Nine hours in A&E

[MotherOfGodWeeFella]

I recently spent nine hours in A&E and it was horrific. I was in agony - advised to go there by 111. There was no pain relief that worked for four and a half hours. I was doubled up in pain in the waiting room. I told a nurse doing observations: she didn't even respond to me. It was really busy and for at least three hours after I was triaged there didn't seem to be many staff on shift so I didn't advocate for myself as well as I could have. It was such an awful experience. I wouldn't go there again unless I was taken in an ambulance.

In the end they didn't really know what had caused my pain but as it eventually subsided I was sent home. The experience has really affected me. I'm almost traumatised by it. Nine hours in the packed waiting room, in hideous pain for much of it with no communication other than announcements about how many hours it was taking to see a doctor. It was the same for everyone else waiting. Anyone with suspected broken bones got seen first. The more acute cases I'm guessing were in the cubicles further in. I don't really know why I'm posting.

I spent 12 hours on a bed in a cubicle in A&E waiting for a bed on a ward, I was in screaming agony but luckily given pain relief.
No wonder the A&E wait is so long if beds are taken up for 12 hrs

I had flashbacks for a long time from my experience in a&e. I had appendicitis and there were no beds so I was stuck there 36 hours. I was being treated and on a drip but in a chair.

Yep!!

The Gp wants them to be checked over. It’s unusual to give people certain medications to keep at home and self medicate without medical supervision. That said gps do, do it. I’m very rural so over the years there has been a bottle of liquid morphine in the cupboard for pain relief. Steroids for a croup prone child. Technically not to be taken without medical supervision so if necessary we’d call 111 and discuss with them/ the doctor and follow up with Gp asap.

I can't accept there's nothing that can be done/no one else would do it better. There is just so much waste and inefficiency in the system. That may not be the whole issue, but it must be possible to improve things by dealing with that.

@Wishingitwaswinter - you don't appear to have any medical backing for what you are saying. I am not an idiot, I know those with more serious medical complaints get seen first. I still have some pain. I was told to go to A&E after speaking too 111 who had a triage nurse from the urgent treatment centre (i.e. the hospital) ring me back.

@PCcrisps presumably because it was believed the poster's situation could worsen and the GP surgery wasn't the place to administer the pain relief needed?

The GP wanted me to go to A&E to investigate the cause of the pain - when I was admitted I had a blocked bile duct and infection. My GP didn’t want me to just mask the pain incase I needed antibiotics or a stone removing from my duct.

Yes - an expanding population and improved life expectancy does put a strain on health resources but each of the groups you mentioned- immigrants, elderly, people with unhealthy lifestyles- are also fully deserving as care. The same care that young thin healthy British people get. The NHS is heavily reliant on immigrants for staffing and Brexit did cause an exodus of European staff.
However social inequality also results in health needs - it’s reasonably easy to be healthy if you can afford a stable home, heating, hot water, healthy food, leisure activities. But for so many people this is not their reality. Please please don’t say something about them being able to afford cigarettes or alcohol. People take comfort where they can. It’s difficult if not impossible to combat an addiction when your life is miserable and hopeless. Alcohol is cheaper than food in many cases - and low price alcohol available in every corner shop.
I do think that primary prevention is badly badly needed - but this needs to be funded and in order to work , the health inequalities in this country need to be addressed. Labour governments have not been perfect but my God - it can only be better than what we have now- the dishonesty, corruption, cruelty and stupidity simply cannot be conveyed strongly enough

The only times I e been seen really fast In A and E were

A) Arterial bleed . I was literally spraying blood from my hand on check in desk following dog bite. Receptionist sent me through to a first aid room staffed by nurses and they cleaned and dressed it immediately before Id even registered properly but had a long wait after that during which they changed dressing 4 more times as it was bleeding though and soaking the bandages. No pain killers though except one dose of paracetamol which didn't touch it

B) Suspected meningitis complete with seizure and rash. They had me on antibiotic drip in a side room in less than 15 minutes from DP practically carrying me in

Every other time it's been a 3 hour minimum wait and usually a lot more than that.

My dh (early 50s) was left in the waiting room for 4 hours without treatment whilst actively having a heart attack so sadly, this doesn't surprise me. Luckily, he's made a good recovery but it could have been so different...

Unfortunately, if that's the way you react to someone pointing out the facts — your obs were okay, there was no evidence that there was anything seriously wrong and your pain has subsided indicating you probably didn't need further treatment — then i imagine that perhaps you did come over as a desperate druggie trying to get a morphine fix at the the A+E.

Blair had only just got into power in 1998!

The preceeding 13 years of Conservative rule had brought the NHS to its knees and, like now, that couldn't be turned around in a year or so.

Things were far better a few years later. Then 2010 happened and Andrew Lansley got his hands on the NHS.

I have terminal cancer with spread to spine, hip, pelvis, liver and other areas.
I am under hospice for pain management and on palliative chemo and have been for the last 3 years.

I was taken to a&e by my husband on Monday as I was unable to make my arm move from the position it was in, I felt my brain couldn't make it move. It then started moving of its own accord. It didn't last long but I was terrified it was a seizure and my husband was initially worried I was having a stroke.

I had only had chemo 4 days before. When we got to a&e the waiting room was totally full with people standing all over too. The reception staff were lovely, but they didn't have a room for me to wait in as so full so I had to wait outside ( due to being immunocompromised)

We were triaged quickly and established it wasn't a stroke but we ended up waiting 12 hours to see a Dr, we were there from 7pm til approx 7am the next day. For the first 4 hours I was outside, my husband got me a chair from the waiting room. It took 7 hours for them to give me some morphine.

My experience was like others have said, there seemed to be full families in the waiting room whenever my husband went in. The initial nurse that triaged me was lovely, but after that the nurses I saw were cold and lacking any form of empathy or care. Some of the things I heard from the patients around though, I can totally understand why the nurses can end up with that manner.

I understand it's a totally different environment, I spend a lot of time at the hospital and hospice and the nurses on the chemo unit etc are the absolute opposite. I think for a&e staff it must be an awful job.
I just would hate to think if it was an elderly relative etc in my situation having to sit outside in a hard chair for hours and go without any pain relief.

The level of staff burnout in the NHS is going to be the next huge crisis. I'm in a community team, and we've historically kept our waiting lists incredibly under control (because basically the shit hits the fan and people hit crisis and lives fall apart if we don't) but we've had so much staff loss, vacancy restrictions and recruitment difficulties we're now running at 50% staffing levels and I'm watching colleague mental health crumble at a terrifying rate. I'm having panic attacks on a morning before I go to work because I'm taking on too much in the way of cases way above my NHS band level of complexity - because it's the only way they're going to get seen and to try to keep my B7 colleague's head above water.

So far I've always managed to keep the person in mind when working - but I can truly understand people dropping to be on autopilot as the referrals just keep coming thick and fast - and people detach to keep themselves sane because in the mess we're in, if you care too much, you're going to go nuts with it.

Have to say I was in minor injuries the other day (needed x-rays for a suspected fracture) and the staff there were lovely to me, but absolutely swamped and overworked to hell. People were muttering about them going off on breaks when the waiting room was full - but it's their break and if they need to take it to stay slightly more sane - then bloody take the break.

Did you think this comment was amusing or insightful? I sat there, doubled over in pain and waited my turn. I had empathy with the other people waiting to be seen and trusted the triage process. I understand the staff were extremely busy. I didn't want a "fix of morphine", I wanted the pain to stop and to find out what was causing it.

I think the problem is that there are good and bad hospitals and it's pot luck which one your local is.

I went to hospital with heart problems last year and my experience was faultless. I was seen by the triage nurse within 10 minutes who took my bloods. I then went straight to majors where I waited 2 hours for blood results. During that time I had an ECG and another heart test monitor. Was given a bed in majors and then transferred up to a ward when bed became available. During my time in major A and E I was given a sandwich, biscuits and cups of tea.

My hospital has different sections, so breaks, strains and anything considered non urgent go to minors. Heart problems, breathing difficulties etc go to Majors A and E. See

So sorry to hear that OP. I had a similar experience in Jan when sent from a walk in with a pulmonary embolism. 18hrs later a young doctor passed it off as costochondria and sent me home. I was bed bound and having panic attacks. Eventually blue lighted back in the following week, again waiting over 18hrs on chairs to finally get a CT scan showing a quarter of my lung was damaged by a large clot. I could easily have died.

A few months on and I have been diagnosed as hyperthyroid in May - which I strongly suspect I have had on and off for many years and has been passed off as anxiety. I have hypertension and a B12 deficiency which seem to have led to CKD on top. The result is that I am so tired I can barely leave the house. I went from walking 10 miles a day to bed bound within months. It has taken me since January to really push to find out what cause the embolism because literally no one cared - 3 months apixaban and that was it - "otherwise healthy". Of course you don't just get an embolism for no reason, but now I have found the underlying causal factor it has been me pushing and pushing for medication (still not on as pharmacy had to order), further blood tests and continuous errors (they did bloods last week mean to check thyroid function and ended up checking my perfectly fine liver instead) and then I have another month wait for another blood test. I'm currently losing 2Ib a week in muscle and have 1% visceral fat. I honestly don't know if I will be able to walk up to the hospital for the replacement blood test to discover if I have Graves by then.

I am in the same boat - I have had to seek private cardiology. I have been put on various meds and some serious problems have been found. If I had not gone private I would still be waiting for the first appointment (about 5 months to go I think) and these serious problems would not have been picked up so I would still have been undertaking activities that would put me at risk.

I have a bit of savings that I am using - heaven help those who do not have this.

I know everyone has different experiences but my recent one, I could not fault the way we were dealt with by the paramedics and initially by a&e.

MIL suspected stroke. Paramedics arrived within 30 minutes (live in the countryside so would have been impossible to have arrived any quicker), taken to a&e. Met at the door by a consultant. Dedicated stroke team then arrived. Within 20 minutes of us being in a&e, my MIL had been assessed by two consultants and had a CT scan to confirm not a stroke.

We then had a very long wait (7 hours) before anything else happened but the initial emergency had been superbly dealt with and I could not fault at all.

More police in the department than actual medical staff. My mum waited 12 hours with a volvulus which can be fatal. Even when I broke my hip and shoulder I had to wait 7.5 hours on the floor for an ambulance. This was 2 years ago so it's even worse now.

I am sorry this happened to you. FYI - when you go by ambulance, you are likely still plonked in the waiting room with everyone else.

I have had a few A+E experiences that have also traumatised me. Being so vulnerable and in the hands of overworked staff is not good - I have instead been looking up private A and E in my area so I have options.

There is no such thing as private A&E.
It is why when Rishi said he would go private he clearly didn't know what he was talking about.

So what would happen to Rishi in an emergency? He's not going to be sitting on the waiting room floor with his security detail?

I've often wondered what the privileged do in these circumstances.

Yes there is.

It doesn't operate as the same as a regular A and E (private urgent care is probably more accurate) but they do exist.

If only A & E could have the same calm atmosphere and attentive staff that are featured on channel fours 24 hours in A and E . Usually St George’s in London. I wonder where in the country the best and worst A & E departments are.Beginning to feel phobic about A and E literally feels like hell in the waiting room.
BBCs Casualty is really portraying the real stress and dire straights the health service is in really well I think. The staff attentive as they can be in the situation?