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.

Sorry but it’s extremely disingenuous to say you’ve been waiting 12 hours. She’s been triaged, had tests, been diagnosed and had treatment in that time.

They didn’t take an 80 year old’s seat, they took an empty seat.

Ah quite right, so the issue is waiting for a bed?

Seems so. Same story for quite a few of the posts on this thread. If you’ve been triaged, tested, diagnosed and treated and are DTA pending a bed, that’s not the same thing at all as waiting in A&E.

And agree too, if you’ve left the waiting area, I can’t imagine other people who will also be under high stress would think, I best remain standing in case they come back and want a seat. Would other people have even noticed who’d left the seat?

My Mum was 4 days waiting for bed in a corridor. She couldn’t walk, was put in a pad and told to go in the pad, they didn’t change the pad unless I asked. Very little food/fluid. Things need to change.

It was recently with DS. He had a collapsed lung.

11 hours to see a doctor. He was in A and E for a further 15 hours before being transferred to another hospital for surgery. Not in the UK though.

Doesn't feel so bad after reading some of those horrendous stories.

Ds maintains the worst part of the whole ordeal by far was the waiting room plastic chair purgatory!

That's exactly what happened.

They gave mum iv antibiotics and the nurse was coming over to monitor her every now and then. We waited until 2.30am but we're both so exhausted we had no choice but to leave. I felt terrible leaving mum as she is so vulnerable with the advanced dementia but we had been there for over 13 hours by then.

They told me mum would be put on a ward. I have just rung to discover she's still in the corridor in a&e ffs!

That is so awful, your poor mum.

The corridor was packed full of elderly people, many on their own and most were so confused I imagine many had dementia.

So depressing.

10 hours in a chair in the waiting room with a heart attack, and I’d been brought in by ambulance. There was a drunk/drugged person in the main area causing mayhem combined with my first set of blood tests being lost.
I was in again on Friday with heart symptoms. The wait time on screen was 2.5 hours. I was seen first within 35 minutes but didn’t leave until 9 hours later. This time the A&E blood testing facility had an issue so bloods were being sent to another part of the hospital, which caused delays. The Dr was lovely but looked so stressed.
i was gobsmacked both at some of the reasons people were coming in for and also the number of people coming in with patients. At one point they went round and kicked everyone without a wristband out so patients could sit down.

Bright Lights, noise, a chair instead of a bed, a bed in a doorway instead of a ward. People vomiting and dying through lack of basic care.

I can't stop thinking about that poor lady.

I'll be heading up there in an hour or so. Called a&e and spoke to a nurse but all he could tell be was that mum was still in the same place in the corridor 😕

It's simply dreadful isn't it?

@Dreamingofnarrowboatlife where is your mum now? Is she in a cubicle in a&e or in the waiting room on a chair?

10 hours three weeks ago. My face had swollen up and I began to struggle breathing so I panicked and got dh to call an ambulance. Incredibly they turned up within half an hour and although my breathing was OK, insisted on taking me for the swelling.
It turned up my infection markers were 16 points below full blown sepsis and I was finally, after another day on a chair in a horrible ward, strapped to an antibiotic drip, which later gave me the worst upset stomach I've ever had, admitted to a ward and then a room of my own for 9 days
It was terrifying looking back - luckily I was in some sort of hallucinating fever dream for the first day or two.
Still not out of the woods but at least I'm home

I feel for you. It's not an easy life with an elderly and unwell parent is it? I've been caring for mum for about 6 years now too and we've had several trips to a&e, she fell and fractured her neck last year but this has been the longest wait so far.

The care in the community definitely needs a shake up. I called her GP surgery on Friday and they diagnosed her with a UTI over the phone. Had someone been able to come and visit her at home she may not have ended up in a&e?

Wow, where in the country are you?

I agree, I worked for the NHS for 15 years and it was a complete state then, that was 20 years ago.Nothing has changed and it never will.

I’ve only ever been to A&E for myself as an adult twice - once I was heavily pregnant, suffering horrendously with hyperemesis and I was seen, admitted and put on IV anti-emetics within about an hour of arriving.
Second time I had a dislocated knee, and that was around a 2 hour wait to get it popped back in.

Longest time in adult A&E was 3 hours, longest time in children’s was 1 hour. We’ve been a few times over the last couple of years, a couple with hospital admission after A&E. Maybe our A&E is less busy or we’ve gone at quiet times.

How is my op being disingenuous?

I asked how long people have spent in a&e? I have never stated that mum has not been looked at. I have explained that my very vulnerable elderly mum with advanced dementia had been looked at initially then left in a corridor with many other elderly unwell patients. I have asked for updates but we have not been given any. From 7pm until we left at 2.30pm we were given no updates at all despite asking.

Maybe try being awake for almost 20 hours with your two elderly and confused parents in a blindingly bright, noisy and unfamiliar environment, in a corridor with dozens and dozens of people and walking past every few minutes and every doctor ignoring you and trying not feeling a little frustrated.

FFS, disingenuous, my arse I was!

You haven’t waited 12 hours you’ve been seen and treated and waiting discharge/ward admission.

i waited 13 hours (overnight) as a cancer patient with severe pain. I was triaged in that time but no doctor. It was absolutely awful. I got moved to a ward about 20 hours after I entered and then got the test diagnosis I needed after 3 days in total. It should have been a test done in 24 hours.

About 12 hours overnight, I was waiting with my mum, I honestly think they had forgotten about us and by the early hours there was hardly anyone there but we were still waiting hours. Finally left at about 5 am.