Piss take waiting in A&E for an very very long time,

[SubwayAllTheWay]

I had a very sore neck, couldnt move it and was getting shooting pains every 5 mins. As I was near the hospital, I went in at 11am today. I was seen at 3pm. So i had to wait for nearly four hours with shooting pains to the point I had to leave the A&E reception to shout out my pain.

AIBU that this time takes the mick? I know ambulances have priority but If it takes that long, I would have phoned for an ambulance because then atleast i would get seen early.

It took the piss because there were people who seemed to be happy, able to walk but a sore wrist and they got seen after an hour of being there.

I didnt go to the doctors as i was in so much pain i thought i might faint and A&E seemed better idea as they could do a scan and find out the cause.

I've been up there with family members and friends over the years who have variously had broken bones, blood gushing (me, actually, until the other people in the waiting room complained at having to look at me after an hour or so, when I had lost over a litre in front of them into a waste paper bin, yes, a bin), who have collapsed, and who have had pretty hard core organ problems, and sometimes they were parked in the waiting area and/or sent home only for the GP to have to get shirty and tell the hospital to do their job, before sending them straight back in.

It doesn't do a lot for your confidence, tbh, so I see where people are coming from with their grumbles sometimes.

I would love to get rid of nurse based triage, and as an experiment, hire more consultants to see people very rapidly as soon as they got there, to see whether than improved outcomes as well as patient satisfaction.

I fractured my cheekbone a while, I was treaged instantly but had to wait 3 hours to be x-rayed and seen by a bone doc. I ws in pain and my eye was swollen shut but I was given pain killers, my friend stayed with me to laugh at/loof after me. But I could see people way worse off than me, you expect to have to wait and not because the NHS are lazy inept twerps but because they are busy and other people do take priority however much it may irk!

YABU end of

I think the op should Facebook like "Amboman".

A brilliantly funny, sometimes infuriating look into what ambulance drivers really think, do and what they have to deal with. Suitably anonymised of course!

Amboman is amazing

I have the unfortunate 'luck' of having to go to a and e with a few things including:

-Having severe allergic reaction to nuts, throat swelling up and struggling to breathe
-ds1 fell off the top of the slide at 3, fitted and then went unconscious
-ds1 convulsed at home, lost consciousness and went blue

IMO they are emergencies. If you're able to walk, in most cases, you should go to the pharmacist, gp or nurse.

Walking wounded is not suitable for a and e

I've been there with the spasms in my neck. Absolute agony. I didn't go to A&E though but if I had I would have understood perfectly that the vast majority of people would be seen before me. 4 hours sounds reasonable for your problem.

I know my local A&E runs three streams of treatment - majors, minor injuries led by doctors and minor injuries led by nurses. Your waiting time can depend on the stream you are placed in.

I have been to A&E 30 times this year, invariably there are people there for inappropriate reasons, I think the thing I hear the most often is 'I went to my GP a few days ago but it still hurts/is swollen...' People go to their GP and are not satisfied with the answer so they go to A&E. I also heard someone come in for stitch removal once, they suggested he went to his GP but he declined because he didn't want to ring for an appointment. The separate minor injuries unit in my city has told me that they are really underused because people prefer to go to the hospital for treatment - even though the treatment at the unit is quicker and the same!

BUT you have no idea what other people are there for, or about their circumstances. Not everyone appears unwell so I think the person who suggested that unless you are bleeding to death or can't breath is not giving out good advice. If you look at me in A&E you could have no idea at the reason I am there, you can't see it, but I know I have to go to A&E, the separate minor injuries unit refuse to see me so what choice do I have? I think the longest I have waited is 6 hours to see a doctor? But I know I can wait and I am grateful that there is a service I can use for free, and I am so grateful that I don't need to be rushed through. It is unpleasant and boring waiting, but I take my Kindle and some magazines and pass the time that way.

I don't think you were unreasonable to go to A&E but you should have been prepared to wait when you were there.

how would you fund and recruit hiring more consults to a&e
it's hard enough to recruit without consults doing minor injury and triaged Clifford Mann CEM (college of emergency medicine) discussing this shortage of practitioners this week. not enough a&e medics as it is without tasking them to all duties.it's a ridiculous idea

I have had a recurrant trapped nerve since 2006. I absolutely understand your pain and when it first happened I did go to A&E - they wouldn't even allow me to wait. I've been waiting for treatment for 6 years. What 'medicine' were you given? I am often debilitated / sobbing / literally suicidal. I think that because there is no blood or broken bones then it isn't seen as an issue.

Bodfin mum- interetsing plan . But you haven't considered the cost effectiveness of your idea. And
How you woudl get a consultant to do triage all day. Also you are assuming that a constant would be better at triage than a nurse.

But you don't know what their grumbles are, Boffin. My daughter was very pale and wan - she was anaemic from the leukaemia - but she could walk and talk.

She was very, very ill. Our GPs had sent us and had got in contact with haemotology because she was presenting with what they suspected was a serious blood disorder.

Her bones weren't hanging out, no gushing blood, fitting, etc. I got suspicious when the A&E registrar came out to the waiting room and looked at her and said, 'We'll see her soon, but they're discussing how to treat her.' Damn right they were.

If she hadn't gone in when she had, she'd have gone sceptic over the weekend, we're in a rural location, and been a helicopter job or worse.

But people probably thought she just looked like she had flu, when actually, she was seriously ill. Life-threateningly ill.

We waited in A&E bay for ages as it was, and were even admitted to a general ward. For about half an hour, until that same A&E registrar made a beeline to our bay to tell us a consultant had come up from haemo because of 'concern over the results of her blood cultures.'

At 8.30PM on a Friday night (which I later found out what nothing unusual for her consultant).

I had a slipped disc in my spine and had a trapped nerve as a result. I know it's blindingly painful but it would never have occurred to me to go to A&E. I went to my GP and she referred me for a MRI scan. I had it for about 4-5 months.

Did you really think it was a stroke?! Blimey

Go to your GP, get referred for a scan. You may well need a cortisone injection to reduce the swelling which takes the pressure off the nerve.

Walking wounded is not suitable for a and e

This and some other views on who should and shouldn't go to A and E are very dangerous. The vast majority of people who go to A and E will fall into the "walking wounded" category but most still need treating in A and E though.

I've only been to A&E myself 4 times, and 2 of those I was referred by GP or OOH GP. The other two were from climbing falls involving the old broken bones and gushing blood.

I have taken a walking DD2 to A+E because she had dysentery and it means she gets very ill very quickly and some times has to be admitted due to bleeding and pain

BUT I only take her AFTER consulting my GP or out of hours service

The only other times I have use 'big' A+E (rather than Minors) has been for broken bones and suspected meningitis (dd2 and DD3) again on GP's orders

Op - just feel reassured that if something was seriously wrong with you, you would be seen very quickly. When my dd was a baby, I took her into A&E twice because she was having breathing difficulties (she had a heart condition that effected her breathing) and we were taken straight into resus both times, bypassing the queue. This is the point of triage - the people that need to be seen immediately, are seen immediately.

My dad was recently moaning because he had to wait 3 hours for the RAC when he broke down at Starbucks - I pointed out to him that if I had broken down on the hard shoulder with my dc he would want me to be seen to first, wouldn't he, and that his wait was 3 hours because he was at Starbucks! It's the same issue - if it were someone you loved in a serious condition needing immediate treatment, you would want them seen before someone with a sore neck. YABU, but sorry you are in pain.

Fluffy if this something is recurrent and known why isn't treatment handled through your gp

Brighthair Amboman is awesome seen the latest? It just about sums up this thread!

"So how many can your taxi take to hospital? Sadly the answer was 3 before you asked that, now it's just the patient".

I am very glad that the NHS care you received today has been so successful that you are now able to move your shoulders enough to type/text - hurray for the NHS no?

YABU, no one wants to be seen quickly in A & E - it means its a life or death situation. Last month my 4 year old was admitted to resus to be worked on by a waiting team after severe breathing difficulties. I'd take a 4 hour wait with a sore neck every day than watch him go through that again

If you had gone through GP for a scan referral (which would have been the right thing to do), the best you could hope for would be an appointment within 12 weeks -perhaps you should have stuck around the extra few hours?

I also think this is an ideal opportunity for you to look up the symptoms of stroke.

*expat my condolences btw I can't imagine anything so terrifying and heartbreaking xx

My BIL walked into A&E with a heart attack.having driven himself there!!!! My Dd walked in with a broken leg ( having been sent by GP). Friends Dd walked in with meningitis ( she died ).

Being able to walk doesn't prove you are ok

Fluffy if this something is recurrent and known why isn't treatment handled through your gp

I can't speak for fluffy, but my DS has severe asthma and the GP very rarely treats him, OOH always panic and send him to A and E anyway even when I can tell them he needs a course of pred and/or antibiotics. It has got to the stage whereby his consultant has told us to skip the GP stage out and go straight for A and E.

This of course doesn't help A and E who are stretched anyway, but shows that to often GPs do contribute to the A and E issues.

SIRZY -you need a new GP