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Original poster

How long in a chair in a&e?

282 replies

ThisMustBeMyDream · 20/10/2025 01:42

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.

OP posts:
taxguru · 20/10/2025 15:11

Midnightlove · 20/10/2025 10:42

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

I agree. My DH has cancer and even for something that serious, his "treatment" has been shambolic, with cancelled chemo appointments, cancelled tests (x-rays, MRIs, bone marrow samples etc), lost test results, wrong blood tests being done, and the "specialist" cancer nurses not seeming to have a clue about anything, unable to answer simple queries re side effects, complications of chemo, etc. It's a constant almost weekly battle for him to get anywhere at all as no one answers their phones, messages left aren't replied to etc. It's a minor miracle he's still alive. Sometimes his "essential" drugs prescriptions are 2 or 3 weeks late being issued meaning he goes a week or two without his chemotherapy drugs. I really don't think there's any way back for the NHS.

YorkshireGoldDrinker · 20/10/2025 15:19

I'm so sorry, OP. This is a multifaceted problem.

Managerialism that is rife in the NHS. Many non-medically inclined penpushers on handsome salaries that spend time ticking boxes and following procedures that only exist to keep people in their jobs. Those willing to pay more will just create new jobs for more managers. This is also why there is a lack of beds because people aren't being discharged in a timely manner, which then leads to ambulances waiting outside for hours.

Too many time-wasters tying up resources.

GPs that can't diagnose or don't want to take the time to investigate and yet can't prescribe a magic pill to cure the problem.

Winter is fast-approaching and I'm certain the NHS will declare it's usual string of annual critical incidences as ambulances wait in their dozens to get patients into the hospital.

Whatflavourjellybabyisnice · 20/10/2025 15:24

That's absolutely appalling, @ThisMustBeMyDream !!!!! The state of the NHS is really showing now!!!!

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

General health
DemonsandMosquitoes · 20/10/2025 15:53

MoreIcedLattePlease · 20/10/2025 10:13

It's fucking horrendous, OP. I was taken in earlier this week with a serious deterioration in a herniated disc. The pain was worse than labour and I too was put on one of those bloody chairs with 3 other people right there. The lack of dignity was so upsetting - for all of us! Every single bed was occupied by people so old they were obviously end of life. I don't know the solution to the aging population problem, but it's not whatever this is now.

Are private EDs a thing? They should be at this point tbh. The NHS is done.

Difficult conversations needed about this prolonging life at all costs.
Nurse of 35 years.

LemonJellyLegs · 20/10/2025 16:16

A local hospital is now advertising for Corridor Nurses, literally someone to nurse you in the corridor! Bays are even marked out on the floor...

OnlyOnAFriday · 20/10/2025 16:21

Orangemintcream · 20/10/2025 14:38

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

As well as PALs.

100% this if he hasn’t had the surgery yet.

JenniferBooth · 20/10/2025 16:26

LemonJellyLegs · 20/10/2025 16:16

A local hospital is now advertising for Corridor Nurses, literally someone to nurse you in the corridor! Bays are even marked out on the floor...

What a shithole of a third world country we have become

Glitterballofdreams · 20/10/2025 16:30

I was in a chair 17 hours in A&E before even seeing a doctor. Followed by a further 19 hours in another department. I also felt more comfortable lying down. I really hope your husband is more comfortable soon

NotMeNoNo · 20/10/2025 16:46

My 81 year old father was 42 hours sitting in a chair in A&E last week, he had been vomiting blood after 2 major abdominal cancer surgeries. They have a "fit to sit" area with vinyl armchairs but he said it was the worst 2 days. Fortunately they found a bed late the second evening so he only had one night of it. There were others there waiting just as long.

GingerPaste · 20/10/2025 17:38

Seriously, anyone going to A&E these days needs to prepare as if it were a camping trip (because it might well be). I’ve been in twice this year with other people - both in significant pain - for 14 and 9 hours, respectively.

The first visit was overnight and there were people (including a pregnant woman) lying/sleeping on the bare floor. There were NO staff seeing anyone at all between about 2 and 8am.

taxguru · 20/10/2025 18:35

@GingerPaste

There were NO staff seeing anyone at all between about 2 and 8am.

This is how it was when we were in on New Year's Day (and day after) with MIL - very few staff around and no significant movement nor flow of patients. Massive difference the third day when the place was swarming with staff and things started to move again.

DrMadelineMaxwell · 20/10/2025 18:48

This was my experience the other night. I was sent in by OOH to rule out a blood clot or pneumonia. By the time OOH rang me back and sent me in it was midnight.

The screens in the waiting room said 5 hour approx wait.
The triage nurse said 9 hours.

Actually it was 12 before I was seen and given a chest xray. There was NO movement at all, no names called (apart from calling people to have their obs taken which got hopes up!) overnight.

There were people there on their 2nd day of waiting for a bed.

It was horrific.

Wintersonata · 20/10/2025 18:57

columnatedruinsdomino · Today 14:54
Horrendous. What do millionaires do

I believe there are private a & e departments in some private hospitals in London such as the Cromwell and Princess Grace but I don’t think they are open 24 hours.

Anditstartedagain · 20/10/2025 19:34

Chafing · 20/10/2025 15:10

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?

Our newish local emergency hospital does have a discharge ward, DH was put in it for 5 days last year because they had not space on an actual ward.

GingerPaste · 20/10/2025 19:44

taxguru · 20/10/2025 18:35

@GingerPaste

There were NO staff seeing anyone at all between about 2 and 8am.

This is how it was when we were in on New Year's Day (and day after) with MIL - very few staff around and no significant movement nor flow of patients. Massive difference the third day when the place was swarming with staff and things started to move again.

A nurse came in at 2am and said no-one would be seen until 8am as there were no doctors. Some people went home. Some poor bloke (half-dressed, probably with dementia, totally alone) was wandering around upset and babbling to himself for hours.

Surely, it’s not beyond the wit of man to provide some blankets, pillows, hot drinks, comfortable chairs (you sure wouldn’t be allowed to sit in a hard effing chair at work for 8 hours solid)!

But actually, the staff in the hospital have very little autonomy to make any improvements for stuff that’s blindingly obviously an issue.

BoredZelda · 20/10/2025 19:48

JacknDiane · 20/10/2025 14:52

Do people with private medical insurance get treated like this?

There is no A&E for private patients.

Garamousalata · 20/10/2025 19:51

I went through A & E with blood clots in both lungs. I was left sitting on a very uncomfortable chair for hours. I swear it took me so long to recover because of sitting on that bloody chair. My back and my legs hurt. It’s grim.

My DH had an endoscopy and biopsy from his pancreas. Later that evening he became unwell. There was a number to call for advice. The advice was to go to A & E. He sat for hours, becoming more and more unwell. Eventually he was seen and admitted. He died a week later. It was just awful.

WannaFOffOnHoliday · 20/10/2025 20:04

I sat on a hard chair in A&E for 19 hours with a suspected brain bleed waiting for a stroke Bed

The NHS is Grim

Harriet9955 · 20/10/2025 20:10

Can't believe what I'm reading. It's absolutely disgusting. My dh waited all night to be seen last week after he collapsed at a concert and the venue medical person insisted he go to A&E. Cannot imagine what it's like for people so much sicker than him.

bestbefore · 20/10/2025 21:08

My 82 year old mum in agony spent hours in a chair in a&e once - waiting on a bed. They came and said the bed is ready after about 7 hours and we went to get up but the staff had literally vanished. Eventually got her up to the ward at 3am and they weren’t expecting her but had a sodding bed there which had clearly been there for hours with no sheets on it. How I didn’t loose my shit I will never know.

StarCourt · 20/10/2025 21:14

DiscoBob · 20/10/2025 10:31

If it's like my a&e they won't let you lie on the floor. In fact someone with a paralysed leg and nerve damage and broken ankle was refused any kind of 'bed' and made to sit on a chair in SDEC for six hours. Even though the section in ER with beds was empty. That was after six hours on a chair in main a&e. The pain was so bad he ended up leaving before the doctors came round.

I hope he gets to lie down soon. I was brought in an ambulance and was on a trolley then a bed, then surgery then ward. But this was a broken hip so I couldn't sit up. Or maybe it helps if you come in an ambulance?

It doesn’t, I was taken to A &E 10 days ago by ambulance also for a bowel issue. Was seen for initial ecg, bloods, obs etc then told they were going to take me to a waiting room which would be better as i’d be seen faster.
This turned out to be the general population A&E waiting room with about 150 people in. I was left in there in my nightie and dressing gown, I had a seat but literally couldn’t sit still from the pain and (sorry tmi) diarrhoea shooting out of me every 20 mins or so. No chance of lying down at all. After 2 hrs in there it was announced that it would be a further 7 hours until anybody saw a doctor. I got an Uber and went home. I’d only allowed the paramedics to take me in because they’d said the wait would be a long one but i’d be able to lie down in the ambulance while waiting and they’d be able to give me some pain relief.

EleanorReally · 20/10/2025 21:17

i hope things have happened now @ThisMustBeMyDream

EleanorReally · 20/10/2025 21:17

otoh an elderly lady i know of was discharged around midnight, to an empty house

MigGirl · 20/10/2025 21:37

JacknDiane · 20/10/2025 14:52

Do people with private medical insurance get treated like this?

I hurd many Americans say it's not any better in the ER's in the US despite having medical insurance. They don't actually get any better emergency treatment. Plus it can be a worry if they send the wrong ambulance and your insurance company won't pay for that one. As they don't just have one system like ours.

I don't know why their ER's are so bad.

AppropriateAdult · 20/10/2025 21:38

WarmWasabi · 20/10/2025 15:02

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?

100% this. He should have been on his way to theatre as soon as the diagnosis was made; this isn’t the sort of thing that can wait around. Hope he’s had his surgery now, OP, and is resting comfortably.