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?

This is so scary to read, the NHS really is broken. I am in a 'developing/Emerging' country and the health service isn't as bad as this. My employer pays for private health insurance and I am seen almost immediately even for minor things. The government has a system for those who can't afford private and recently I took my gardener to the public hospital for fractured wrist. He was triaged in 10 minutes, seen in under 2 hours and had surgery the next day. His government insurance paid 90% of the bill. If a country with a population way larger than the UKS and a hell of a lot less tax money collected can do this then the UK really has no excuse

Just because someone makes their own way to hospital because an ambulance is taking too long doesn’t mean they don’t need one. What a daft comment. Loads of people on this thread - including me- have posted stories where ambulances have taken hours in cases where there’s been a heart attack or all sorts.

@guineapugs
I had called 111, and when I got to a&e they told me off for not coming in sooner.

@Afterfire

You didn't read my post properly - the reason an ambulance takes too long is because they are often tied up with people who don't need them - and then people who do are left hanging with strokes, cardiac issues etc.

If you can make your own way there, after waiting three, six, nine hours, or even straight away, then you didn't need an ambulance.

Paramedics are there to provide critical pre hospital treatment. If you suffer life threatening or limiting consequences of a heart attack or a spinal injury (for example), because the ambulance takes too long - that doesn't mean you didn't need one. It means there weren't enough ambulances. If you don't suffer any of these things and then make your own way there, it means you didn't need an ambulance.

Agree @WhereTheFuckIsMyFuckingCoat ambulances can also be tied up with discharges as well, for people who need 2 or 4 person crews to get them back in their property if there's access problems.

My 10 year old was sent to A&E by our GP last week. We arrived at the childrens' department around 10am and left at 6pm. He was triaged within half an hour and seen by a junior doctor within the hour. We then waited three hours for them to get round to taking bloods and sat in the waiting area for nearly four hours waiting on the results. They were extremely busy and we knew it would be a long wait. The care he received was excellent though.

My husband had a cycling accident on a Wednesday morning and was there for 6 hours. There just aren’t enough staff

I drove my car because I needed to be in the hospital and the ambulance which was supposed to be coming to me didn't come. I don't want someone to drive me to the fucking hospital because I'm feeling a bit sickly. I drove in pain, barely conscious, definitely a danger to myself and others for the only reason that I had no choice.

It was horrendous, terrifying, upsetting, and traumatic.

Not that things got much better in the hospital. And while we're patient blaming, your comment is exactly the lacking in empathy nonsense I've come to expect from medical professionals. No, patients don't call ambulances and go to the hospitals in droves to waste your time.

@MichelleScarn

That's not quite correct.
Ambulance transport home post discharge is done by hospital transport (usually private ambulance services) which is totally different to NHS trust ambulance services.

Actually @TheWolves, people do call ambulances in droves which are time wasting and pointless. Because they don't want to get a taxi. Or wake their wife to drive them. Or because "I'm sick, I deserve an ambulance". Without thought or care for the actual sick people who are left injured and dying because they're held up with sore throats, sprained ankles, itchy rashes, swelling after lipfillers!!

Ask me how I know?? You drove yourself to hospital barely conscious? Really!? And if you'd passed out and killed a family who would have been to blame? You for not catching a taxi? The people who were needlessly tying up an ambulance when you needed it? The hoards of unnecessary people in ED meaning 15 ambulances couldn't offload and get to you?

I am extremely bloody compassionate, kind, empathetic and professional. But I'm sick to the back teeth of people who can't or won't comprehend what an emergency is, or who are just downright fucking selfish.

That's also not correct.

If the patient is deemed to be "outwith scope" or Patient Transport don't have the capacity, it absolutely is 100% down to the ambulance service to do discharges, and transfers, and appointments. Which is also a bloody disgrace.

well if nearly everybody left then they didn’t need to be there in the first place did they! It really grinds my gears when people unnecessarily go to A&E and clog it up and overwhelm already overwhelmed, overworked, underpaid staff!! Accident and Emergency is just that! If it’s neither of those things call GP or 111!

A month ago, 999 due to heart palpitations. Midweek, 9am.

Ambulance at door within 10 mins, half hour later in A&E. 20 min wait with crew to handover. 20 min after that ECG, Bloods done ,blood pressure etc. Half hour wait in waiting room and then transferred to Same Day Emergency Care Unit. Monitored regularly for 3 hours before being discharged by doctor with week of meds to combat low phosphorous, return following week for repeat bloods. Outpatient return for 24 hr ambulatory ECG. VERY impressed.

Very different to previous experience July 2021 when they wouldn't dispatch an ambulance, had to get myself to hospital and collapsed in A&E waiting room. Severe kidney infection, hospitalised for 48 hours after a 12 hour wait in A&E

Haven't been to A+E in years but went to minor injuries unit the other week and was in, treated, and out in less than an hour!

Family member spent 41 hours on a trolley in a cubicle before being given a bed and moved to a side ward (big room with curtains not set up with the equipment in a "proper" ward). They were then admitted to a ward. This was once they were able to leave the ambulance.

The staff were amazing, overworked, over stretched but clearly doing their best.

@WhereTheFuckIsMyFuckingCoat

Not in my trust.
We do IFTs and repatriations of course and utilise high dependency PAS occasionally.

We lost the majority of PTS contracts some years ago.

The problem is if 111 tell you to take a child to A and E you have to or a report is made to SS.

The problem is if 111 tell you to take a child to A and E you have to or a report is made to SS.

That isn't true - a report is only made if their are concerns for the child - as long as you seek appropriate medical care then no report will be made.

I’m in Australia, we have private cover so went to local private hospital. Staffed by ED consultants, lots from the UK😀. DD broke her arm at school last year (bone in her elbow). Bed straight away, seen after 15 min, Xrayed 15 min after that and results 15 min later. Out in just over an hour, follow up with the orthopaedic specialist we chose.

gp said to take dd (13) straight to hospital. Offered to ring us a taxi as it would be quicker than an ambulance. Severe asthma attack. Childrens hospital. Dd triaged then left for 2 hours. Triage nurse asked why the gp hadn’t given steroids then didn’t, perhaps couldn’t arrange some. When she began repeatedly vomiting I asked a nurse how long we would be waiting as she was getting worse. She pointed to the screen and said waiting times up there. Dd ended up admitted and on oxygen and nebs overnight.

Children's A&E, central London, midweek, 5 hours til first seen.

I don't think nurses are able to prescribe drugs @Alakazam8 , I think they can only give them when a doctor has said what's needed.

Some nurses can prescribe drugs.

It was around 8 years ago that ds1 had bad stomach pain. After waiting it out through the day with pain relief etc, I called 111 as it had got worse. I wanted to make an ooh appt with a gp.

111 triaged and said he needed an ambulance for a&e. I questioned this saying I could take him in the car and was told that if I declined the ambulance I would be reported to ss. So I told them they should send it then.

2 hours later the ambulance service called asking if there was anyway I could get him to a&e as they were stupidly busy. I explained what had happened and I could hear her eyes roll.
25 minutes later we had him in a&e, it was ridiculous.

3 days in A&E
In a cubicle but with a ‘ward bed’
In the area , that is one down from resus
-Big Major trauma hospital