UTI warrants an urgent appointment.

I've only heen to A&E half a dozen times as an adult and all for my childen. So I don't have much experience.

The last time I went was a few weeks and our waiting time was 4 hours. The Trust has a live tracker and our waiting time matched with the time showing on the tracker. One of the other hospitals in the Trust was showing a waiting time of 22h!

I hope I'm not jinxing this but I've only had good experiences, although admittedly the problems me and other family members have had NHS contact for in the last couple of months were high risk. I think you can be in a lot of pain and suffering greatly, but if it's not going to kill you imminently, you have to wait.

I waited just over 30 hours in a hospital in Ireland last year before I got a bed. I had C Diff, the whole experience was horrendous.

I had a clot in my leg and waited for 9 hours a few years ago. The staff were doing their best and looked visibly exhausted. It's unfortunately a common occurrence.