Walked out of A and E after 9 hours and only triage completed !!

[bumblebee1000]

Don't consider myself at all naive but haven't been anywhere near a hospital for any urgent treatment in over 30 years. Rang 111 yesterday due to constant headaches for almost a week, was advised to attend local hospital [london]. Queue out the door, after 7 hours was seen by a doctor for appx 1 minute who said they will want to do blood tests and possibly an mri scan, was told blood tests could be a further 5 hours, a scan possibly a further 7 to 9 hours so in total basically 24 hours. I couldn't wait so told nurse I was leaving and will follow up with GP and a wealthy old friend has offered to pay the £300 for the mri scan which is lovely. I was stunned to see so many people sleeping on floor and who had been there for hours before me. Then a man went beserk and grabbed a fire extinguisher and smashed in the windows of the reception area, coffe machine and a door, police already on site as were with a chap in hancuffs.....awful. I did notice that many names were called and nobody responded so assume they just left without informing anyone, I felt informing them of my departure, was the least I could do so time isn't wasted on no shows etc.

Yes yes and yes.

My sister aged 36 was taken to A&E in an ambulance discharged herself after 5 hours sat in the waiting room and was found dead the next morning.

If you could leave like that then you didn’t need to be there in the first place. Probably like many of the others by the sound of it.

We rushed our at the time three year old to a&e because she stopped breathing (she has heart defects and a brain injury so we were no stranger to hospitals). I ran in carrying her, she was now going blue, straight to the front of the q. The receptionist hit the red button to call staff and the guy behind me said "excuse me theres a q, my heads killing me". Actually couldnt believe it, hes lucky i didnt make it worse 😂
We were seen, in resus, intubated and transferred within an hour so if its a real emergency then they act.
Sadly as previous posters have said, a&e are full of folk who shouldnt be there. 111 dont help sending people there who should go to a gp.

9 hours is a long time OP, hopefully the guy smashing windows kept you entertained at least!

The whole system is broken, it's been broken for years now. My partner's granny was taken to a&e via ambulance in march and spent 3 days in Antrim a&e before they were able to find her a bed on a ward. There's also the wait for ambulances. My grandad spent nearly 8 hours waiting for an ambulance when he fell and broke his hip a few years ago. It's horrible for everyone involved.

I also feel bad for the hard working staff at the hospitals. They have to listen to everyone complaining about their wait when there's nothing they can do about it. They are so overworked and short staffed. I had my son 2 weeks ago and spent a few days in hospital and the staff were amazing.

Also sorry for your loss, it’s shocking isn’t it!

im a registered healthcare professional and it’s really making me quite angry at all these spouting that prolonged headache is no reason for A&E. if they only realised it’s a big warning sign or lost someone so young from something that could be prevented, I don’t think they’d be spouting such nonsense

Try telling that to us. My 57 year old mother had a persistent headache in February but was worried about who’d take care of my disabled sister.

well she was found slumped in the bathroom, 2 and a half hours for an ambulance to reach her and she was unconscious on arrival. Emergency head scans showed she had a catastrophic bleed on her brain. Put into an induced coma on ICU but when they tried to bring her round she had seizures, pupils fixed and dilated due to the damage, and died 4 days later in a Hospice so I’d quite disagree with your misinformed statement, as would many others. First warning sign of high blood pressure, potential stroke and oncoming bleed on the brain. I wouldn’t wish what we’ve gone through on my worst enemy.

Econsult at my surgery and my parents, different surgery just means using the internet to make contact with the surgery and give information about your symptoms. It's then triaged and given appointments on timescales according to urgency. It works very well at these two surgeries I'm familiar with an same-day face-to-face appointments are given when needed.

Well that was badly timed, wasn't it? Maybe have a look at the post right before yours.

Sorry for your loss @KJaggard1 I lost a sister too.

I wonder if it was the same a&e as mine? I was sent in with a note from gp to see me urgently with a suspected stroke. It was 9.5 hours before I saw a doctor. Total chaos, terrifying. When id been seen I was transferred to another hosp to be seen on their stroke ward, but there was a miscommunication and I spent another 6 hours in a different a&e. A few days later the stroke was confirmed. I'm terrified that I'll face the same again. I'll be voting for ANY alternative to this shitshow govnt, it really is dangerous.

You can have a life threatening condition and still be able to walk out of A&E.

Not laughing at you at all but this comment about headaches for over a week does make me laugh! 😅

I've had a headache everyday for 26 years! 😬 I had lots of tests and scans done when I first got them which didn't really confirm anything. Saw a neurologist in 2015 who said I had analgesic overuse headaches because I was taking 8 co-codamol a day, which I was but I'd have headaches for 17 years at this point with no help or relief so what did they expect, anyway, they didn't investigate why I'd had the headaches for 17 years just told me to stop taking painkillers and discharged me.

After that in sheer desperation I found a chiropractor which I paid for personally which helped to manage my headaches but that all went to pot in COVID. Went back to the Dr in February 2023 who referred me to neurology again, took me 8 months to get an appointment with them all to be diagnosed with chronic migraine and basically told there's not a lot they can do to help me. I can take medication to try and stop them building and flaring so much, if I'm lucky it might reduce the pain 50-70% but I'll never be pain or headache free.

So to hear a healthcare professional say after a week they should be looked at, sorry, that makes me laugh.

I found this thread interesting - I phoned 111 early hours this morning in intense pain. They told me to go to A&E. It's nearby so I thought I could limp over but they were adamant that I couldn't.

Not really sure why but they were insistent someone needed to go with me (the weakness? Safety?) and in the end I was starting to get a bit alarmed that they might send an ambulance.

I really didn't want to wake up the neighbours! I didn't go as the thought of waiting 5 hours or whatever put me off. Hopefully the pain won't be as bad until Monday when GP opens.

Goodness, I've read about this in hospitals in places like London, it's crazy! I would've avoided it and gone to the Doctor's for a referral. Up north it's busy but nothing like this! It sounds dangerous 😳

I went to whipps X....I have been calling each day to see the waiting times and been told each time its very busy and the triage wait is around 8 hours. I have been trying gp each day for urgent appnt and nothing available, i rang at 8am and slots gone by time i spoke to reception. Also been trying to do the e-consult online but all slots gone in minutes when it opens up. am now seeing a private gp on monday with view to get the head mri done there also.....friend is paying for it all about £700 in total which is lovely. he is 82 wealthy and has limited life due to cancer. dont help that my sister went to same hospital with husband a few weeks ago as he had thunderclap headache and 111 prebooked him a slot so seen and scanned etc in about 5 hours....its as if she dont believe me when i was told i could be there over 20 for same procedures...its not helpful when you dont feel well.

I have been ringing each day at 8 am and trying the e consult online but all full and slots gone, off to private gp on monday now to start investigations.

I went to Whipps X.

Good luck with the appointment @bumblebee1000

In the end I got a phone appointment in 3 weeks time but with no timing. I just need to be always available to answer and talk about my personal details wherever I am.

Private sounds sensible.

Can you stay on hold or get a call back? My surgery were terrible for a while, could never get through but has a new system which is so much better and actually able to book to see a doctor! Awful, best of luck. Xx

we have two A&Es in our area, they won't see you without a 111 referal. Many people call 111 from the car park then go back in.

I gave up and went home after a 12 hour wait. They then phoned me to say I was in grave danger and must go back in, two hours after I left. They lied on the discharge report they sent to my GP. I won't go there again, we now drive to a hospital 45 mins away where the queues are shorter.

I was in the consulting room and man was trying to smash that window, doctor moved us behind a screen and locked the doors etc, however 3 people got hurt so that added to the queue of people to be seen !!

Omg! Thats shocking. Hope he was arrested. As if a busy anywhere needs that carry on let alone a bloody a&e department!

All sorted, private mri scan cost £320 for head and brain and lower neck area, found some trapped nerves probably due to some recent poor posture, otherwise all good, have now booked osteopath for treatment. also had an nhs eye scan and all good.

Delighted it was sorted out in the end @bumblebee1000
Shame it took such an ordeal though!