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Original poster

I don't understand why people aren't talking about the A+E crisis

52 replies

GreenLunchBox · 27/07/2022 22:22

Nothing is mentioned about it in the leadership debates.

I know rich Tories have private medical insurance etc but if they had a stroke or car crash even they'd have to use the NHS, so why do they not care? If their child broke their arm, even.

This is shocking, and everyone should watch: twitter.com/PaulBrandITV/status/1552325719895719936?t=fg6MBUpCBjp5KkSgMlOTVg&s=19

OP posts:
Original poster
GreenLunchBox · 27/07/2022 22:32

This is ironic 😂

OP posts:
Dalaidramailama · 27/07/2022 22:34

Ground hog day I guess. People are fatigued at the headlines when nothing is ever done about it.

mrsbyers · 27/07/2022 22:38

I don’t think the experience is nationwide - here at least response times aren’t too bad if assessed as in urgent need of care , time for transfer to a ward can take time but quite rightly priority patients are seen quicker than broken bones etc

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Politics
CallmeAngelina · 27/07/2022 22:39

Same reason people aren't talking about the crises in schools.
Head in the sand and believing that they'll be OK and the horror stories only happen to other people.

FlibbertyGiblets · 27/07/2022 22:40

I am inured to it tbh.

It was like the video in the OP in Jan 2020 at our local A and E - waited with my Mum just like Mae did, ambulances stacked up, corridors as wards.

So no, I am not shocked.

Original poster
GreenLunchBox · 27/07/2022 22:42

mrsbyers · 27/07/2022 22:38

I don’t think the experience is nationwide - here at least response times aren’t too bad if assessed as in urgent need of care , time for transfer to a ward can take time but quite rightly priority patients are seen quicker than broken bones etc

Are you in London? It seems ok there at the minute touch wood

OP posts:
StRaphael · 27/07/2022 22:45

As @mrsbyers said maybe not nationwide.

I was in and out in 4.5 hours on Sun night/early hours with a follow up for outpatients clinic the next day. My medical condition would be treated as high priority though so maybe why.

Isaidnoalready · 27/07/2022 22:47

Same reason the energy crisis isnt news

fakenamefornow · 27/07/2022 22:48

We get what we vote for OP, if we cared enough, we would vote for change and it would be political suicide for any government to preside over such a crisis.

fakenamefornow · 27/07/2022 22:49

We get what we vote for OP, if we cared enough, we would vote for change and it would be political suicide for any government to preside over such a crisis.

HollowTalk · 27/07/2022 22:51

My mum had to wait eight hours after falling in the garden before an ambulance arrived. It took an hour to get her to hospital. Then we waited in the ambulance for 11 hours as they were banked up. Then when we got into the hospital we waited another five hours before she was seen. She's 92. She'd broken her hip and banged her head, all of which the 999 people were aware of.

If you have elderly parents who live alone, please please please encourage them to get one of those alerts round the neck. My mum would've died without that.

HollowTalk · 27/07/2022 22:52

And not just have the alert, actually wear it too!

StRaphael · 27/07/2022 22:54

That’s terrible - over 25 hours with a broken hip. Awful. What a total waste of ambulances as well to just be blocked.

I know my recent experience is not everyone’s.

Original poster
GreenLunchBox · 27/07/2022 23:05

HollowTalk · 27/07/2022 22:51

My mum had to wait eight hours after falling in the garden before an ambulance arrived. It took an hour to get her to hospital. Then we waited in the ambulance for 11 hours as they were banked up. Then when we got into the hospital we waited another five hours before she was seen. She's 92. She'd broken her hip and banged her head, all of which the 999 people were aware of.

If you have elderly parents who live alone, please please please encourage them to get one of those alerts round the neck. My mum would've died without that.

I can't get my head around this. Did you keep leaving the ambulance to get food? And what about needing the loo?

OP posts:
NotMeNoNo · 27/07/2022 23:05

If they mentioned it they would have to address the underlying cause, i.e. lack of social care provision preventing patients being discharged, that rolls all the way back through the system to A&E. Also , ambulances queueing are more visible than people sitting at home in pain month after month waiting for an operation, but it's part of the same issue.

SQLserved · 27/07/2022 23:23

GreenLunchBox · 27/07/2022 22:42

Are you in London? It seems ok there at the minute touch wood

Show quote history

It is not okay in London.

I’ve been admitted via A&E at 3 different hospitals and outpatient at 2 additional specialist hospitals .

I’ve posted details under a different name, the replies on here are always the same “you wouldn’t be waiting if you actually needed A&E”.

It is exactly as the clip on Twitter in every London hospital I’ve been to this year.

It feels scary and not safe.

Wowzel · 27/07/2022 23:31

I work in a&e. It is like this every day now and is the worst i have ever known it.

We are just so tired. It doesn't matter how hard we work, it is never enough. The stream of patients is never ending, there is no space for patients to go out to the wards, we regularly have an entire wards worth of patients sat in a&e waiting for beds

Cocopogo · 27/07/2022 23:39

I think it’s because it’s doesn’t affect most people. I took DD to A&E a couple of weeks ago and waited 8 hours, sat in a plastic chair until 4am.
I had no idea until that point how bad things had got and from speaking to others it seems we were quite lucky to be seen in that time scale.
I think most people don’t realise until they need it.

EmmaH2022 · 27/07/2022 23:42

do you mean people aren't talking about it, or politicians?

I started a whole thread about mum having to wait 16 hours in A&E after a suspected heart attack. I had to go and rescue her. Of all the elderly parent problems you plan for, removal from a hospital wasn't on my list.

I have since had two doctors tell me that we must prioritise keeping her away from A&E.

but one of her friends went in the same hospital recently and was out in 4 hours. I don't know if they had some massive system errors when mum was in.

Mum isn't fussed about dying but as she said, there's something oddly awful and insulting about dying on a trolley in A&E! I shudder to think how long it would take them to notice a patient was dead.

anyway, politicians never deal with the crises in front of them. Just blue sky crap.

LaurieFairyCake · 27/07/2022 23:43

Because only a small percentage need it at any one time and if you don't need it then you're not aghast

HollowTalk · 27/07/2022 23:44

@GreenLunchBox I could leave the ambulance and I went into A&E and went to the toilet and got a drink. Obviously my mum couldn't move from the stretcher. They gave her a cup of tea at 5 am. She had been in the ambulance since 10 pm at that point. They didn't do anything about the toilet until I went absolutely crazy with them and insisted on it. They seem to think all old people are incontinent. My mum certainly isn't. I have been mentally writing up my email of complaint ever since it happened.

wonderstuff · 27/07/2022 23:45

A&E crisis, social care crisis, energy crisis, housing crisis, difficult to know where to start.

We’re short of teachers, midwives, nurses, psychologists, doctors, vets, HGV drivers, carers and probably many other skills. It’s awful and not getting better anytime soon.

bluedomino · 27/07/2022 23:50

People are having to go to A&E as they can't get seen by a GP. It's a mess with A&E having to pick up the slack.

antelopevalley · 27/07/2022 23:54

It varies. I ended up in A and E with my DH on Sunday evening. I was surprised by how quickly he was treated and treated. A friend had a similar experience a few months ago.
I know this is not everyone's experience, but things do seem to vary a lot depending on where you live and whether you go to A and E with something appropriate or not.

DiscoBadgers · 28/07/2022 00:00

I work in an acute hospital. It’s far, far worse than you can even imagine. Everyone is exhausted, we have no money, and of course our overseas recruitment, which we massively relied on due to smaller and smaller numbers of brits training in medical fields, has dwindled to practically nothing thanks to brexit.