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.

Exit maybe you just have one of those personas that attract trouble [hgrin]

Also, are you Mitmoo?

No, it makes no difference to my low opinion of you that you had a two year old child with you. Your child was fine wasn't she? She wasn't in an accident, or having an emergency right?

Why on earth do you think it makes any difference that you had a child with you?

I am normally irrationally pleased when I am name checked [hblush]

Not on this thread though.

OP - Which hospital was it?

I would have said the same even with all that detail.

I am amazed that you didn't think twice anyway, on the basis of whether you wanted to go and sit around in A&E with your 2 year old. Or whether you should have rung your GP first

What were you expecting? To waltz in and be seen in 30 minutes so that your PFB didn't get bored, and never mind people dying around you?

I went to A&E with ds age 22 months after he'd tripped down a step and couldn't weight bear.
I took him to the GP and they sent me to A&E.

We arrived at 4:30, and were home at just after midnight. (Friday night. needing x-rays took some time) They were very apologetic for the wait, but they saw us at the first opportunity and I could see that they had.

Clearly, you would have been better off going to the GP. They would have seen you faster as they don't have to deal with all the proper accidents and emergencies that the A&E department handle.

I recently had to ring the gp because ds suddenly started experiencing a lot of pain for no apparent reason. Within 20 minutes I had received a call back from the doctor, an emergency appointment, diagnosis and prescription.

I can't fault them for dealing with us so quickly and efficiently when I was a complete wreck, with absolutely no idea how to help my toddler who was screaming in agony and unable to tell me why.

Ephiny because i cant believe no one would get annoyed with someone with a sprain, WALKING through A&E, when they are laughing joking are seen before me, especially as they had only checked in 10 mins ago.

Thats what i mean by saintly. Like no one would lose their patience at the situation.

In hindsigth yes maybe i shouldnt have gone to A&E, but because of the pain, i thought it was a stroke.

YABU. And an ambulance with a sore neck would not have got seen quicker as ambulances are triaged too for the very reason people think its some kind of fast track to the doctor. Plenty of people walk in who are having heart attacks or even stab wounds. Sorry, but they come before your sore neck. Years ago, waiting up to 8 hours or more in A&E was not unusual so things have improved.

Your only legitimate gripe is if you were offered no pain killers in that time.

Y were not BU to go to A & E.
Y were not BU to be disappointed, even hacked off, at a 4 hour wait.

But 'should' you have been seen earlier? No one can say, since we don't know what other cases were there. If people with lesser issues were seen first, maybe they were in a different queue, and you had to hang on for a more experienced doctor because of the nature of your symptoms. Again, we don't know.

And suggesting calling for an ambulance as a way of jumping the queue is not on.

The waiting is awful. In these days of cuts, it's not going to get better anywhere soon. We are going to lose one of our local A&Es in all likelihood, which really worries me. I've always hated the waiting, but when I am seen, and people are patient and thorough, I find myself appreciating the fact that I'm not being rushed through the appointment so they can deal with the queue.

I hope you feel better now.

Why do you seem convinced that pain = stroke?

The fact that you had a 2 year old with you only makes your choice to go to A&E even more bizarre.

"I thought i was having a stroke, thats why i went."

But didn't think it so much that you had to wait for a scan?

I had to go to A&E last month because of a migraine. I phoned NHS Direct, but one of my triage answers triggered the A&E pathway - I tried hard to say that although the honest answer is 'yes' to that question (clumsiness or gait disturbance) it was quite usual for me to have that during a migraine. However, once the A&E Pathway has been triggered, they can't ignore it.

I waited 3 hours to be seen, then 1 hour in cubicles while they decided what to do with me. Then another 30 minutes for them to get the drugs I needed sorted. Then 15 minutes for the nurse to find her senior because she couldn't get the autojector to deploy.

At the end of the day (night) I was just grateful that someone was going to do something to end my migraine.

ist the reference Mitmoo to me?

Nope, never heard of them

It must have been scary to feel like you were having a stroke. But you weren't. The HCPs knew that you weren't. If there's a next time call NHS Direct for details of your nearest minor injuries/walk in centre.

FWIW I had quite a serious RTC several years ago and was stuck in my car with my head/neck held straight for an hour waiting for the ambulance. There are not an unlimited number of emergency vehicles. A+E depts are facing cuts and shortages the same as all work environments. The staff aren't just having a tea and a biscuit while the patients stack up!

I was sent to A&E and needed to see a gynae dr. I was there at 9 in the morning until 830 at night. I have waited with a sick child( viral meningitis) for 6 hours. I was sent up by my gp yesterday and waited 3 hours, which was reasonable, I wasn't in pain. It wasn't busy out in the waiting room but behind the scenes was a nightmare. You dont always see what goes on. Having a child with you makes no difference.

fed up now. OP you are whiney, whingey and annoying. you asked if you were being unreasonable. the saints came marching in to say a resounding 'yes'.

why ask?

Trapped nerves are horrible (and strong painkillers are your friend). There are enough of us here who have suffered them to back that up but they are also very common (hence the number of us who have had them). As others have said, if they triage you and think you are having a stroke they will get you in very quickly because the first hour or so after a stroke can be critical for minimising damage.

Its worth knowing where your nearest walk in or minor injuries clinic is so you can get things checked out when you have a problem but its neither an accident or an emergency.

Sorry but another one who thinks YABU.

Next time you confuse a trapped nerve with a stroke, have a look at this It might save you and your two year old from wasting four hours in A&E.

At our A&E, you don't even get in the hospital building unless you have a life-threatening illness/injury. Everyone else gets a large porta-cabin in the carpark. Within this Urgent Care Centre they have GPs, nurse practitioners, and the usual hospital docs/nurses. The triage nurse decides who you see. So the happy people with the sprains probably saw the nurse practitioner, who often has a much shorter wait.

My worst wait was when I had pneumonia and the GP sent me to A&E as the quickest route to an X-ray. I was so excited to see Rula Lenska in the waiting room (standing joke with DH-we keep spotting her out and about, it's a game) but I was too wheezy and out of breath to tell him I'd seen her. Took me about 20 minutes.

Vicar oh but this is so much fun now. All the YABU, the hordes marching in...

Im not whiney now. IVe said i would do differenly in future

YABU

I work in A and E. Sometimes it's busy, sometimes (rarely) it's quiet. Them's the brakes, unfortunately. I have every sympathy for patients when the waiting times are long, but not when they take to public forums to call the service provided by A and E 'a pisstake'.

You've no idea who has been rushed in, at deaths door while you're waiting.

YABU whether or not you had a 2 year old with you.

I have had a trapped nerve in my neck twice, and yes, it hurts - it hurts an awful lot, but I took as much paracetamol and ibuprofen as possible and got on with it. The first time, I had to get DH to drive me to work as moving my neck made me want to vomit. I guess I'm the "get on with it" type though.

On the subject of A&E, not long after I gave birth to my twins, my fingers swelled up and I had to go to A&E late one evening because my fingers swelled and I couldn't get my rings off - I'd called NHS direct and they said to go to A&E. DH had to drive as I had had a c-section 10 days previously, and obviously I had to take the twins as they were 10 days old (and I was breastfeeding) I had to wait for over 3 hours, as mine was hardly life threatening. It took about 2 hours once I'd been seen, as they had to cut the rings off in order to restore circulation. So that was 5 hours, at night, with 10 day old twins. 4 hours with a 2 year old, who can, presumably, be entertained by the toys and/or books EVERY A&E dept has is much easier.