What has been the longest you have waited in A&E?

[Dreamingofnarrowboatlife]

I have been with my elderly mum in A&E since 1pm this afternoon.

We have been left in a corridor and little progress appears to have been made, it's very frustrating.

Mum had been running a temperature since Thursday, I called the GP surgery yesterday and because mum is in advanced Alzheimer's and housebound they decided to assess her over the phone and diagnosed a UTI, prescribed antibiotics and that was that.

She still had a high temperature this morning and was quite lethargic so I called 111 for advice, they said mum needed an ambulance. Paramedics came and thought mum's knee looked swollen and suspected a blood clot.

Blood clot dismissed at a&e assessment and they said they suspected arthritic sepsis. Mum had an x-ray hours ago and then an aspiration of the fluid in her knee. Orthopaedics then transferred her back to medical assessment and since 7pm we've been waiting and waiting. I've asked the only nurse who seems to be on this corridor and he appears to know very little and there seems to be no one else to ask, I've not seen a doctor in this corridor for hours, I've walked into the main area and no one seems to be able to help.

Mum's been in a&e a few times but this has definitely been the longest wait so far, coming up for 12 hours. Mum's slept the whole time but it's going to be a long night for my dad and I.

I hope your mum is okay and gets seen soon

for me the shortest was as soon as I walked in
longest was 6 hours

26 hours but I was seen by various people at different points along the way. The longest gap without seeing anyone was probably 12 hours within that 26 hour period.

Longest. Overnight, 18 hours. On a chair in A&E was suspected of having a brain bleed but they didnt have a trolley anywhere. And had to wait for someone to be discharged the next day to be admitted to the stroke ward

18 hours for a suspected brain bleed is insane!!
I’m glad you’re okay

Crikey, I hope we're not that long, I've not eaten since midday, I stupidly thought I'd be back home for dinner!

I hope so too! It’s ridiculous but there were people there for even longer than me. Very sad state of affairs.

Goodness, that must have been a very stressful time. I hope you made a good recovery.

It’s absolutely ridiculous and inhumane OP . Sadly people now have such a low expectation/ Barr of what is ok! Can remember working in AE two decades ago and 4 hours was the worst case scenario!
I hope your Mum I s Ok .Make sure she drinks every hour.X

Coud you order some food on Just Eat or Deliveroo and get it delivered to the door? I’m sure some takeaway might still be open

I feel so bad for all the old people who have no one to advocate for them. The lady next to mum has been here just as long as has come from a care home, no one with her and she can not understand anything people are saying to her, I think she also has dementia. Poor lady.

So desperately sad . Such a vulnerable soul.😔

Just over 48 hours, but I was seen every so often. They were waiting for various test results and basically just keeping me somewhere where I could be quickly revived if I arrested. Fortunately I knew it was likely to be a long wait and settled into it. I guess I didn’t really think of it as waiting, just being where I needed to be.

Must be harder with your mum though. I hope you are both able to get home soon.

Luckily they have fed mum and given her lots to drink.

The wait is now making my teeth itch, I'm not usually much of a complainer but feel that I need to ask what the heck is going on with the lack of communication.

Thanks!

It was just a couple of weeks ago and yes very stressful. I was given a possible diagnosis of something which was then retracted by his senior doctor a few hours , madness.

By the time I was discharged I was just happy to leave as I was sleep deprived from sitting on chairs that long.

I don’t feel they checked me out thoroughly at all, despite the stupidly long time I was there for.

I’ll be coming back for some specialist appointments over the next few weeks. Just trying to manage my symptoms for now.

We’ve only had to go once, three years ago with our 18 year old son. Arrived at 22:30 ish, triaged and given oromorph at 23:20, taken through at 6:30. It felt like torture, those seats are so uncomfortable. He had an unusual lung infection and ended up kept in for two weeks which was another kind of hell entirely. At the time those 8 hours felt interminable but I see now we were relatively lucky! I really hope your mum is seen soon x

Oh that's a long wait.

Luckily for mum she is sleeping through the whole thing and will have no recollection of it. I feel sorry for my poor dad, he's 84 and is knackered.

I have digestive issues so have to stick to a low fodmap diet, sully of me I should have packed myself some food but I was so worried about mum that I just packed all of her bits forgetting about myself.

Good luck with everything.

Why cant your dad go home?

Your poor son and that must have been so stressful for you.
I agree, these seats are torture. Dad has got a couple a cramps already and been jumping around the corridor in agony.

I have offered but he doesn't want to, he wants to stay with mum.

Thanks you too - I hope your mum gets seen to very soon.

I took my son (2 years old back then) to A&E after he fell of an escalator in a mall and got his finger split in three in the mechanism.
We waited 6 hours of him screaming and bleeding just to be given antibiotics and a bandage and be told to come back the next morning for plastic surgery.

The next morning we waited another 8 hours with him screaming in pain (he had taken off his bandage in the middle of the night too).
Worse day of my life

You poor things, that must have been pure hell.

Well I'm pissed off now, dad and I popped out for 5 minutes to get something from the vending machine only to come back and someone has nabbed our chairs. No more available so it's standing room only now.....great!