How long in a chair in a&e?

[ThisMustBeMyDream]

My DH has been diagnosed with a perforated bowel. We've been in urgent care/a&e since 1pm. He doesn't care if they nurse him on a corridor, but he just wants to lie down. He's in a chair and exhausted and in pain. Lying down relieves the symptoms (he discovered when he had an ecg).
There's no sign of a bed for him. I asked about a trolley - no, none of them.
How long is it acceptable to leave someone in a chair? My head's a shed, can't think straight. I've had a hell of a week with my DF after collapsing and having CPR. He's been diagnosed with encephalitis and it's life changing. So having spent Monday night doing a 3 hour dash to my dad, then 3 days down with him. Coming back home and my DH becoming unwell today... I'm an emotional wreck. I just need a sense check on what's normal.

I do hope your husband is OK and received the care he needs soon.
I truly dread the next time either I or my family member next has to use A&E.
I was told to go two weeks ago, but then luckily they changed their minds and said I could go to out of hours GP instead, where I waited only 15 minutes and was seen by a very thorough doctor.

Something has to change with A&E. I'm sure many would happily pay more. People who have PMI could extend that to include some sort of emergency cover.

The nhs is finished, absolutely disgusting that people are being left in these conditions. We're not a 3rd world country!

I'm so sorry, I hope your husband has a bed now.

My grandma in her 80s has just spent 6 days on a trolley, she was on a ward, shoved in the corner but there were no beds to give, they have 4 beds plus a trolley in every bay on the ward. She's fell twice going to the toilet as she's supposed to get help but nobody comes. The staff seem to be doing their best they are just overrun. She has just got a bed today after being admitted last weekend.

It’s awful and a disgrace. The government over the years has let a narrative build up that A&E is overrun with people there for a splinter. While that may be the case it isn’t the cause of the problems. Sick (often elderly) people stuck in corridors are there because they are ill but there are no beds. It is dangerous, cramped and undignified. People deteriorate in these conditions and it affects long term prognosis often then needing a bed for longer before discharge and coming out in a far worse state. Even if you get a bed, there’s a good chance it’s not in the right ward for your issue (think cardiac patients in respiratory).

It’s a national scandal but it’s far easier to blame Janet for her splinter than acknowledge hospitals are running too hot and there aren’t enough beds. We’re not even in winter yet so if it’s bad now, it’s only going to be worse in January.

It went from bad to worse. At 6.30 they told us to leave the bay area and return to the waiting room.
I had to go and make sure my children went to school so had to leave for an hour. I returned at 7.45 and he was hot and in pain. I asked for his temp to be checked and pain relief and was told "they'd get to him". I went to the sister in charge and was told there are people who've been waiting 44 hours for a bed in the waiting room and 1 nurse to 40 patients for a med round so they'd get to him when they get to him. She then said how she thought he could go home and have IV abx from home. I said no, he's not coming home. He has a perforated bowel and he isn't going anywhere.
20 minutes later the surgeons came and said he needs surgery and will have a stoma. He is a fit and well 39 year old (40 tomorrow!!!!) and this has come totally out of the blue. We were then both thrown out of the room and put back in the waiting room.
I'm in shock. Exhausted. Scared. I can't even imagine what he must feel like.
This place is just horrendous.

I have been in this situation twice this month. I had to lie on the floor. The first time I was eventually given a reclining chair, the second a trolley. IME it’s not the amount of staff, or quality of care but the physical space that would enable replacing some of the chairs with a basic bed to lie on.

It's not acceptable, but it's also not unusual and it's unlikely there's much the hospital can do about it.

I spent 12 hours in A&E on a metal bench in the waiting room, in full-on agony and vomiting, a few months ago. At one point I was on a drip and having IV medication in the waiting room. No trolleys available, let alone a bed. At one point I was literally lying on the floor in a foetal ball. Some of the staff were visibly distressed at having to treat patients like that but they had no other option. It's appalling.

This is horrendous. I just saw you said the same but I just read it thinking wtf

Quite honestly I would be tweeting/contacting the chief exec/head of the trust on social media.

As well as PALs.

14 years of tory austerity and brexit, then covid.
🤷
Its not going to get better

I was told it was an hour wait for an ambulance when my mum had a stroke
18 months ago
She still hasnt been seen by the stroke team.

I had to lie/slump on the floor when I went in with pneumonia a few years ago.

There weren't even any chairs and I couldn't breathe well enough to stay up. I had a high temp and was vomiting on hands and knees.

It's utterly humiliating and must delay recovery for patients to go through such an ordeal to get help.

It is ridiculous for a country as well off as ours to have such unacceptable treatment as standard

Do people with private medical insurance get treated like this?

Horrendous. What do millionaires do? What does the Archbishop of Canterbury do? What about royalty? Upper classes? Is there a private A&E for ‘special’ people? ☹️

That is absolutely horrendous.

Of course they do if they go to A&E. Not much else you can do when it’s an emergency, unfortunately.

He can’t be in that much pain then. If I was in agony and laying down relieved it, I’d be on the floor whether they liked it or not.

My son had emergency surgery to have a stoma fitted last year. He had been a fit and healthy 8 year old up to that point until cancer caused a bowel obstruction and septic shock.

It's very shocking but usually it is just a temporary measure, my son had his stoma for 9 months and had it reversed almost a year ago now after he had finished chemotherapy.

Keep an eye out for symptoms of sepsis and alert someone if you think he does have any symptoms. I really hope that he can get a bed soon xx

A perforated bowel is a surgical emergency. I can’t believe what I’m reading here OP. The nhs is failing. I can’t believe this poor man wasn’t given IV antibiotics and prepped for surgery?

As lady did this when I was there with DM, screaming and writhing around on the floor. It was awful.
Two women we spoke to her had been there for three nights. The NHS is on its knees. I’m sorry OP.

My MIL spent 48 hours sat on hard chairs in A&E after being blue lighted in with pneumonia. It was New Year's Eve and there were clearly not enough staff on duty with it being a bank holiday! They just kept shuffling her around first from a holding area into the triage waiting area, then several hours later into the consulting area, but still on hard chairs in a different waiting area. No drinks, no meals, and barely any staff bothering to come to take her obs and check on her etc. She died on 3 January, just a few hours after being finally taken onto a ward, which had miraculously re-opened the day the staff came back after the New Year's break - on the ward there was a sense of urgency, with A/B drips, fluids, etc., but she'd deteriorated so much, it was a hopeless case.

You have to be well to go to A and E these days to be able to sit on those plastic chairs for hours/days 🙄

So my DH was taken to hospital in an abulance, he had had an actual heart attack. He was left in the a and e waiting room on a chair for over 9 hours before being taken into the ward. He was sitting next to a lady with a serious head wound that was actually bleeding for the entire time.
He had had a series of heart attacks, they think about 6 small attacks and ended up having a stent put in so it was pretty serious though he wasnt arresting on the floor.
9 bloody hours on a chair.
So I think no wait is acceptable for anyone, but wait you must.

I do think sometimes there is a logistical difference that could be done. For example, when I had my youngest I was high risk with cholestasis and admitted with ruptured membranes onto the general pre and post natal ward. When I went into very fast labour later that night they just kept telling me there were no labour rooms available, because they had a new system for delivery where you had the baby in the labour room and if uncomplicated, were discharged from that same room 24 hours later or so. This was lovely for those families, but meant delivered women were blocking labour rooms and people like me just kept being told 'no rooms until they are discharged tomorrow morning'. In the end I gave birth on the prenatal ward which felt very unsafe (and I kept being told I couldn't - I pointed out I couldn't just cross my legs!)

I was then moved to a private room due to some complications. When we were due to be discharged a few days later, we were told around 11 am we would be going home, but we had to get some medication signed off by a pediatrician. This took until 5pm. That 6 hours we were room blocking and as we left there were pregnant women waiting for a space who could have had our room. I even asked if we could wait in the day room but was told once you are in a room, you are in it until officially signed out.

Having a discharge space would free up quite a few beds several hours earlier, wouldn't it?