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

@suki1964
order antibiotics online

Sadly yes, especially for something that isn't life threatening! My dad had sepsis and it was 22 hours before he got a bed. The staff were amazing and hooked him up to treatments in the waiting room but it was a complete shit show.

A major problem is bed flow, if there’s no beds on the wards to move people to they can’t get them out of a&e!
I wish the mnetters who give advice on how to delay the the discharge of medically fit people from hospital would stop! When posters advise that the hospitals arranged a care package but their parent is refusing it…
“Hide your mums keys from the ward staff or take them away with you so the ambulance staff can’t get in!”
Medically well person blocking a bed!

Im afraid i agree - it’s completely collapsed. I work in bereavement and the stories I hear are heartbreaking. People just begging for their loved ones to get help and none of the systems seeming to work.

Controversial but I think it’s time we moved to a paid healthcare system. The NHS is completely overwhelmed and unfit for purpose. Possibly healthcare benefits being provided by employers?

I’m currently 40 plus hours in a and e chair by day trolley in hallway at night I’m dead with exhaustion been here since 12.30
afternoon Sunday

Yes, of course they are. And in my recent experience everyone waiting knew that and were doing their best.

But the place was chaos. I was there most of the weekend and saw factions within the staff, with staff undermining each other and no clear or sensible plan for dealing with people. There was no information, and no one to ask. One elderly man was repeatedly berated by a vile harpy of a woman who left him to soil himself multiple times. Obs were being done completely at random - so they took longer. I was there from 10 am on Saturday to 5.30 pm and had my obs done once (though most of the time I was there that was what I was supposed to be there for) and that was because I couldn’t breathe. Sent back to chairs with oxygen saturation of 90%. Was told I was only checked because I was shouting in the waiting room - which I was because I was about to pass out and I didn’t want to not be noticed (I’d told the staff 3 times I couldn’t breathe before I shouted. I just didn’t know what else to do).

Back again at 3.30 am Sunday until about 6 pm. Obs done twice. IV drugs urgently needed not given for 4 hours. No one was in charge, no one was coordinating things. I was supposed to be admitted but there was no medical dr to see me so I left AMA after a man who’d been there even longer than me had a seizure in pre-admission and 8 people (5 drs) appeared within seconds. His wife pointed out that she had highlighted to staff that he was prone to seizures when sleep deprived.

Fucking awful.

That's how triage works.....

I don’t need to do a bit more research. I have worked for several US companies, being part of teams that are largely based in the US. My American colleagues have far superior healthcare. The UK system is better if you are poor, the US system is better if you are rich/have excellent insurance. Yes, there are co-pays but at least I would not be worried about a member of my family dying because they haven’t received prompt medical care. As it stands in the UK, if my family need emergency medical treatment, there is nothing I can do but rely on a not fit for purpose NHS.

Many Americans (including those on the left like my boss) don’t understand how bad the NHS is. They are “jealous” of something they don’t have first hand experience of.

The NHS is shit. It’s let me and my family down for most of our lives. Stop defending it. You are part of the problem of why it will never change.

And as I said, the US system wouldn’t be my first choice. Many European countries have far superior healthcare to the UK. You ignored that!

On the UTI, a pharmacist should be able to give antibiotics for that — and I know that having followed advice and gone to one for partner’s suspected UTI and being told they can’t dispense them for men as it’s much less common than in women.

Worth a try.

@GeorginaWilby

ive lived in the USA and had to use the er a few times and the experience was nothing like you describe, it was far more like the uk, people everywhere, understaffed, lots of drunks, mental health issues, Alzheimer’s patients with carers at end of tether … major and rich USA city with multiple hospitals but only a couple that took my medical insurance

I waited longer than that when I fell down the stairs and broke my ankle. And this was in the 90s!

Not even close. 30+ hours on the back of an ambulance outside A&E is not unheard of in Wales, we had a patient sat on the 'stack' waiting for an ambulance for 40 hours recently. The first time I did a 6+hour wait with a patient outside A&E was well over a decade ago.

OP you are late to the party!!

I'm curious: are those really NHS doctors? A&E doctors? If so, that company is contributing to the problems because they're taking those consultants' time away from the poor patients waiting 10+ hours to see them irl. As far as I know we haven't yet invented ways to clone ourselves...

If you are able to shout in the wr, you can breathe fine 😂

My own experience is that it is chaotic. There seems little structure. Everyone has to keep repeating what has happened to multiple people. None of whom seem to speak to each other much. Taken here there and everywhere for tests. Not so much as a drink offered the whole day. Why? Because it is unclear who is in charge. Of anything. Everyone and nobody is responsible. Lots of staff milling about. Some doing nothing. Some very busy. Some very self important some not. The patient is a problem not a patient. The place needs structure and systems that work.

We had a patient wait 72 hours at a big hospital here in New Zealand. 2 patients have actually died while waiting in the last few weeks. Really bad flu season atm but think health systems all over the world seem to be struggling.

To add, some staff are genuinely lovely and caring. Some staff keen to go home early. A hierarchy of personality can prevail. Not in a good way. It needs leadership and people who can manage staff .

Unless you've done the calculation to work out what proportion of your tax goes on the NHS, your £40k tax bill covers a whole host of public services, not just the NHS.

That includes pensions, defence, police, courts, prisons, environmental protection, flood defences and a whole lot more.

There's a handy pie chart here that gives a breakdown: Government spending chart.

For someone paying £40k tax, less than £10k goes on the NHS.

Public healthcare systems across the world are struggling largely due to the increase in the very very elderly population. My DF is in the US and his local public hospital has huge wait times too.

Any system that only serves the rich, causes medical debt and bankruptcy alongside all the other issues I listed is shit and most definitely not better. Hence the USA having the worse health outcomes and lower life expectancy than almost any other high-income country,

I broke my leg earlier this year. I had been stabilised at home, taken to hospital (an hour away), been admitted to A & E, seen a junior doctor, seen the consultant surgeon, had over 2 hours of surgery under GA, had a pain killing block and been taken back to the ward in less time than many of the waits on this thread.

I'm not in the UK though. I've seen on an injury-specific forum that UK patients with the same injury as mine often wait 6 or 7 hours for an ambulance and many don't even get surgery the same day. As an ex-clinical NHS staff member I think we've got too used to the NHS failing us.

That’s not true about triage. I went to Plymouth with a swollen lip and face for a allergy and I wasn’t triaged for two hours

I feel like a bit of a lone voice here but I had to go to A and E a couple of weeks ago and while we waited all night (10.5 hours) after triage, the staff were amazing, kind and compassionate. It was very, very busy. We were offered food and drinks throughout the night. Ended up in a ward 18 hours later, successful outcome. This is not the first time we’ve had to go to A and E recently and our experience has always been positive.

I had an hernia op and was told, ( after waiting 18months and calling asking when I was having op and got a date straight away), to be there 8am then waited until 6pm for my op in a tiny waiting room. Never want to have another op again I hope. Its a nightmare.

My oh had an accident at work and went to an and e with a rod of metal sticking out of his eyeball.
I don't believe this. If it was true, it would be on at least national new if not world news. People can't walk around with metal rods stuck in their heads with no one noticing.