How quickly would you expect to get triaged at a&e with a dehydrated toddler?

[Arewehumanorbones]

Actually wanted a GP appointment but they sent us to a&e without even seeing him. Not had a wet nappy in nearly 24 hours and been sick for several days now.
We are probably just wasting everyone's time. So how long would you expect to wait to be seen to be sent home?

I was at A & E this week - people are triaged immediately on arrival.

Well they don't seem to be here. You walk in, speak to reception, get asked to take a seat in either the kids waiting room or the main one accordingly... Then wait for nearly 2 hours to be triaged. Then wait again several hours to see a doctor.
From what I observed they seem to send a staff nurse to triage the whole paeds waiting room once every 2 hours - go through everyone, then in 2 hours come back and triage any new arrivals. Well that's what seemed to be happening.

Sounds like toddler getting better just pipped back after reading thread earlier hope all's sorted soon

Thanks, yes he's perking up surprisingly quickly! Bit of Calpol, fluids and ABs have obviously done the trick :)

Finally the treatment he needs. A bit long to wait for triage & treatment. What end of the world are you in?

SW of England

This is unacceptable and anyone who thinks it isn't has very low expectations of a first world health care system.

I think it's awful your little one had to wait that long. Been to hospital 3 times with my little one and always given a bed in ane almost immediately.
Sorry you have had such a shit time

2 hrs to triage is abysmal. The whole point of triage is to assess what’s urgent. There should be someone allocated to triage at all times, only moving to other duties if there are no patients waiting.

Glad your LO is on the mend OP!

And yes, thank you, my DS is fine now - when he's really poorly he sometimes looks like he's developing sepsis so they treat him accordingly, then they don't grow anything from the blood culture but I'm glad they're being proactive of course.

Ah glad he's perked up a bit! It's amazing what a bag of fluids can do ( my son has had many!)

I really like our A&E triage system. You briefly see the triage nurse as you walk through the door. She does a very quick assessment and then you sit down and wait for a proper triage assessment. It means those that can't wait, don't wait as long. It must be a new thing as I didn't see it the previous times we'd been to A&E

We have the same system at our nearest a+e (Swindon?) We have had some ridiculously long waits, and some very poor treatment.

At our local a & e you get triaged very briefly as you walk through the door. Seems to work well. When I took my friend in, she was immediately whisked away into resus after I'd briefly explained the issue. I had no idea she was so sick.

@Onceuponacheesecake

Yes it was pretty horrific. Turns out she was having an asthma attack, she didn’t have asthma as far as we knew! Could have been much worse. I don’t know how I could get their attention any quicker though, when asked what was wrong I said she’s having difficulty breathing, and was directed to wait - for two hours! She did seem to get better though or I would have made a bigger fuss. I counted fifty patients in the waiting room that evening, which for our small town a&e was ridiculous. I heard one of the nurses saying to another that it had been like that since she started her shift at seven in the morning.