Woman dies whilst waiting to be seen at A&E

[VaccineSticker]

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.

Chest pain is an A&E issue. General practice is not an emergency service.

My GP practice who are brilliant will not see you for chest pain. Because they do not have the equipment and expertise if you are having a heart attack. It is the paramedics and hospital who should be treating you for that.

Our GP surgery have an ECG machine but they still have to send you to hospital as they can't do the specific blood tests needed for chest pain.

Don't think they care about DVTs. My daughter was discharged after an op recently with a missed DVT. She died less than 2 hours later from the resulting acute pulmonary embolism.

I have no faith in hospitals anymore. When I woke up one night with chest pains, as I sat there I realised I'd rather die than go to a&e. It was just gerd in the end but it was a weird feeling just accepting your fate.

I think we're all fucked personally. You're better off trying to stay as fit and healthy as possible and cross your fingers for those who can't help being ill. It's scary times. You can't blame the staff for becoming hardened to it. It's not a caring profession anymore, they just don't have the spoons.

Oh @gamerchick im so so sorry

@gamerchick I have no words. ❤

Thank you. I'm alright, it hasn't really sunk in yet I don't think. While the inquest is going on I don't think it can properly. Weird times ahead I think.

That's awful. I'm so very sorry for your loss@gamerchick. 💐

I am so sorry @gamerchick That’s a tragedy and difficult to take in if it’s something avoidable. So sorry.

@gamerchick I'm so, so sorry.

Just awful. 😢😢😢😢

Oh @gamerchick I am so terribly sorry that this has happened to you and your DD. There are no words of comfort that feel right.

I do understand what you are saying re your chest pains and preferring not to go through the ordeal of a trip to hospital. It might be worth doing some research for any times in future you might need A&E for you. Hospitals are not all equal and some give a better experience than others.

Oh gamerchick that's awful. I'm so sorry.

Oh @gamerchick, I'm so very sorry this happened to you and your daughter and I apologise if my post upset you 💐

there’s always one

Don't be daft. How could your post upset me. I just hope husband is ok.

Ty all for the wishes. Nasty things DVTs.

I can well believe it, my DM went to her GP because she had been feeling off and having heart palpitations starting immediately after her covid vaccine, they suspected she was having a heart attack and called an ambulance, who estimated a 90 minute wait. My DS took her by car instead against. They just about made it into a&e before my DM collapsed, but even then my DM was left on a chair in a corridor waiting to be seen. This was a year after open heart surgery too. She survived thankfully

I have myself seen a man brought into a&e by ambulance after being hit by a car put into the waiting room and luckily given liquid morphine for the 4 hours he waited for treatment. And of course the overwhelming number of elderly people left confused and alone.

I fear getting ill or having an accident because I've seen with my own eyes how bad it is

Horrific stories all round considering:
we pay one of the highest tax rates in the world
we are one of the richest countries in the world
we have one of the world’s best research centres for medicine and pharmaceutical companies
Enough is enough- you can’t even access a private A&E even if you have the financial means to do so because they don’t exist!
We are all fucked if we get seriously ill.

Feels like the early 1900s where how long you lived is down to pot luck.

OP- i am originally from Australia and the state funded medical system there is really very good. DH often has asked;'WHY is it so good? What are the taxes like?'.

I've been out more than 20 years and have family there still so know it is not perfect. But the top rate of tax seems to be 38%. But we have long had a system where you 'pay the gap'. As far as i can recall this is relatively means tested and you pay a small contribution to every GP visit or hospital visit if you fall into that category. I used to pay about $18 every time I went to the Gp as part of the contribution gap.

i'd be more than willing to have a similar system here. My older son who is aged now 13 needs epipens and other medication for his varied and many disabilities. We had a situation when he was about 6-7 where the GP would not prescribe new epipens because although they were out of date she said it was too expensive to prescribe new ones every year and 'if the liquid is still clear' then they would be fine. The school would not allow him on the premises with out of date epipens. I begged for new ones and the GP said 'too expensive... they cost about £30 each you know'. So i said i would pay for them. There was literally no capacity in the system for me to pay for them. I had a month where my child was not permitted onto the school premises because of his medical needs not being met. It finally amounted to me asking the GP what would happen if i went to the local papers and said my child was not allowed to go to school because she would not prescribe an in-date epipen and what would happen to her practice indemnity insurance if we needed to rely on an out of date epipen that did not work because she would not prescribe it before she ground her teeth and wrote the fucking prescription.

This was way before covid I might add.

There is the ability for changes to be made. There is the ability for things to a halfway house to subsidised health care where people can make contributions. Now we can contribute to prescription payments if not under an exemption. That can be rolled out.

It's a farce.

screechy knee jerk hyperbole

Oh my word @Simonjt . At risk of totally outing myself this sounds exactly like what happened to my dad at Lincoln hospital last weekend. Sepsis as a result of a urine infection. 40 hours wait sitting on a chair in A and E for a bed. He has Alzheimer’s and cancer and is in his eighties. If I hadn’t been quite insistent he would have been sat on a hard chair all this time but I managed to get a more padded chair by pouncing on one as soon as it became available when another patient was discharged. I was shocked at what I saw. Most staff were lovely but, as you said, if the patient didn’t answer straight away they would miss being seen. The staff were mostly in masks which made it very difficult to hear them on top of the noise in the department.