NHS crisis is real. I've seen it

[sandyorsnow]

Obviously you don't need me to tell you, I know that I'm just so random person

But I just wanted to say what I saw yesterday

I was waiting in a line outside A&E yesterday and a woman behind me collapsed on the floor. She had oxygen on anyway

I escorted her to the front and I was pushed to the side forcefully by a man at the fronts who shouted 'wait you're turn!'

Thankfully a nurse came out to assist her. And then I finally got to the front myself

I went through to A&E with DD and sat in the initial paeds waiting bit to be triaged. My DD was called instantly and the woman who was sat there with her very bored looking teen said 'that's it. I'm fucking out of here!'

DD was having a seizure.

Came up onto the wards as needed a transfer to GOSH. 6 hour wait for an ambulance and the nursing station was nearby. The doctor was on the phone every 5/10 mins demanding updates as she wanted DD moved asap

When we were initially waiting outside A&E, the ambulance bay had a paramedic standing nearby explaining to another ambiance that they couldn't let them through and they'd have to go to another hospital (25 miles away)

That sounds awful OP. I hope your DD is doing better now 💐

I’m quite fortunate where I am in East Anglia. Not far from Addenbrookes and a decent nearby A&E that fortunately doesn’t seem to get overwhelmed too often. I’m in and out of hospital regularly due to quite a rare condition and the 5 times I’ve needed an ambulance this year it has arrived within 20 minutes.
I really do feel for people in genuine need that aren’t getting seen.

@GoodnightJude1 My DD had eye surgery there! Omg I was shocked at the size of the place Addenbrookes is like it's own town. Very professional hospital, excellent care received by them

The hospital I'm talking about is actually Luton and Dunstable hospital.

My local hospitals are Lister and Bedford. Always been seen quickly there fo be to

That doesn’t sound like NHS in crisis. It sounds like people were angry because they thought you were jumping the queue.

The woman who said 'I'm f*ing out of here' sounds like she didn't really need to be there in the first place. She's part of the problem A & E departments face.

@sandyorsnow

Addenbrookes is a wonderful hospital….I feel very lucky to be under their care. I’ve had all of my DC at the Rosie Maternity there and been treated fantastically every time. I know there are always times when things don’t go well or people don’t receive the care they should due to a number of reasons but in general it’s one of the best hospitals.
My Grandma passed away last year and sadly the care she received at a hospital in the SE was far from wonderful. Although she always said the staff were trying their hardest, there just wasn’t enough of them.

Luton and Dunstable is hideous

There are big shortages of staff- nurses/doctors/paramedics etc. The ones that remain are just firefighting with limited beds and resources. Two of the biggest problems are short staffing (not training enough to cover those that leave/retire- nurses especially are an aging workforce.) The other is that hospitals have not expanded to keep up with the population boom, I live in a town where the population has more than doubled in 20 years but the bed capacity is the same. Probably less if you take into account community beds that closed.
If you take out the emotive subjects of elderly burden/brexit/staff striking/private sector that always come up in these threads and look at pure data- too many people using a service with not enough staff or beds.

I took my Mum for a routine appointment last week. There were 17 ambulances waiting outside A&E. That’s not unusual and I’ve seen more. ☹️

I think the places that will have good quality NHS care will be areas with affordable housing but close proximity to excellent training. It makes sense that Midlands and east Anglia are doing well, it's affordable to live nearby, reducing staffing pressures. The measly wages are more manageable to live on in comparison to more expensive areas in the south east, but are still close to teaching hubs.

L&D were amazing when I gave birth earlier this year and had to take DS in a few times afterwards to A&E.
sorry you had a bad experience and hope your DD is doing better

Ive a couple of friends who work in nhs and it’s just really awful the stories they tell. I think that the trauma of Covid followed by the staffing crisis and morale being so low because people can’t do their jobs properly makes it just a really tough thing to fix. In a way it’s symptomatic of the issues facing the wider country, poor economic well-being + run down public services = increased pressure on healthcare services.

Apparently my local trust have a recruitment freeze despite being short staffed because budgets are so tight.

@LearnerCook i used to be an A&E receptionist and this guy put in a complaint because the guy who came in after him was seen first. He came up to me and started shouting, I asked him had he noticed what the staff were doing for this man who had ‘jumped the queue’ and he said yes but that wasn’t his problem. The guy had had a heart attack and they were wheeling him out doing CPR. I actually thought he was joking and gave a nervous laugh initially but he was totally serious and was outraged the heart attack was seen first. He had come in because he had a cough since he got up that morning and it was annoying him.

I hope your daughter's ok OP.

I see these type of threads all the time now.
What are we, the public, going to do about it though? If enough of us want better public services, make our views known, and vote accordingly, we will have better public services.

Oh, and did you know the gov cut med school placments by 25% this year.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-62594141

A lady died sat next to my mum three weeks ago. Just fell off the chair dead. She has been sat for three hours next to her. It’s beyond a scandal now.

I'm paediatrics, we are somewhat removed from the pressure of adult land. But our staffing is the worst it has ever been. Pre covid we used to have 4-5 nurses on shift for 12-16 patients. Yesterday we would have had two for 15 patients. We borrowed someone from another ward. We are 15 nurses down and only have 3 new starters. In our case it's unfortunate that several specialist nurse and community roles came up. So we lost them to that. None have left the profession.

I went to A&E about a month ago. It was awful. The staff were unpleasant and I came out with completely the wrong diagnosis.

My hospital has 27 miles of corridor. I believe it is the largest in the country!

We are moving house in 10 days back to Bath where I've always found the Hospital very good and within 2 miles of the house. Having had a recent experience at Wexham park (Slough) which is our current nearest A&E , I'm not taking the risk of a place in utter chaos and around 8 miles away through a very very busy area in the current climate. I've had a few health issues and this trip really brought it home how awful it is- it's not the staff at all- it's the other feral patients and lack of staff -. I have come to the conclusion the best hospitals are either in London or in more desirable places in the provinces , as staff and their partners actually want to live there- even if pricier (not all staff are single young people)

My dad's dead because of it. He died on Sunday. Sepsis after op. Ambulance never came after 16hrs plus of waiting. My mum dragged him in the worst state possible, the most pain possible, to the car and drove him there herself in the end. Then he died, he shouldn't have died. I'm fucking white hot angry about it today.

Last time I was in QE at Woolwich in the A&E two separate blokes were waiting handcuffed to coppers. A few entitled twats muttering away as well as to it was a disgrace. I was seen by an obviously overworked harrassed doctor but they did an excellent job and I was gushing in my heartfelt thanks. Raised a bit of a smile and then you have Matt fucking Hancock playing games on reality TV. Absolute twats the Tories.

Misses the point.

When did queues of people and ambulances waiting to actually enter the department become the accepted norm?

The woman in the bed opposite had been in ambulance outside a&e for 2 days. Shit show. The system is killing people.

@Teakup I'm so sorry - that's awful for you all. I'm not at all surprised that you're angry.