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.

PCcrisps

I imagine they would jump the queue to an extent. Some poor bastard in a non life threatening condition would be suddenly further down the list.

Yes, maybe Rishi with the security concerns is a poor example, but what about a pop star or some other wealthy celeb, or someone unknown but wealthy?

There is also a lot that really expensive private hospitals can treat - eg when Kate Middleton was rushed to hospital during her first pregnancy it was straight to a private one that probably has more in line with private urgent care facilities. So would be able to sort broken leg etc.

Unless its major trauma I can’t imagine many of them go to A and E.

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 didn't intend to be amusing. Insightful? I had some empathy with you until I read your response to a poster who'd made some valid observations. You could have ignored her, but instead you chose to be abusive. You wanted empathy from everyone, not the voice of reason. I ceased to feel much empathy for you at that point.

A+E staff checked you out and ran some observations when they triaged you. Your obs (pulse, blood pressure etc) didn't give cause for concern. From what you say there was no other indication of anything causing the pain. They gave you a painkiller and waited to see if that worked. In time the pain subsided — whether as a result of the painkiller or not, who knows?

Treating people who are reporting pain in A+E departments without physical evidence is complex and fraught with difficulties. There are people who repeatedly turn up in A+E reporting pain and some of them have addiction and MH issues. Staff follow protocols.

You might find this of interest. It's from the US but they have the same issues there. You might want to use this research in order to ask your health board to change protocol or triage more carefully.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3004630/

I spent 8 hours in A&E with a broken bone last year, so it's not just that they're dealing with them quicker necessarily.

I got triaged quickly and x-rayed quickly then was moved on to a different waiting room to be diagnosed and sent home. I was out of sight of the main waiting room, but still sat there for another 5 hours, before being moved to a cubicle as I was in pain and exhausted. I dozed there for another hour or so before the doctor came, told me I'd broken my shoulder, gave me some oromorph (which did bugger all) and told me someone would come back with some painkillers to take home with me. I finally thought I was going home but no, another hour to wait for that!

Then they only gave me enough painkillers to get me through to when I could go to a more local hospital to be seen again to get more as they couldn't refer me to my own PCT fracture clinic. They told me I had to present at my local A&E the next day to get a referral! I had spent enough time at A&E at that point, so I called 111 instead and they booked me an appointment with my GP for Monday morning, who prescribed the painkillers for me and did the fracture clinic referral, at least saving me another X hours of waiting unnecessarily in an A&E department.

Like you, I didn't see many staff and, once through to the second waiting area, barely saw any patients either. It was so, so quiet. I actually ended up assuming that they were so short staffed the cubicles were actually mostly empty because they just didn't have enough people to see to anyone.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience too OP.

It probably also depends on how many people are serviced by each hospital.
I can definitely say that since the Tories came in, and over the past 15 years waiting times at our town hospital have increased from 4 to anything between 8 &23 hours.
Minors get seen in a separate wing, children's A&E is separate from the adult one but some people being brought in by ambulance with even heart attacks and seizures are left to wait in the waiting area for hours on end because of a shortage of doctors.

No obs were done on me for 3 hours, in spite of the fact that I was taken in with known heart problems and chest pain.

Of course it's unpleasant if they made it to quick and easy everyone would go instead of using the correct channels. I'm glad the pain went.

My husband and I have both had to use an and e in lady couple of months. Triaged between 30 minutes and an hour. Got to see doctor within a couple of hours - had pain relief given (me), blood tests, scans etc. An op was arranged for me within 48 hours.

It wasn’t perfect, but the people we saw were good. We don’t consider it a horror story, like others have had.

Awful. This is the result of 14 years of Tory (mis)rule. Get them out.

I can't say who obviously but I have seen a few celebs in A &E, they wait with everyone else tbh.

There was a website that hit the headlines not so long ago where women and girls were able to post their anonymous stories of being sexually abused. It got a lot of traction if I recall correctly.

I feel like something similar is needed for the NHS. An account of people's stories where they have been let down, ignored, or dismissed. Because until this stuff is regularly called out, nothing will change.

Part of the problem is our culture of worship of the NHS. We're so desperate to retain it that we keep singing its praises even when it's failing us. We need to acknowledge that, although it's essential that healthcare remains free at the point of use, the current system isn't working.

It's also because seeing a GP has become so hard I think. If you are waiting days trying to get through by phone or get access via the app because of a technical issue, you aren't getting primary care and having to burden A&E instead.

Actually when I finally got a GP appt in the next village I got quite cross. I sat for 20 mins in a completely empty waiting room and the phone didn't ring once. Contrast to my frantic calling and getting a voicemail and the man who came storming in as I was leaving demanding an appointment because he couldn't get through.... System is very broken.

For my aunt it was a sudden spike in her blood pressure and just an overall feeling of something being wrong, tongue slightly swollen, feeling very shaky. 111 advised a&E immediately,they would let them know we were on the way.
triage nurse made it clear we did not belong there.
GP was shocked when she heard what had happened and not happy at all at the lack of care.
There's a level of disconnect within the NHS as a whole.
If 111 send you to a&E, they've already notified them you're on the way so why she took issue with us being there I'll never know.

I feel like this has been a problem for a long time I was hospitalised twice for tonsillitis that I couldn’t get a GP appointment for 20 years ago. They had a fun system that you frantically called at 8:30 and then finally got through after nine to be told no appointments for next three days call back tomorrow. You either get better or get sick enough to be considered worthy of a same day emergency appointment. My current GP practice is fab though and it makes a big difference.

That is what mine is like at the moment. Charming voicemail saying they are currently not taking calls and to ring 999 if it is an emergency.
If you can get the app working and get full access (how old people manage this is beyond me as it has taken me 4 months to get full access myself) you can message and try to get an appointment there. Not ideal if you are somewhere with no internet or are having problems with your hands or eyes....

@Abeona - no one physically examined me until around 5.30pm, by which time I had been there 6.5 hours. I wasn't lying about the pain. I wasn't, nor am I, a druggie after a fix of morphine.

I saw the GP earlier today as I was lucky enough to get a cancellation. He's a former A&E doctor. He physically examined me and believes there is something that needs sorting for me. He thought I was fobbed off after an inconclusive ultrasound and if the second doctor (obstetrician) really believed what they told me, should have referred me to gastroenterology instead of sending me home. He's referred me for another ultrasound and booked further tests, largely to rule out a couple of things. A&E haven't sent the blood test results through yet and he'll get them chased and re-order if not forthcoming in next few days.

This demonstrates a huge lack of understanding of medicine which is fine as you are not a doctor
but pain settling with pain relief does not mean there is nothing wrong with you.

Sadly the norm! I was there with my very young child who was ill for about 6 hours, and ended up vomiting and fainting in the waiting room myself (in front of my child) - another patient had to alert a nurse etc etc. it’s a shambles and frighteningly dangerous

Remember not to vote tory or reform

My DS's friend had a car accident recently and they thought she might've broken a vertebrae
She waited for 9 hours in agony asking for pain relief
They eventually brought her.., 2 paracetamol!!
Her partner went home for her cocodamol which she takes normally
It's disgusting. They could've offered when she booked in
This was a general hospital in the SW

I don't know why you're posting either. You going to go train as frontline staff then or change social and political attitudes to the NHS?

Part of the problem is our culture of worship of the NHS. We're so desperate to retain it that we keep singing its praises even when it's failing us. We need to acknowledge that, although it's essential that healthcare remains free at the point of use, the current system isn't working

We worship the NHS but are not willing to pay more for it.

Medical inflation far outstrips CPI/RPI and we rarely fund it to those levels, so in effect are constantly cutting back... look what we used to do? Ambulances on time, GP home visits, planned home births, home visits by health visitors.... all a rarity.

West Devon doesn't even have any community neuro therapists, so people go without or have to travel... not so easy if you ve a brain injury.

As i posted previously, we spend less per head than almost any other European country & have done for decades.

Its the same with dentistry, we all want NHS dentists but wont pay the taxes for it, plenty of dentists in the UK, but few will work in the nhs for a pittance, easily sorted by money but we wont pay.

I never said it did. You seem to be the one with comprehension issues.

I said that — according to the doctor and nurses I've known over the years who've worked in A+E — among those doubled up in pain whose observations are within normal parameters will be people who are feigning in the hope of getting a fix or people with mental health issues. This is why staff don't immediately supply the highest levels of pain relief. They usually have access to medical notes, so while you think someone sitting groaning in the seat next to you is about to die, the staff will know that that person presents in A+E several times a month hoping for — well, who knows?

I went on to say to the OP in a following post:
A+E staff checked you out and ran some observations when they triaged you. Your obs (pulse, blood pressure etc) didn't give cause for concern. From what you say there was no other indication of anything causing the pain. They gave you a painkiller and waited to see if that worked. In time the pain subsided — whether as a result of the painkiller or not, who knows?

Treating people who are reporting pain in A+E departments without physical evidence is complex and fraught with difficulties. There are people who repeatedly turn up in A+E reporting pain and some of them have addiction and MH issues. Staff follow protocols.

You might find this of interest. It's from the US but they have the same issues there. You might want to use this research in order to ask your health board to change protocol or triage more carefully.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3004630/