Woman dies whilst waiting to be seen at A&E

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-68243636

The poor woman- She had been waiting 7 hours before she was found unconscious then dies few days later.
Now they want to launch an investigation into this case - like doh?? Isn’t it obvious that because she wasn’t treated promptly, she died? Maybe recruit and pay staff more to avoid cases like this happening again? But no, they would rather waste money and put it into investigating it instead of fixing the blinding obvious issue here that A&Es are not coping.

It's not an ignorant post. It's emotional, and understandably so.

We need better funded A&Es (and NHS in general). I honestly would happily pay a lot more tax if it meant a properly funded NHS. The last few times I've been in A&E it has varied, but seeing waiting rooms and corridors full of clearly extremely ill people is very distressing to witness.

Some of these stories also support the idea that female patients aren't taken as seriously as they should be, in healthcare. 😔

It amazes me that politicians (and certain users on mumsnet, not referring to this thread) think that they can opt out of the NHS crisis because they have private healthcare - but there is no private provision of A&E, and no emergency out of nowhere provision of an ambulance. I wouldn't wish ill on anybody but imagine if it was a powerful MP's wife or child who died while waiting in A&E, and it was preventable. Perhaps then we would get meaningful reform. As it stands, I just don't think politicians realise that they and their families are just as vulnerable as the average pleb.

Things weren't perfect before 2010 but the austerity of the past 14 years has destroyed most public services and it's a disgrace.

No one should be waiting that long in A&E, whatever is wrong with them. Poor patients and poor staff. Terrifying for patients and infuriating, upsetting and demoralising for staff.

I agree with all of this, I would happily pay more tax to see better public services. I despair when tax cuts are dangled as a carrot ahead of the election.

My mum was taken to Lincoln hospital not long after christmas with suspected sepsis, she was taken to minors despite having a raging temperature, incoherent, unable to walk etc (she is a keen runner in her late 50’s). Not long after they arrived a nurse announced that there was a 50 hour wait for a bed. There were elderly patients on the floor on those air mattresses to prevent pressure sores, a significant number of patients were sat on the floor as there weren’t enough chairs. The drinks fountain was out of order, only one toilet was working (those needing a disabled access toilet had to leave a&e, go outside, walk through the carpark to the main entrance and use those facilities), the vending machines were empty, the shop and cafe (nowhere near a&e) is only open 8-8. No food or drink was provided so my mums partner was having to carry her to the toilet and trying to cup water into her mouth. He didn’t want to leave her as when patients were called if they didn’t answer straight away the staff member would leave. On one occasion mum was called and by the time her partner had got her to the consult room it was too late as they called in the next person.

She eventually had a seizure, she was then taken to majors where she was left on a trolley in a corner, it took another 9 hours for antibiotics to be given. By this point they had been in a&e 21 hours. She was admitted and taken to a bed on hour 47. She has been left with permanent kidney damage, damage which would have been prevented if she was given antibiotics and fluid in a timely manner.

She developed sepsis because her gp refused to see her or test a urine sample, despite her having dipsticks at home so she was able to tell the doctors surgery the result. She phoned every morning for 9 working days and was refused an appointment every single time.

I went to A&E this week as was advised to by ambulance service. I had a head injury, was on my own, confused and upset. Was prepared for a long wait but the advertised 10 hours seemed like I'd just feel worse if I stayed.

It was shocking to discover there is no safety net any more. If we get ill we will be left to get worse and possibly die with preventable deaths.

I don’t understand why this wasn’t bigger news on the BBC site. It’s shocking, as are these stories.

Wow. During COVID this was the outcome and has become the normal.

Back in 2016 I went to A&E with excruciating abdominal pain unable to walk or stand. Suspected of appendix (exploded) didn't see a Dr for 5 hours deapite that. I could have died.
It was the hospital I worked at. The staff knew me. They didn't care.

As someone who has worked in A&E for 20 years, charge nurse, matron etc. I left last year. This was inevitable and is probably happening more than is being reported. A&E is like the bottom of a pack of dominoes. The dominoes been the rest of the NHS. When it works well A&E is fine and standing, when it doesn't we sit at the bottom of the pile.

Even if this patient could not have been treated had they been seen sooner, no one should be dying like that. More often that not A&Es now are not only unsafe but patients also loose their dignity. It's a disgrace and working in the middle of all of this was hell.

The NHS is now broken, really totally broken. It's is not fit for purpose and we should all be very worried. where we are meant to get access to health care? It's not easy anymore. It's the culmunative effect of years of massive underwing funding and investment. It's bloody scary in A&E right now.

If you want a healthcare system that works and is SAFE, you need to stop voting Tories, they have broken not only the NHS but all public services. I have no idea if it's possible to turn this catastrophe around, even if it is, it's going to take a long time and some serious investment and good planning to bring about the kind of change that is needed. It needs to be quite radical.

Likely because it would be on the news on such a regular basis.

Oh my goodness ☹️ I bet you were/are absolute raging that's so awful on multiple fronts. Wishing your mum the best recovery possible x

This is awful. We recently had an a&e visit due to an ankle injury. Thankfully, not life threatening but still needed hospital treatment. We waited 10 hrs.

How did no one not check on someone who was 'asleep' and not moving for so many hours? Surely even if they were busy and she wasn't next on the list just a check on her to see if she was okay, I understand she may not have been judged as a priority with just a headache but it just seems crazy to me that she was there not moving for so long in the waiting room and no one checked

A&e services are fucked though. I never go to A&e but had to go last year, I had some tests and they said I needed to be put on a drip so cannulated me, back in the waiting room with a cannula in for 5 hours, then they called me in and said they were too busy to admit me, gave me oral morphine took the cannula out and sent me on my way in the middle of the night. Turns out it was just endometriosis but it was a horrible experience

These accounts are absolutely horrendous

I hope they have all been taken up with PALS and your MP, the only way to get change is to shout loudly and keep publicising how bad things actually are.

Honestly my experience was no one checks on you. I wasn’t checked in 5 hours. If you are quiet and on your own you just won’t get noticed.

I was also re admitted for further blood transfusions ( had to go back via A&E) - 7 hour wait and then literally no beds ( as in actual bed) so I had it started sitting on the floor in the corner of a cubicle. It wasn’t life threatening at this point but still not a great experience.

I'm not sure of the protocol for A&E so forgive me if I'm wrong. On the wards usually they do something called intentional rounding and if A&E have long waits 7+ hours then they should be doing intentional rounding. So undignified!

18 hour wait in my local A&E the other day (not for me but a doctor we saw yesterday told us). 18 hours!

my mum has been in hospital for the past week with sepsis. She wasn’t washed in any shape or form for the first 5 days. She threw up all over herself and had to lie in her own vomit all over her hair, arms , face snd nightie for well over an hour before someone could come tend to her. She was found on Sunday night collapsed on the floor by her hospital bed cos she needed the loo but no one responded to her buzzer, so she tried to get out of bed alone rather than wet herself,

I am not blaming the staff; they have been wonderful and caring and devoted. I’m blaming the lack of staff available,

I recently broke my wrist and had to attend a&e in a hospital in London. Honestly, they were rushed off their feet but they were brilliant. I did have to wait a long time to be seen and plastered but looking at the cases coming in I didn’t mind.

What I did notice were the time wasters. One man barged into the room I was in demanding to know why I was being seen before him. He had an eye infection.

Other people walking in to a&e with a limp, walking out without a limp. A child coming in with a suspected broken ankle and the whole family (even aunts and uncles it seems) are there with them. A woman with a cut on her finger. Drunk idiots.

The nurse treating me just shrugged as if to say “what can I do” when I asked him how he handles the time wasters.

I can quite believe it. I spent 29 hours sat in a chair in A and E. Eventually admitted and was in such a poor state I was in hospital for 5 days, being treated for something that could, and has ok other occasions, been sorted in 24 hours.

Poor woman and her family, absolutely terrible.

This is absolutely it. We need to start valuing different things & paying as a society for what really matters. I would gladly sacrifice summer holidays or other things now seen as “essential” for reliable healthcare & I can’t believe most people wouldn’t do the same. Resources are scarce & need to be used more wisely.

Isn’t that where they film 24 hours in A&E?

The problem is would you like to work in A&E with all the drunks, drug addicts, abusive patients etc?

It is very easy to say just recruit more staff but if you don't want to do it, why do you expect other people to?

The whole experience made me realise how understaffed and underfunded the NHS has got compared to pre covid.

I think the comparator should really be pre Brexit. The issue is clearly understaffing which very obviously ties in with Brexit. If you had anything to do with hospitals (at least in the South East area) before 2016, it was very obvious how dependent they were on staff from EU countries, and they haven't been able to replace them.

@Chitterchatterchoo im so sorry to read this and I’m glad you’re ok. I had a terrible experience at hospital last year too but yours is even worse. It’s such a sad state of affairs. I’m glad the lovely doctor looked after you in the end.

Given that the average NHS nurse's salary ranges from around £34K for Registered Nurse II to £60K for specialist nurse practitioners, this would have funded maybe three nurses.