a&e bad experience

[cucumberpeach]

Just having a little moan as feeling a bit sorry for myself. I know people go through worse things.

I woke up with agonising abdominal pain which worsened all day, vomiting and everything and not keeping anything down. DM called the GP for me and they sent for an ambulance which took several hours to come (not complaining, it's not their fault, obvs there will have been more serious cases to attend to).

Eventually they came and I've now been in the hospital for hours in agony. They didn't give me pain relief, had to beg for it several times. It helped but then wore off and they ignored my polite requests for more. They actually shouted at me when I tried to lie on the floor as it brought relief. They told off a kind lady who went to ask if I could be seen as I was in a lot of pain for misleading them as they thought she was asking for her own mother and asking on behalf of someone else is apparently 'against the rules'.

After asking at the desk four times over the course of an hour they gave me a codeine pill but I'm dreading it wearing off.

Just a bad experience and still haven't seen the dr. Upside is seeing how kind the patients are to eachother, we're all sticking up for eachother! One women was stroking my hair as I lay on the floor in pain.

I realise nurses and medics have a really hard job btw. Just quite miserable at this point.

One thing I know for certain is that I will NEVER leave a loved one alone in A&E
Unfortunately for my other half, I refuse to be left too. (Although I'm actually marked as an anxious patient now due to a panic attack caused by one dismissive and cruel nurse in particular)
I've been treated so badly in hospitals over the last few years that I don't trust anyone in a health care setting.

Can’t you just get referred for an x ray rather than to a&e. Your GP sounds useless

Mil (age 88) was 37 hours in A&E last summer with cellulitis in her arm, which looked to be turning to sepsis. Her arm went black while we waited. She was scared to go to the loo as she'd lose her seat. People were sitting on the floor. DH brought in one of our fold up picnic chairs for her, which I'd do straight away if I ever have to go again.

I am sorry you had such an awful experience OP. Personally in that scenario I would have waited longer at home and certainly wouldn’t have called an ambulance. Bad stomach pain is often a virus , food poisoning etc

Absolute arseholes. Sorry you were treated so badly and unkindly.

It is in chaos because people use ambulances like taxis and use A&E like gps. Granted the gp was at fault here and should have seen and examined the patient but we don't know what the mother said in the phone call. If she overegged and mentioned red flags such as breathlessness or chest pain that would be why sent direct to hospital. Sadly some GPs cba to do basic face to face assessments.

I get this pain when I have diverticulitis flare ups

But you and I wouldn't want to be nurses so why do you expect other decent people to do it?

It is a horrible stressful job which is underpaid with antisocial hours.

Could be diverticulitis - lower left hand side by the hip bone.

Not sure if lying on the floor of a hospital is a good idea... think of the germs!

I am sure that she is thinking of the germs but she is in so much pain that she doesn't have any choice.

It is in chaos because people use ambulances like taxis

I used to work with a Consultant Psychiatrist who always told his depressed patients 'if you start to feel worse, call an ambulance'.

Which is why 111 now has a metal health option, to prevent that as it was happening so much that ambulances and A and E was being clogged up with patients that didn't need to be there.

That's good to hear.

I live in a big rural county, my op was not done in my local hospital, my discharge letter told me to contact my local hospital if there were any problems, so that is what I did.

The fact u was either lying on the floor or sitting in a chair typing away to us on mumsnet shows that you weren't at deaths door and certainly not a priority. You clearly have had a sickness bug or food poisoning which is bloody awful but a day in a&e? And then bitch on here about it? Ridiculous.

I also had a horrific experience in A&E in past weeks. Suffered a brutal assault, multiple facial injurys, open head fissure, broken nose, horrible concussion, I couldn't even walk properly, blood pouring out of my face and all over me. Was left for 9/10 hours in a&e lying down in and out of concousness, managed to drag myself to the desk after 8 hours to ask for pain relief as I was in agony and was ignored. I then asked if I was going to be seen soon and she turned off her eastenders and snapped that there are have been other waiting longer than me. They treated me less than human and all of the staff were horribly mean too me. Traumatising experience

Yes I understand that local hcps would follow up any issues wirh infection or pain maybe but if it's the device itself that wasn't working I'd have rang them first to ask for advice.

This is probably bullshit. Don’t gollow this advice. What is expelled is not the stones at all but an artifact of the cleanse itself.

I’m so sorry you went through all of that. Please think about complaining about your treatment, this is the only way anything will change.

If they won't provide a bed they are causing the "health and safety issues". Treating human beings like that is disgusting - it would be disgusting to treat a dog like that.

There's definitely a thread of unpleasantness for some. Remember when Annabel Croft's husband was dying and the nurse treating him seemed to be getting a genuine thrill from telling them it was hopeless?

Such angels!

It would cost nothing to say "I'm sorry, we don't have a timescale but we will call you as soon as we can"

I go to multiple departments in DRI and am yet to have a bad experience. On Monday I attended an outpatient appointment, and there was a very rude woman in the waiting room. The consultant was running late, which is less than ideal, but it is what it is, but this woman started gobbing off and shouting at the HCA in the clinic. It transpired she’d not even checked her father in and he’d had none of the tests done that needed doing before seeing the consultant. She exploded like a bloody firework, and imo she should have been told to leave.

I got called in, my appointment was before theirs but because I had been for my tests I arrived at the waiting room after so she kicked off about that, too. The consultant wanted me to have more tests then go back in so I actually text DH, who was in the car, to come in because this woman made me feel so uncomfortable in the waiting room.

Nurses deal with people like that day in and day out but it’s really not acceptable. If it was up to me, they’d be kicked out straight away.

DS2 is starting back in A&E as an advanced nurse practitioner (not at the DRI) in a couple of weeks, when worked in ED as a staff nurse he was called all sorts of names right up to a cunt. He was assaulted and spat at regularly.

Most nurses are doing their absolute best in horrendous circumstances but atm it’s like trying to fight a fire with a leaky hose. As a population we need to start taking some responsibility for ourselves too, most stomach bugs don’t need an ambulance or A&E.

I would like to see more people suing for treatment like this.

The NHS is a fucking disgrace.
Too many people working in it who are non medical.
Too many tales of nurses hanging around the nurses station laughing. Let’s not kid ourselves that they are always angels nd rushed off their feet.
Too much money wasted.
Appallingly ran
and my favourite- NO accountability. If you have a problem who do you tell?? PALS. Complaining about the NHS to the NHS.
The times I have tried to use PALS I have in all honesty wanted to tear my hair out and complain about them!!
It took me 23 phone calls - and I left a message for the last 11 of those calls - when I last had cause to speak to them.

Interestingly, it would cost the country less ££ to pay for us all to have private health - how mad is that.

@cucumberpeach Hope you feel better soon. It’s horrific to think of you and all the others in pain sat in chairs for hours with zero care while listening to nurses laughing……