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.

17 hours with pneumonia. But I wasn't overly with it.

As a disabled person, attending a&e is actually impossible. I cannot sit in the chairs or lie on a trolley for long. My wheelchair is only slightly comfortable for a short time before the pain gets too much. And that's before you get to needing regular medication in a busy department. It's ironic that the hospital cannot accommodate a poorly person.

46 hours with my dad.
The waiting room was like a field hospital. The staff brought our a pile of blankets at 10pm each night.
It was horrific.

We’re lucky to have an urgent care unit so when I broke my wrist two years ago I was seen, xrayed and diagnosed within an hour. Unfortunately it was a complex break in multiple places so I had to go to the nearest major hospital where all in I was there 10hrs. Stupidly I refused the recommended op and instead had a sedation while three docs manipulated my wrist into place before putting on the biggest heaviest cast you’ve ever seen.

We used to have a GP drop in clinic, sadly now closed although it was always well used and I do wonder what impact the closure has had on local hospital. When my kids were small we
used it frequently as they always seemed to go from a bit under the weather to really ill quickly and always on a Sunday or public holiday! The closure of these local services is only compounding emergency care issues

There are no words 💔

Just awful, and totally highlights the state of it all.

DH waited 16 hrs after being brought in by ambulance with severe abdominal pain (gallbladder). After being left by the lovely paramedics, a nurse did his obs and that was it till 16 hrs later.

Arrived 11:00am, quickly ended up on an A&E corridor in a chair on a drip until 1pm the next day, then was sent back in the waiting room for a few hours, then back in the corridor on another drip until 5ish before being put in an A&E bay (with a door) until 4am the following morning before being take to a ward where I spent the next 11 days. It was horrendous waiting when I was so ill, but ultimately.. I made it home, healthy and safe. So as awful as it was to wait so long before getting to a ward/treatment, it got there in the end and the staff were lovely even when overworked!

I've been lucky. My longest was 5 hours but I had a chest xray, a blood test and general tests like blood sugar whilst there. In the summer I was in A&E ,in a bed and had numerous tests within an hour of DH phoning 999.

I was in for 18 hours for a broken foot.

I was in 2 years ago with a suspected stroke. I was put in a bed on a ward straight away. Took them 4 days to actually test me for a stroke... I was off my head, don't remember much.

12 hours but the reason it was so long was I needed an MRI and it was a Saturday night, this was over a year ago, saw a Dr pretty quickly. suspected Cauda equine syndrome after seeing a GP and sent to A&E. I ended up having 4 months of physiotherapy first appointment was day 4 after being in A&E.

I was in recently in A&E with an awful reaction to a drug I had been put on, ambulance to hospital arrived in 18 mins. various drugs administered by IV including morphine as soon as I arrived. Out in 8 hours spent first 3 on a trolley in a bay then to general wait area for about a hour and then moved to urgent treatment centre to have a rehydration drip. Also a Saturday night/ Sunday morning.

Just over 72 hours - I was "lucky" as I had a cubicle the entire time but it was still a horrendous experience