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.

who would take an 80-year-old’s seat??

Have you asked staff if there is a seat anywhere

Has she been given antibiotics when the first clinician seen her with ?septic arthritis? Is she in a trolley in the corridor? If yes to both of these things I would be tempted to let the staff know, make sure your number is up to date and get your dad home for some sleep. She has seen at least 2 clinicians, im assuming had some bloods done and if shes had antibiotics during the day very little will happen overnight apart from observations and hopefully a move to a ward. There should be a nurse assigned to her care and if you aren't getting the answers you need you can ask to speak to the nurse in charge. You could ask them if she if potentially for discharge or if its worth heading off? She sounds pretty sleepy and if she has been spiking temperatures I'd be surprised if they sent her home rn.

Its really awful having people in corridors and A&E being so rammed. Its not what anyone would want and its certainly not how staff would choose to care for their patients.

23 hours with my 84 yo mother on a trolley two weeks ago. She also has dementia although she had a UTI at point of admission and developed delirium while on the trolley, unsurprisingly. It was the devil's own job getting them to admit her at all. Then the next day they discharged her to a care home, which she is paying for of course. Fuckers. The NHS is shit.

27 hours with DH for severe abdominal pain - it was during a doctor's strike though. Turned out to be appendicitis & once that was confirmed by CT they got him in for surgery very quickly. The care itself was excellent but it was a long wait.

About seven hours with my elderly mum with stage 4 cancer last year, with a broken shoulder, though once we were treated there was a wait for further tests etc and the whole thing took nine or ten hours. Looks good compared to some of these waits, but it was hellish with several people kicking off and police attending. It was one of the worst experiences of my life.

That seems like poor practice on the part of the care home?
In a busy A&E those patients who cannot communicate might be overlooked.

I'm sorry it's such a long and uncomfortable wait for you and your Mum x

Around 18 hours for my very elderly dad last May. He has severe heart failure and very poor mobility.

We arrived around 10:00 am. He was diagnosed with a severe infection and we were told he would need to wait in A&E until a bed was available on a ward.

Dad, still sat in a chair, insisted that I left him at 1:00 am as I had been up since 6:00 am the day before and had a 30 minute drive home. They finally put him on a trolley in front of the nurses station on a ward at 5:00 am.

Can you go back to triage or sign in desk and ask for a status update?

33 hours in paeds A&E with my sick DC. They wanted to admit us to a ward but there were no beds available so we had to stay in A&E.

16 hours with DS(4) who had a bad infection and needed emergency surgery. We were in surgery within 2 hours of getting to a ward but FFS. We live in a “developing” country now with better healthcare than we ever got from the nhs!

I empathise OP - I’ve recently spent a lot of time in A&E with my elderly dad and the time waiting depends on what he needs. He had a fall a few months ago and needed his head stitched. He went in at 11pm and we were free to go at 5am once his head was stitched up. On another occasion he needed IV antibiotics and spent 18 hours in a corridor.
More recently he had a life and death emergency and was taken straight into Resus by ambulance. Thankfully he’s now ok.

I think the NHS is generally brilliant at critical care/emergencies but it’s the day to day stuff that is grindingly slow. Having spent the last 5 years overseeing the care for my dad, I’ve realised that so many of his needs could be met by community nurses. Stitches to heads, IV antibiotics etc are all things that could be done in the community which could save a lot of time and beds at hospitals. The whole system needs massive reform, I think.

On a practical note, I’m always really polite and chatty with the staff who look after my dad. I thank them for what they do (something a lot of people forget to do) but I often find the nurses or HCAs are much more willing to go and find updates or get help if they feel appreciated (which they are!) Also, I now have a backpack in my boot which has all our essentials for a long A&E stay - phone charger, bottle of water, a small pot of his essential meds, some protein bars/snacks etc. If you think visits might be more frequent (with advanced dementia that could be the case), it’s worth considering.

Hope you’re free soon!

29 hours for me, I was seriously ill and couldn't advocate for myself. I spent ten days in hospital.

Been about 6 times in the last 20 years longest wait time 20 mins.

14 hours, alone (DH with kids) overnight on a hard chair with flu and (what they eventually concluded was) pneumonia. Honestly awful and most of the staff were so heartless (just stared at me when I was sobbing) other than the absolutely lovely doctor who eventually diagnosed and discharged me. When I asked about the chairs they told me they were uncomfy on purpose to discourage malingerers! (To be clear, 111 insisted I go in since my heart rate wouldn’t go below 130, and they said they caught it just in time - I asked to go home many, many times.)

Reforming the NHS should have been a priority for this government but I've come to the conclusion that it's such a sacred cow NO government will have the guts. It's a complete mess and I dread having to use it, especially A&E.

I hope you're all home now, OP.

It’s an absolute mess.

13 hours, though I was seen by various nurses and doctors during that time, and got a bed at some point. There had been a big traffic accident so a&e was unusually busy that day. Then they wanted to keep me overnight in the observation ward but I was so fed up and the pain was easing so I refused and went home (in retrospect it was probably just unusually bad period pain as I was fine the next day so completely wasted 13 hours except for the lovely painkilling injection they gave me in my bum)

About 20 mins but I only go when absolutely unavoidable.

In the last 30 years
1997 - crawled into A&E at 3am and passed out on the floor. Had a twisted ovarian dermoid, raging abdo infection and sores all up my back. GP had insisted for months it was IBS and I just needed to drink more water. I made the morning surgical list. 🙄

2014 - Ex returned ds6 to me with a badly infected dog bite, on NYE. Ds was feverish & incoherent so I got rid of ex and drove ds straight to A&E. Waited about 5 mins.

2022 - developed unexplained bruising 48hrs after chemo (a known sepsis risk), on Christmas Eve. They'd given me a UrgentMedicAlert card for that reason. Waited about 20 mins while they hunted out a suitable antibiotic.

I'm hoping not to see another A&E dept for a few years.

About three weeks ago my DH and I waited for about 10 hours. He was having trouble breathing and was eventually allowed to rest on a trolley before being taken up to a ward which had been opened just for those in casualty that needed a bed. DH was diagnosed with pneumonia and was in hospital for several days. The staff were doing their best but the place was packed. At about 3-4 am they brought out hot drinks and biscuits.
Having lived in London, the lack of police cars and vans outside when I left about 6am was strange.

This is the crux sadly, people unable to be discharged or refusing to be discharged to then enable those in a&e to move up and get the beds and allow those waiting for a&e to be seen. MN is a big advocate of the “take your mums keys so they can’t send her home” for people who are well, but the problem is social care issues. The gov needs to start reopening care homes that aren’t costing people £2k+ a week!!

I’ve only been twice and was seen in urgent care. I was seen immediately both times. No one else was there. Large London hospital last year.

Recently it was 8 hours with DH, but certainly not due to shortage of staff and it was far more important to be in the right place. We knew he'd had a brain bleed from a recent scan and he was struggling with headaches/tiredness.

We'd hardly sat down before being called through (ahead of everyone else waiting). Consultant took her time to show what had been revealed before, answer questions and said they'd repeat scan. Scan happened within 30mins, but took a while to report on (in all fairness one room can scan every 10 mins, and results can't be rushed). The scan had to be sent to a specialist hospital for review and the person dealing with it had to break off between appointments to review, report, and then decide the course of action reviewing DH's final comments.

He didn't need a bed, but had a comfy share in a private sectioned off area. We were offered hot drinks 3x, a sandwich each and Consultant bought the staff Xmas chocolates out just for us on one occasion.

Previous time DD went in with an appendicitis, took about 12 hours before she was operated on, but was given a bed immediately (we bypassed initial checking in paperwork), it was more the waiting time for an ambulance to another hospital and then on arrival, they'd just taken in a road traffic accident emergency. The operating team were due to finish work at 8pm, and that's the time they took her down - the poor staff were still there at 10.40pm as they discussed the operation with us.

If waiting = time until you feel like treatment started, usually no real wait. I think of these experiences in last 22 yrs:
. Bead in small child's nose
. Wheezing 3yr old
. Partner brought in by ambulance with dislocated shoulder, not coping in spite of 5 forms of pain relief
. Me running a temp of almost 41 degrees
. Adult DD waited about 1.5 hours until she dramatically fainted then she got whisked in to get assessed (UTI).

22 hours with a heart issue