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?

I’ve literally just come
home from my local after a ladder broke while I was changing a light bulb. And I ended up on the floor cracking my shin and heel on the kitchen counter. I got there 5:15 and was triaged xrayed and home again for 8:30. The main waiting area was packed. The corridor was lined with beds trolleys and paramedic. A sign on wall said speak to corridor nurse before moving anything !! Corridor nurse ..how bad is that.

16 hours. Arrived at 6am on a Monday morning

Two weeks ago, 7 hours late night. Waited three hours for ambulance which never came, then 5 hours for blood results

@lljkk the 6 bed ward next door was empty too. I know as there were doors to a shared outside play area which were open due to the heat and there was no one in there either on the first night. I think there was about another 5/6 single bed rooms in the unit from memory of walking down the corridor. Probably 3 being used. Plenty of nurses. The station was outside where we were and there must have been at least 8, maybe more as didn’t count, at changeover that I saw.

This was on a Tuesday/Wednesday in late August. I was surprised at how quiet it was. It was only after I’d got over the shock of DSs diagnosis that I thought WTF, especially over the insulin bit.

I’d asked if I could take him to get some food while we were waiting in Children’s A&E as he’d missed lunch due to us getting to the hospital at 11.30ish. it was around 3pm and he was hungry. I actually asked if he should wait for insulin for it. They said it was fine despite knowing his sugars were almost at 40 so he ate a meal deal from the hospital shop and and still didn’t get given any insulin for at least 2 hours later! I had little knowledge of Type 1 then but now I do it was a disgraceful lack of care IMO and they weren’t rushed off their feet to excuse it!

7 hours, then back next day for more tests

All kids a&e.
DD, 2 hour total In triaged, stitched, home. A Sunday eve 6pm.ish (last month)

DS. 6 hours. In triaged, x ray, home. A Saturday night ( last month)

Teen. 5 hours in triaged, xray, home . Tues eve. ( 7 months ago)

5 hours about 16 months ago, simple fractured ankle, given a plaster cast and told to come back to fracture clinic 3 days later. This is an inner-city London hospital. I didn't think it was too bad. I've been to paeds A&E and we've spent the night, 12 hours plus once.

But pre pandemic jan 20
38 weeks pregnant. Suspected blood clot on lung. Saturday afternoon around 2pm After MW told me to go there and they had been notified i was on way.
Hour before triage
On a chair in corridor for 2 hours
A nurse then said i should be on a bed. So bed in corridor for another 2 hours
Then cubicle, to another to another.
Tests etc done but they wanted to do the one where they scan the arteries in top of legs. But had to wait till Monday. So i was let home 2am Sunday morning to go Back Monday for the scan and see a consultant With celexane in meantime
The consultant went mad the Monday as he said i should never have been let home until after scan.
Thankfully was all OK.

I remember it being rammed. I was so hungry and i wasnt allowed to leave to get food once in cubicle as they had to keep eye on me. Despite forgetting that and being half way down a corridor for hours prior.
By about 11pm i had to ask if they had anything i thought i was going to pass out 38 weeks pregnant hadnt eaten since breakfast.

I have spent 15 hours on a trolley in a corridor in one hospital. I was seriously ill, covered in urine and vomit. I spent three weeks in hospital recovering.
I’ve spent a similar amount of time in a different hospital on a trolley; s
again spent a significant amount of time in hospital. They are overwhelmed and understaffed.

DC2, young adult, went to A&E one evening. After a three hour wait, seen by a doctor who dipped urine (this was the only test performed) and said they had a urine infection. Sent home with a scrip for antibiotics.
Back the next day (only because we had pointed out this was exactly the same as the time before when paramedics had been out and diagnosed a grumbling appendix, so given an appointment slot 'in case it didn't settle').
Waited nine hours for an ultrasound, then another two before anyone looked at it (despite us being told the results would be there before we got back). At that point we were told DC needed appendix out ASAP, and were told they would go to theatre within the hour. DC waited another ten hours, due to the fact that two emergencies came in that were more urgent, and then no-one was operating in the early hours of the morning.

Went in with a suspected broken bone around 4am after the pain at home got unmanageable. Injury sustained at 8pm following day.
Triaged and xrayed within the hour. Not seen by anyone else till noon. Broken bone confirmed and sorted and discharged at 2pm so 22hrs.

Last went to children's hospital A&E with DD with an eye injury last year. Was triaged and within 30 minutes she was having her eye washed out with a bag of saline. Apparently eye injuries need treating fast! On call opthalmologist had to go home early with covid so eventually sent home a few hours later after seeing the 'normal' doctor with antibiotic cream for her eye and an appointment the following morning. Wait times on the board were 9 hours when we arrived and 14 hours when we left.

Both times were seen immediately after triage.

Toddler with Anaphylaxis and toddler with asthma attack.

That would be a classic Tuesday night in ED currently tbh. Even before covid Tuesdays were the worst day in ED as patients have tried to get in with their GP on Monday after the weekend (and failed) then resorted to coming to A&E the next day.

Nights are always a longer slog as staffing is reduced and the day support isn't there.

Last October I spent 24 hours in A&E with my mum. Then another 14 hours with her in March. Last week I took my son to a dedicated childrens hospital A&E and we were out within the four hour target. I've been for minor injuries myself this week and been seen and discharged within 2ish hours.

In and out in less than an hour including an x-ray!
I got lucky with timings though as I was between night shifts and fell over and broke my elbow in the middle of the night - realised I needed a&e but waited until 6am to go - the drunks from the night before had been sorted and the sports injuries from the day hadn't happened so when the morning shift came on I was first in the queue.

What is usually the quietest times to go, in general?

It's only a matter of time for me before I end up back in there. I'm usually in a pretty miserable state by the time I'll accept that I'll have to spend another night on the floor of the waiting room.

April within 10 minutes of walking into A&e was taken to Resus put on a drip, stayed there for about 12 hours, moved to a room in a&e for another 12 hours then found a bed on a ward and was there 6 days. I had an infection and undiagnosed diabetes with ketones

Accompanied a relative - 10 hours, bloods done, MRI scan and admitted to ward. Just last week. She complained about the long wait, but it was much quicker than I was expecting. Finding her a bed was the longest part.

9 hours. I got there at about 11am. Bloods, x ray, ecg, saw the doctor a couple of times before being sent home with medication. This was at the start of the year, not sure what it’s like now, probably worse! I was fine with 9 hours because I didn’t need to be there urgently IMO, my GP insisted I went

To be fair, if you were able to wait three hours for an ambulance "which never came" lost count of the number of times, rocking up starving and exhausted, to an empty house for no reason, when the 'patient' who "desperately needed an ambulance" has miraculously managed to make their own way to hospital, and then had the means to get to hospital under your own steam, you really didn't need an ambulance in the first place.

People who call for unnecessary ambulances are part of the reason that the health care system is falling to bits. Not to mention people who turn up to the ED for something that has clearly been festering for some time (for eg, the previously mentioned infected toe, which had got to the stage of turning black) and should obviously have been seen by a GP long before the ED visit.

Not so.

I've had to drive my car in a dreadful state because an ambulance didn't come. I remember vividly sobbing with fear that I might not make it.

What else can people do when there are no ambulances?

Ambulances are for pre hospital life threatening emergencies. Life, death or limb situations. If you can get to a hospital by private vehicle, Uber or taxi, then you don't need an ambulance.

Paramedics don't exist to drive you to hospital - they're there to provide pre hospital, life threatening critical care. Pain in itself is not an emergency. You'd be disappointed at how many people call an ambulance for a migraine, or a broken ankle or back pain, when they either have several capable adults and a car there, or access to taxi or Uber but "it's too expensive".

Last time for me - GP appointment 10am told having asthma attack; she called ambulance and started treatment in surgery. 3 1/2 hour wait for ambulance at surgery, an hour and a half in ambulance at A&E then taken into a 4 bedded cubicle with 2 other women (one who kept telling me not to breath so fast as it was disturbing her 🤔) In A&E for around 7 hours including seeing Dr, having X-ray and management plan being provided. Wait 1/2 hour in main hospital reception for taxi home and got home gone 10pm - had only gone to GP thinking I needed antibiotics and steroids for chest infection!!

Toddler DT2 last A&E trip - 111 called 6pm on Saturday evening (August bank holiday 2021 weekend) told needed ambulance to A&E; community responder arrived 9pm did obs, agreed needed ambulance as needed oxygen due to low sats - told not to drive as couldn’t take DT1 and husband as they wouldn’t be allowed in A&E but also told not to drive him unless another adult could sit with him in case of deterioration. Ambulance arrived 10.30pm, into A&E 11.30pm seen by triage nurse, put in cubicle and given oxygen mask and 20 puffs salbutamol then left until 6am when told going up to ward as no way would he be seen by a Dr in A&E and they needed the cubicle for someone else. Eventually seen by a Dr on the ward at 10am and admitted properly for 3 days. This year he needed hospitalisation for severe dehydration and GP arranged to bypass A&E altogether and sent us to childrens assessment unit. Were there for 6 hours before being given fluid bolus and transferred to cubicle on adolescent ward (paeds ward full) for 3 days. It helped that I’d given a fluid challenge
st home following what they would do in A&E/assessment unit so had ticked off one more criteria to accessing a bed otherwise we’d probably have had 6-8 hours in A&E doing that!

I didn't know you could go to a&e for food poisoning

A few months ago, had problems with nose bleeds due to taking covid tests, putting the test stick up my nose. Damage had been done to the delicate area and over a period of weeks my nose bled during sleep. Had been advised by my doctor if this occurred again which it did, I should attend local A and E to have the issue resolved by placing a tampon type thing of cotton wool up my nostril.
Attended A and E advised them. They said you should not be here, and I should have attended when it occurred. I informed the stroppy nurse who treated like a child that at 3 am when it happened that I could drive 12 miles with a nosebleed. She did not understand the response. It gets worse.

I was then advised to await attention from the emergency doctor but would have to wait a further 3 hours which I agreed to do.

Spoke to a doctor who promptly tried to secure the bleed had two attempts using a wooden rice type of stick which was excruciating painful.

Total time at A and E about 7 hours.

A few weeks later I had an appointment with a consultant at the same hospital regarding a recurring sinusitis issue. He stated that the doctor should not have administered any treatment without numbing the nostril in the first place and an alternative resolution should have been found!

He said he would follow it up but have not been back as appointment cancelled due to sickness and a further delay of 3 months!