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.

I don't accept that the UK is singularly bad for overreacting to "stomach bugs". And I don't agree that most nurses are doing their best. At this point it's a job people are doing because they can't get anything better.

Sorry you are having a terrible time, great that you are seeing kindness from fellow patients and visitors though.

I had terrible pain in my side a couple of years ago, same as you, vomited couldn't keep anything down, felt feverish at one point, couldn't get to the painkillers on top of the fridge as I was in so much pain. Called my husband home from work who took me to A&E. Saw the triage nurse and she was so horrible.

I have never been to A&E for myself before or since, I am rarely ill, rarely see the GP for anything, my husband was worried and said 'there's no way she'd be here if it wasn't serious pain, she's not one ot complain'. I burst in to tears at the relief of seeing a nurse in the hope they could help me, but and she was blunt, rude, rolled her eyes when I cried, offered no reassurance, kindness or help. It was really awful. The doctor who I eventually saw was much nicer.

Never quite got to the bottom of it, but it was probably a kidney stone.

I've never seen anything as bad as that place.
I'm so sorry you went through that. It makes you feel helpless when you just want someone to help you and they won't.

There's waiting and waiting. No one should have to wait in pain on a chair for hours, even if the cause isn't serious. In a humane system, severe pain should be an emergency whatever the reason for it.

You don’t think nurses, with degrees, can’t get a better job if they ddint want to? Okie doke.

They could go to private hospitals or they could work giving filers and Botox earning much more money, very easily.

I've had a patient on IV paracetamol only for cancer pain at end of life. They couldn't tolerate opioids for various reasons and it was the best option. It really annoys me when people make bold blanket statements (e.g. Cancer pain would not be treated with paracetamol alone) without full knowledge and understanding.

The ones who can get other jobs do so. The idea that a niche vocational degree means the job market is at your feet betrays a pretty old fashioned mindset.

And if you've got a rampaging personality disorder, private isn't going to touch you.

Well that's a sweeping generalisation about nurses. True in some cases, but far from all. Lots of nurses are still doing their best despite a crap system and crap colleagues. The real problem is it's swung from a reasonably low percentage of crap nurses being carried by the good nurses, to a high percentage of crap nurses and the good nurses burning out from trying to hold everything together. Also lots of nurses are still in the job because they genuinely like nursing and like caring for patients, despite the fact the job is horrible.

OK, point taken.

DS2 and DDIL could get another job tomorrow, but they don’t want to. DS2 was a charge nurse 18mths after qualifying, he’s now just finishing his master in advanced practice so is moving on from his current job. He’s a brilliant nurse, as is DDIL, and is very highly thought of.

I’ve been a frequent flyer in the NHS for almost 30 yrs, it’s one of the reasons DS2 went into nursing, and have lived all over the country. I’ve have encountered far more lovely nurses than horrible ones,

You are making a wild assumption from a couple of my posts. Choosing to ignore where I said also that: I'm quick to praise good nursing.

There's no excuse for that kind of carry on at a nursing station as described upthread, because it's a difficult night in A and E. As described by the OP and others. Not everyone is a "decent person", in any job. Stop trying to excuse the inexcusable. Pay and working conditions don't give some staff a right to act as uncaring lazy twats to the vulnerable in their care.

Of course A and E can be really shitty. Especially in a big inner city hospital where the OP was. Wasters, drug dealers, people having psychotic breakdowns, people faking injury handcuffed to pissed-off cops and prison officers, violence. It's tough and pressured I know. But don't sodding stand around laughing, bullying, or ignoring people who have serious health trauma as described by the OP. Do your best in bad circumstances having chosen to work there. No one is press ganged into that particular job. It's a choice.

It's not hard to tell who does a good, decent, job under awful circumstances. As opposed to someone with an empathy bypass, deliberately turning their back on someone seriously unwell, pleading for help as described earlier. I've worked front line, my family work front line 999, (unlike you it would seem.) I've seen a lot in the NHS, good and bad, as part of my job, as well as a patient. Bad health care practice needs calling out, not excusing.

I am not saying good people never go into the profession. I have a lot of friends who qualified as nurses 20 years ago. The last woman standing just left.

I had NHS surgery last week. It seemed of a high standard but the rest of this hospital - which is a ''Specialist'' hospital ie dealing with only one part of the body is a shambles/nightmare. The lift hasn't worked for 3 months but appointment letter say - 1st floor - but when you get to 1st floor - it is all locked up and a nurse we encountered just said (x3) the subject of the appointment was in fact ''the whole place'' and ''the whole hospital''- so no help. We then landed up at A&E - which wasn't right and no one could tell us where to go! So bad. The time before - I arrived in a wheelchair (not mine) and expected to get an NHS wheel chair - there were a few in the entrance. The only ''help'' was young new volunteers who did not want to let me have one!! I could go on! The clinical staff seemed demoralised on the whole and also not impressed! PS I pay a lot of tax.

I'm not excusing it and would obviously hate to be at the receiving end of such treatment.

I'm just fed up of people on MN complaining about nurses and other low paid nasty jobs that they wouldn't do themselves.

I'm sure they try to get the best nurses but when you are likely to be punched in the face by a drunk in a&e is it any wonder that the only people willing to do the job are not very nice?

Yes, the nhs is underfunded and overwhelmed by patients. Yes, nhs staff get yelled at and verbally sometimes physically attacked. Yes, there are many things wrong with the system. And yes thank god we have the NHS free at the point of care.

However, I have also experienced more unnecessarily snarky and rude staff than I care to remember. Have seen many doctors and nurses being patronising to patients. Especially to women. Especially the older male to younger female dynamic when the female patient is perceived as challenging the treatment decisions (they weren’t). Women very often seen as somatising or exaggerating symptoms (evidence points to the opposite). And a general disregard for postive communication.

A friends FiL asked for a commode and was told to ‘use the toilet like everyone else’. He was in for suspected hip fracture (it was). Another friends husband told by the consultant he had ‘common or garden heart burn’. He died from lung cancer three months later. The list goes on.

Bring back well trained Matrons I say.

Completely disagree. Bad abdominal pain and vomiting can indicate life threatening conditions like bowel obstruction or burst appendix or perforated ulcer etc to name a few.

That's why the ambulance crew took me to the hospital (and later it was discovered that I had a malignant tumour which was causing partial bowel obstruction). Sure it could be a virus but what if it's not? It always needs to be checked out to rule out more serious conditions.

People instinctively know which pain is regular and which is unusual or severe. OP made the right call. There's a reason why GPs. 111 and ambulance crew are trained to take abdominal pain seriously.

NHS management continues to need a total overhaul. Too many overpaid people shifting bits of paper about to make themselves look busy. But they will hang on like grim death to justify their superfluous well paid roles.

The recent NHS Employment Tribunals I've been following, have had a parade of incompetent, bumbling, comfy senior managers, all demonstrating their woeful inabilities to care for nurses and patients alike.

'Completely disagree. Bad abdominal pain and vomiting can indicate life threatening conditions like bowel obstruction or burst appendix or perforated ulcer etc to name a few.'

Many things can indicate serious illness. The point is they're usually minor illnesses and the reason A&E is backed up is because people go with any ailment thinking it could be this or that.

See a GP, see a nurse practitioner, go to minor injuries. A&E is really for serious illness not for people like the op using an amb when she had transport then mumsnetting all night. Don't know about you but the last thing I'd do when very unwell would be starting a thread on mn.

If it were that easy to work out which patients have a serious problem and which could stay at home with some painkillers then hospitals wouldn't need to be furnished with scanning equipment and medical training wouldn't take years and years of very hard work. Of course abdominal pain, even severe, can turn out to be nothing serious but it can also turn out to be very serious. As a patient you simply don't know and that's why you go to A&E, particularly when recommended to do so by 111. I also have far too much personal experience of patients waiting for eight hours plus in A&E, being told it's just viral like the OP and sent away with painkillers and a guilty feeling for wasting everyone's time and it turns out NOT to be just viral but in fact something very serious that could and would have been far better dealt with at that A&E visit than left to worsen! So please don't expect patients to be able to self-diagnose when in serious pain.

One horrible aspect of having to take out health insurance (if it comes to that) is that the companies then control what they will pay. I have followed a number of people in the USA who have been denied the correct meds, treatments, being told to reuse one use items, refusing to pay for treatment seemed necessary by emergency crew as no permission sought because the computer says so. They are there for their shareholders not their clients. We must never go down that route despite agreeing with all the nightmare that health care can be these days. My experience of poor care - being given inappropriate treatment in A &E so they could get rid of me before 4 hours up, all staff sitting in a circle chatting whilst I waited for pain relief with only one other patient there, on ward listening to night staff all chatting at the desk loudly and endlessly with 5 wards to cover.

Pretty sure that poor chap that was ignored in Broomfield A&E and subsequently died on the waiting floor would have benefited from some basic kindness.

this has been my experience too. The quality of nursing was appalling when I’ve had relatives in hospital over the last few years. It felt like all their compassion had run out.

I assume you quoted the wrong post as your response doesn’t seem to relate to mine!

That happened to someone in my home town. He didn’t even make it out the car park before dying. Had been sat in the waiting room with text book heart attack symptoms 🤷🏻‍♀️