A&E experience 8 hours wait

[marshmallowmix]

Not been to A&E in a very long time....I am gobsmacked at what I saw. Liked we were into a war zone....

We waited 8 hours and gave up and went home at 5am as we had had no sleep and couldn't handle the wait time, we were sent after we saw the out of hours doctor at the hospital.

No update, so many people everywhere, place was not clean and had being patrolled by two security guards that looked like they had come form the Russian army...

Not a nice place to wait, so many people like it is madness....people sleeping on seats when did it get this bad.

We keep building little box flats near me 5 new developments which will add thousands to the area but the one hospital on its knees as is every other service but we keep building and no new hospitals/dentists/doctors/schools...

I despair at the utter state of the country... I knew it was bad but what I saw last night was horrific and eye opening....we are in serious decline much worse than I thought...the A&E visit just brought it all in to sharp focus...

I've since looked up the reviews of my A&E and they are terrible really terrible...it is very frightening to think when you are ill and vulnerable the standard of care and what is out there...🙁

Our GP waiting rooms are always quiet two or three people at most. We have five nursing staff, 12 GPs, reception staff. Phone at 8am, sit in the queue. 48 minutes last time. Appointments gone. If you're lucky enough to get an appointment you get a message in questionnaire form a yes or no answer required which isn't helpful most of the time.

I have private health care am under a consultant so phoned to arrange a referral, which a GP needs to do. Was told no appointments. Explained I didn't need an appointment but they said a referral isn't an emergency. I stood my ground arguing in circles. I said id be calling in. Was amazed when a GP called back it was all sorted in a couple of minutes.

It's no wonder A&E is clogged up.

People always say that A&E has lots of time wasters.
They don't want to believe its as horrific as it really is, just in case they one day need urgent help.
They are convinced that should they need A&E, the wait wouldn't be excessive because they would only be attending A&E in a genuine emergency.
One day, many of those people who complain about time wasters will need A&E. It is then that they'll discover that the NHS really is broken, not even on its knees, but more completely faceplanted!
I fear becoming unwell enough to need A&E.
I have seen a woman in her 40's having a heart attack in A&E. She still had to wait over 4 hours to be seen.
I have seen a man curled up on the floor in the foetal position, screaming in agony whilst holding a cardboard sick bowl being completely ignored.
I have seen an elderly man sobbing loudly who also had to wait hours to be seen.
Something needs doing!
Most people don't realise how awful A&E is until they have need to go down there.
It is horrifying and I'm surprised the deaths aren't more common whilst people are sitting around waiting to be seen by a doctor.

In our local paper the other week the coroner said after the death of a man in the A&E department , it could have been avoided and systems need to be put in place.

The poor man died in 2023 two years ago, that's how long it took the coroners court to make that pronouncement.

A friend went to collect his wife from the hospital when she phoned him to be collected. By the time he got there she was dead.

He's going to take this all the way with the backing of his MP. I can't say anything more but if you'd heard the symptoms a lot of you would have come up with the correct diagnosis.

I think the public need data on the NHS so that out ecpectations are correctly set.
Population increase, demographics shift etc to highlight the challenges.

From an outside perspective and some limited personal experience social care is a big issue..most wards have elderly people who have complex health and care needs. In addition our expectation is that the NHS will keep us alive by providing us with access to the latest medical treatments. An 90 year old will have a pace maker fitted, despite zero mobility and lots of other conditions but because they can fix this issue the NHS will do it.

I don't support rationing but there needs to be an honest debate. There is definitely abuse of the system and seemingly no accountability for users of the NHS but also of its staff....unless your name is Peggie and you want to change in a single sex changing room!"

You think that's bad? My grandad (96)passed out and I was with him in A&E waiting for initial triage for 14 hours. Then a further 56 for a bed on a ward. It was horrendous and I slept leaning on the end of his bed sat on a chair.

A&E can be absolutely horrendous. It’s one reason I could not vote Conservative in the last general election. It’s difficult to under how bad it is until you experience it.

Labour are in charge now. And they’re making cuts. Also making false claims, fixing figures, just as the Tories did.

They are all in it together, all right. Against us.

These may be of interest: https://equalitytrust.org.uk/news/in-the-news/reaction-to-the-2025-spending-review/

https://fullfact.org/politics/2025-spending-review/

(and no, I did not sign up to this career originally: if I had I’d be better off as NHS staff used to be trained up and valued. I made the mistake of trusting a man and having kids and now I need to work around them: work as the boomers we provide service for never did).

Exactly this, and exactly why I have become pro active in getting myself as healthy as possible. Lost the extra weight, getting out and exercising, keeping up with age related screenings and blood tests ( BP meds Ive been on since my 20's - no amount of weightless and exercise will drop my BP ) , take the vacs offered ( apart from covid )

I do not want to be that person waiting in A+E because of something I could have prevented

Mum was "lucky" with the day we had absolutely no option but to ring 999. Aged 86, with cancer and heart failure, the last time she has seen a doctor in real life ( other then that day in A&E ) was 2021, a follow up to having her stents put in in 2020 . She's followed up now by nurses when they call her in for drug reviews. And that's all a complete shit show. She needs certain drugs to keep the heart going. She gets 28 days, not calendar months, so her routine repeat prescriptions come to an end and the surgery won't put them on repeat until she has been seen by a nurse, and may have to wait a week or more for an appointment. Stresses her, because she is scared she will die, stresses us cos we have to deal with the anxiety and worry

Im older, not as old as her, but I see how health care has become for the elderly, I'm actually petrified of getting poorly and needing medical help

I was at a&E a few weeks ago . There were very poorly patients leaving .

i left after 8 hours . The doctor tried to persuade me to stay but i was going to be waiting at least another 4 hours to be seen . I was assessed to see if I was sectionable before they allowed me to leave . I do have injuries that did require medical treatment from A&E and am left with worse scarring because I couldn’t stay my anxiety was too high there and i needed to take some diazepam so I was able to breathe properly .

it was full of very poorly patients .

A lot of threads like this - see also missed appointments or DNA - go the same way . It's easier to blame people for abusing the system, going to A and E for eg a cold or broken nail, taking up time unnecessarily, or conversely not bothering to turn up for appointments, than accept that the system is broken.....because how do you go about fixing it...? Is it fixable? There are no clear cut or obvious answers, and it's an ongoing conundrum....

A small minority of people most likely do abuse the system but really how many people are actually hanging around A and E for no good reason? It's a shit place to spend a day, or night (I suppose a homeless person or addict might think it was a safe option)
Sone people might be there when their problem could potentially be dealt with in minor injuries if there was such a facility in their area. Some people might have let a health condition get to crisis point because getting a GP apt was almost impossible.. .and the rest might genuinely be there because they had an accident or emergency
Even if we say 25% of people shouldn't have been there, OP might still have waited 6 hours....

I agree. I went recently having not been for 3-4 years.

There was a queue out the door to check in.

However mine had a separate section for immune suppressed people to sit and anyone with a child went in a different queue. The triage was managed brilliantly, so you'd have one thing done then be sent back out, then go back in for another test. The doctor was so thorough I could not fault her.

It was a potentially life threatening event but turned out to be fine after tests, so think I waited 2.5 hours to be seen initially and 5 hours in total.

Back in 2016 on a Tuesday morning it was 1.5 hours (for the same 'illness', which I ended up being admitted for and left 18 days later!), so not much different.

But it was waaayyyyy busier than I've ever seen, though it was a very hot Monday afternoon, so timing possibly played a part.

The organisation though was brilliant. Although they lost my bloods and had to do them again.

Quite so

just choosing a username

GPs should be well paid and part of the nhs not privatised. We train an abundant amount of GPs every year, yet we get to see a nurse practitioner when we go, or an associate practitioner who studied for couple of years.

More urgent care centres should open, and reopen walk in centres which were amazing, the problem would be solved then.
Went recently to A&E and NO one looked like a time waster. The place was heaving.

The time wasters are those criminals being brought in by the police to get checked for free - bill paid by the tax payer. They come in grinning as if it’s a jolly day out.

I consider myself very lucky. Pre-covid my GP practice was excellent. During, and afterwards it seemed harder to get appointments, but a couple of weeks ago when I rang late morning to explain my husband's symptoms, and my suspicions about the cause, I got an appointment for early that afternoon with a really nice doctor. Just as he finished the prescribed antibiotics he fell and couldn't get up. I called an ambulance. It didn't take too long. After getting him back on his feet and doing an ECG and other tests and checking that he could walk they left. A few hours later I had to call an ambulance again. He couldn't stand and was talking nonsense. We went to A and E. He was put straight onto a bed and after a short spell on a corridor, he was taken to an individual bay. He had blood tests and a urine sample taken. It was about 4 hours later when he was seen by a consultant. He was sent for X-rays. I.V. antibiotics were immediatly started. Another doctor saw him and two physical therapists. He was transferred to a different kind of bed. He was given breakfast. He was then transferred to a ward in another nearby hospital. I went home to grab a couple of hours sleep before visiting him. I was awoken 3 times by a senior nurse, a doctor, and a pharmacist asking me various questions about his normal capabilities and medications which I didn't mind at all.

A family member spent 15 hours in A&E with a suspected fractured pelvis . A porter took his wheel chair from him so he sat in the floor as he could not stand , staff ignored him when he said he needed the toilet .

DP got rushed to hospital by the gp last March, suspected sepsis. Now I’ve always been under the impression that suspected sepsis was to be treated quickly, he waited and hour and a half for the blood test, they removed him from the bed and too the most uncomfortable chairs ever. We were there 4 hours and no one came to tell us anything, then finally someone came to tell us he needed X-ray, took them until my bf said he was leaving to finally have us go down to X-ray. Then a further 45 mins for a doctor to come talk to us. Luckily he didn’t have sepsis, but it was pneumonia - which is also life threatening and he is asthmatic.
nhs is literally on its knees, I’m not blaming the doctors, nurses etc, I blame the government… needed to pump more money into it years ago and now we are suffering the consequences. All In all we were there for 7 hours., which I’m seeing is good but it shouldn’t have to be like that.

Everyone on here banging on about 'No need to go to A&E - not serious enough' is going to get a horrible shock when THEY need A&E and see the carnage.

Be smug all you like. The NHS is on its knees and sticking your head in the sand isn't going to help in your hour of need.

I get you were advised by the OOH but considering triage had you waiting for 8-hours, you should’ve been advised to wait for your GP. I presume you were triaged at arrival (or some point within first hour)?

I don't believe local people are going to the hospital except in extremis waiting times in our Welsh health board are much worse than England and we're all aware from local press, FB etc. . The paramedics warn you how long it's likely to be. There's ambulances stuck there not able to hand over patients.

However, visitors from England are in for a rude awakening if they're receiving a better service at home and womble up there.

It's a postcode lottery.

I was recently in a high impact car crash. The paramedics wanted to take me to a hospital that had been in the news that week for people spending 72 hours lying on the floor. I refused to go. Turns out I was badly injured internally although they were only worried about a bruise on my head. I have major surgery this week for my injuries. I went to a different hospital with only a seven hour wait. It really is a mess.

Unfortunately A&E becomes the scapegoat for the lack of primary and community care that has been cut back to the bare bones.

GP's won't see people or when they refer patients are stuck on long waiting lists and get sicker and sicker. Then at the other end we have patients in wards that are well enough to be discharged but not to home. These become bed blockers preventing people from A&E moving upwards. You then end up with people bed blocking in A&E stretching staff so waiting times become longer to be seen.

We honestly need more services at GP level and more cottage care homes as an inbetween with our aging population. My elderly great nan ended up unwell. She was discharged to a hospital in the community. She was there two weeks whilst social services were trying to sort out further care. Unfortunately she became more unwell and passed away. However 5 days on a ward and then 14 days in the community. Had she not been discharged she would have bed blocked for nearly 3 weeks, that is not sustainable.

We have previously lived in an area that had a community hospital which was inbetween two city hospitals. They did things such as physio, maternity, same day primary care assessments and renal. It was a fantastic resource but unfortunately underused.

Edited to add: I honestly believe that health care should be treated like a supply chain. Drives me mad that we can move a box of pencils from a door in Asia to a person's home in the UK using multiple modes of transport but yet we can't move people through a system to make them well.

I am a regular customer of A&E because of heart problems - the wait times are always appalling.

One A&E when I was on holiday in Wales failed to diagnose a heart attack. It was later diagnosed in my local A&E. By that time I had had another.

It is always clear that many of the patients are there because they cannot get appointments with their GPs - my late OH was a GP and I know that the sort of things that are being dealt with (you know what they are because a lot of the conversations take place in the waiting room or corridor) would never before have come near A&E. But these patients are in pain and cannot wait two or three weeks to be seen at their surgery, only then to be referred on to a long wait for a hospital appointment. It is also sometimes the only way to get investigations that are needed as the OP wait times for these are beyond ridiculous.

Patients who would once have been admitted are sitting in the corridors with drips up being treated in full view of all the others.

What I will say is that almost always (with the odd exception) the staff are unfailingly courteous and kind and I have the impression that they are doing their very best in impossible circumstances. What is lacking is communication - so often I have sat next to people who have been waiting hours and they say they could cope with it if they just knew what was happening. They sit and wonder if they have been lost in the system.

What it needs is someone with the time to come up to them and say, for instance: "We are ordering blood tests and a CT scan - there may be a bit of a wait for this - and when these results are all back the doc will come and tell you what is needed." They are then happy to wait.

On my last sojourn in A&E I had been triaged and after several hours someone came up to me and said "We are going for your CT now" - ah - I did not know a CT was planned. Then, several hours later, a nurse came and took me behind a curtain and introduced herself as the Stroke Nurse - no-one had even suggested that I might have had a stroke or said she was being called in - I hadn't, and thankfully had enough knowledge to know this - but imagine this out of the blue! - how frightening.

This is not a complaint about any individual - but an illustration of the fact that no-one has the time for any niceties like communication!

The hospital in Wales who missed my heart attack received a formal complaint from me and to be fair to them they communicated with me very quickly and went on to have a full investigation which resulted in protocols being changed and new training for staff based on my case and the mistakes that were made.

It seems to me that in the main these are all good people trying to work in an impossible situation. No wonder they leave.

Next time my DH has chest pain I'll phone 999. I wish I had last time.

He spent 24hrs on a trolley in a corridor before seeing a doctor, 24hrs in a bay in A&E then 12 hrs on a geriatric ward before being sent home.

He needs an angiogram.

His outpatient appointment arrived 15months later. We're still waiting on the angiogram (although he did have an MRI a couple of weeks ago).

He's a ticking time bomb. I'm a mess.

If you're well enough to self-discharge after waiting for a while then you probably should have got a GP appointment in the first place.