How long did your recent visit to A&E take?

[Magik01]

I’ve got a friend who went to A&E last night at 9pm, and walked out 9 hours after only having bloods done and no follow up.

it got me thinking, is this the norm for A&E on a normal Tuesday night or is our area just tragically understaffed and long wait times.

if you’ve recently visited A&E how long did you have to wait?

Last visit to a&e was with my ds aged 8. Arrived at 3, left at midnight, so 9 hours.

About 14 hours with a broken foot. Wasn't too bad and I had a bed in a cubicle for about 10 of those hours... not that I could sleep with all the screaming.

18 minutes! My 2 year old had a pulled elbow (my fault, pulled him up by his hands after a nappy change!!) Dr knew straight away, didn't need any xrays or bloods.

My husband is incredibly accident prone so we've been on a few occasions. His best one was a Saturday night on a bank holiday weekend, needed 3 stitches in his foot. Had to have an xray too, he was there about 3 hours. There were about 8 people there who had been involved in a car crash (I overheard them talking when waiting for a taxi), they were absolutely fine I could tell they were all there to try and get a claim in later down the line. It's those kind of people that are causing these awful waits and deserve to be charged.

Teen DD broke her toe on a Sunday daytime in sept.
We were there for 2hrs. The xray results took longer than previous visits over the last couple of years. But she was seen and assessed promptly. Large town hospital.

All the times I've been in A&E have been because I can't get treatment for chronic health issues so I've got no choice except to go in when the symptoms become unmanageable.

There would be a lot fewer people in there if they weren't being left to deteriorate for years with no treatment, I bet anything.

In via ambulance Monday evening. 6 hours, then I collapsed and ended up in resus so not sure how long would have ended up.

My colleague took DM to a&e with a suspected heart attack (after call handler told her it would be 5-6 hours for a blue light ambulance) they were when in A&E for NINETEEN hours!! She'd had a heart attack. They were out in a stock room out of the way, no beds and not suitable to leave in waiting area 😱

Most recent was July with my 4yo for croup. Went around 11.30pm. Triaged, taken straight through pretty much and given steroids within 45 mins of arrival. 2 hours of obs then home.

However I think kids with croup are seen fast as it’s easy to treat and get them out but they can go downhill fast.

I was at A & E two weeks ago with my 82-year-old father, he had an infection in his toe and it was turning black.
Arrived at 2 pm on Monday and he was in a chair until 1 am Wednesday morning when they finally found a trolly and cubicle for him, he was admitted to a ward at 23:30 on Wednesday.
The staff were overwhelmed, at times there were 16 ambulances queued up outside. Waiting time for triage with a nurse was about 2 hours but up to 16 hours to see a doctor.
There were people sleeping on the floor, it was horrific!!!
The majority of people looked ill or/and in pain..........

SW London hospital. 4hrs total for DD1 to be seen in childrens A&E on an early Sat eve after being sent there by 111 who were worried about sepsis risk from suspected infected finger (she had sepsis at birth).

In that time we saw a nurse who did initial triage, a doctor to confirm infection and a plastics specialist to confirm finger didn't need any procedure to be washed out or anything. Sent home with antibiotics.

In August with DS (12). About an hour in the urgent care centre (was told by 111 to go there). Then walked across to Children’s A&E as suspected Type 1 diabetes after urine dip.

5 hours in A&E before he was given insulin despite blood glucose of 39.1 on finger prick taken within a few minutes of arrival (I had no idea what that meant then!) as someone had to go and find some. Insulin fridge was in our cubicle but empty apparently. Had to ask the receptionist and two nurses sitting chatting and laughing in reception twice what was going on. DS was the only one in there for the first 3 hours at least and only about 3 other DC came in after him.

Arrived at hospital at 11.30, he was finally admitted at 6.30. 6 bed ward was completely empty so they weren’t waiting for a bed.

Quite clear to me after that the NHS chaos is not only due to too many patients but also lazy, incompetent staff.

Last Thursday I was there from 11am to 5pm, so 6 hours. My Gp sent me in a taxi with a suspected heart issue, was triaged within 5 min.

ECG 10 min later, blood test 20 min later, x Ray after another 40 min. Then had to wait a while for another blood test. All of this was to and from the waiting room... no bays available.

Was moved to ambulatory emergency care at just under 4hrs and spent 2 hours sat on a corridor floor, with around 20 others... in pain, hungry and thirsty waiting to be told if I'd had a(nother) minor heart attack or something else. Turned out to be something else.

So on arrival investigative treatment was pretty prompt, but levels of comfort and dignity left a lot to be desired.

Ex brother in law had a heart attack 2 days ago (confirmed). Took an hour for the ambulance to arrive - he collapsed whilst working in a garden,
luckily the woman was at home at the time and rang 999. He then had to wait for 5 hours in the ambulance before he was taken into hospital. This is rural Norfolk. Horrendous. He’s lucky to be alive. (Mid 50s, no previous health issues).

DS(18) dislocated his hand today in a uni football match - he FaceTimed me when he was on the way to a&e at 4:30 and he was home by 6:30. I was amazed!
That was triage, x ray, popping it all back in, another x ray and home.
I had to sit on my hands and let him go through it on his own as we live 4hrs away and he's supposedly a "grown up"

Last week I did 13 hours with dd and a broken wrist -overnight on metal chairs and it got really cold about 3am

4.5 hours in minor injuries waiting for a 10 minute appointment to appraise a sprained ankle. No X-ray and sent on my way.

Last A&E was a child with severe tonsillitis not responding to abx. That was 6 hours including bloods, waiting for results, and a change in medication.

My last visit was October last year after coming off a motorcycle and injuring my hand. Visited minor injuries unit who said it would be a week until they could x-ray so go to A&E. it was a Sunday afternoon and I was seen to, x-rayed and strapped up with a fracture clinic referral in 1 hour!

Recently my 4 week old was taken in via ambulance as he was sucking in under ribs while breathing and not feeding. Arrived at 10pm and admitted to the ward at 1am. He was seen by doctors twice before then but couldn't be put on oxygen until a bed was available on ward. In the end he jumped the queue because his oxygen sat went below 80%!
Spent 36 hours on oxygen and 4 days in hospital so was definetely necessary. He had RSV.

Dad (82) collapsed and my sister called an ambulance. Waited for an hour, then they spent another hour with him on the back of it calling ahead to see if he could go in as there was a massive queue. Finally after 3 hours, they drove off and Dad then sat on the back of it until 11pm when they took him into a bay. He was still sat there at 10am the next morning on a hard chair - a type 2 insulin dependent diabetic without having had any food or drink, let alone sleep. He's also got rheumatoid arthritis, and as it turned out, has liver cancer.

He's made my sister and I promise that we'd never let him go back in there.

18 hours, DH passing a gallstone. The promised follow up appointment has unsurprisingly not appeared.

Last trip I went straight in, stabilised and sent for a scan. No waiting required.

I'd rather wait.

I went in March this year after a fall & was in & out including having Xrays in under 2 hours.

2 yo having convulsions taken straight through door to ED after nurse in reception saw us running in seen straight away no wait at all. Couple days in hospital thankfully all OK now.

DS1 hurt his ankle on an army exercise in June. He went to a&e that night, but there was a 9hr wait and a lady collapsed and died in the waiting room so he went home. He went back the next morning, there was an 8hr wait it was in and out I just over an hour.

DS2 used to be a nurse in a&e, he sometimes has to go down to give them a hand now, tells me horror stories and says only to go if I’m absolutely dying so that’s what I’m trying to do.

6 bed ward was completely empty so they weren’t waiting for a bed.

but they were waiting for staff to attend beds, I'll wager.
~10-12 non-Critical care beds need 3 clinical care staff (3 shifts/day with breaks)
No staff = no beds.