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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

379 replies

SubwayAllTheWay · 24/10/2012 15:57

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.

OP posts:
Sirzy · 24/10/2012 18:05

It's like people complaining about having to wait at clinics when they dont realise that doctors are often needed elsewhere.

When DS was 8 weeks old he was critically ill. When he was in A and E he had 3 doctors treating him at once. A few days later on the ward he needed 4 doctors and 5 nurses. They were fighting to save his life but this probably meant people in a and e and the peads clinics having to wait longer to be seen.

I was in a clinic with him once and everyone was informed by a very apologetic receptionist that their would be a delay to appointments because the consultant had been called to an emergency. I was appalled at the amount of people complaining

cheethaz · 24/10/2012 18:08

OMG - So U. I have been rushed in by ambulance with my 3 year old. Turned out to be a fractured skull. After triage we still waited 6 hours because by then he was conscious. And although it was a long wait, luckily he was deemed fine after the echocardio thingy and CT scan. I didn't complain because he was conscious and I assumed the professional medics all knew which order they needed to treat people in so as to give best quality of care. But maybe my wait would have been a mere 5 hours if people with sore necks needing painkillers weren't also there.....

clicketyclick66 · 24/10/2012 18:11

OP, please come to Ireland and use the A&E here - you will wait twice as long and pay ?100 for the privilege!

Lifeisontheup · 24/10/2012 18:11

Oh yes they would Jamie
In the last week I and my colleagues have been called to:-

  1. cut finger on a cheese grater-barely oozing blood
  2. spot on the leg- was just an acne type spot not even big enough to sound the klaxon.Grin
  3. Healthy young adult with a tummy bug lasting 5 hours.
  4. Mild tummy pain-was met at the door by patient walking -three cars in drive and people available to drive
  5. Period pain-had not taken painkillers 6)Paper cut

I could go on and on and on.

Lancelottie · 24/10/2012 18:14

I was once about to complain that my daughter (referred in with suspected appendicitis, in considerable pain) hadn't been seen after hours of waiting. And then a child was carried in by a parent and the nurse on triage duty took one look and ran to them shouting for extra staff.

So, yes, however sore you are, they do (and do have to) prioritise.

Sirzy · 24/10/2012 18:14

lifeisontheup I don't know how you don't loose it with idiots who misuse the service

DameMargotFountain · 24/10/2012 18:15

and as wee anecdote to pass the time, i once witnessed a nurse put notes to the bottom of the pile after the patient repeatedly complained about the length of time he was waiting, he had a meeting to go to

she said if he was well enough to clock watch and worry about that he was well enough to wait

JamieandtheMagicTorch · 24/10/2012 18:22

Lifeisontheup

Words fail me Shock

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 24/10/2012 18:23

lifeisontheup
Do people get billed for the waste of resources?

Lifeisontheup · 24/10/2012 18:24

We take lots of deep breaths and in our trust are allowed to refuse to take them to hospital although you have to be absolutely sure so that doesn't happen very often if they're demanding to go.

Lifeisontheup · 24/10/2012 18:26

No bill as far as I know. I know your insurance can get billed in the case of an RTC but never heard of it for a pointless home call. I really don't mind if they really think it's life threatening but most people know a paper cut is not going to kill you.

Marzipanface · 24/10/2012 18:29

Sorry, it must have been bloody miserable for you but not an emergency sorry. I've been in A and E for far worse and been left waiting for AGES! Besides you could have had some painkillers.

MrsDeVere · 24/10/2012 18:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TuftyFinch · 24/10/2012 18:32

lifeisontheup why can't/don't A&E depts turn the paper cut people away? I used to teach adults who would regularly go to A&E with paper cut/ normal headache etc. I used to get so cross that I used to do tutorials on the NHS and what the different, free, services were for and not for.

Marzipanface · 24/10/2012 18:32

Lifeisontheup

How come you were sent out by the operator? I called once for a bad cut, quite embarrassed about that but I was feeling sick and dizzy and could see bone i had cut so deep. The lovely lady on the end of phone calmed me down and made me realise I was being OTT, I ended up in a taxi and being stitched up at minor injuries. There was no way she was sending an ambulance for a cut finger :)

KateShmate · 24/10/2012 18:32

I don't understand OP - you thought you were having a stroke so you bundled yourself and your 2YO into the car and drove to hospital.. whilst having the stroke?

This situation reminds me a bit of when one of my 5 week old prem DD's suddenly stopped breathing in the middle of our lounge and started turning grey. The care we were given was fantastic - blue lighted within minutes to the hospital and straight through to be seen, despite being ridiculously busy in A&E.

There was a man lying in a bed opposite who was effing and blinding, with no physical injuries (not for one minute saying that he shouldn't have been there, but he didn't have blood gushing from his head or anything)

He shouts over ''I've been here 3 hours and SHE (my dd) gets seen within 2 seconds?''
Poor Dr who has obviously has a very busy and stressful shift shouts back ''SHE isn't breathing.''

Just sums it up a bit really..

FlaminNoraImPregnantPanda · 24/10/2012 18:33

I confess I did once call out the paramedics unnecessarily and I felt mortified by it. I was cleaning the bathroom and somehow managed to get toilet cleaner in my eyes. Agonising, burning pain of screaming the house down proportions. I screamed for my daughter to call them, which she did, while I tried to wash it away. It was so agonising that I literally climbed into the bath the get my whole head under the tap. By the time they arrive it has lessened to just being sore but they didn't tell me off for wasting their time.

anonymooos · 24/10/2012 18:35

I once told a patient off in A+E who came with a bog-standard, uncomplicated, not very big, cold sore. Young, healthy, not registered with a GP, not tried any treatments herself already. The annoying thing is she probably won't take any notice because we're not allowed to really tell our patients off properly!

WelshMaenad · 24/10/2012 18:37

Kateschmate was you little girl ok?

Inaflap · 24/10/2012 18:38

Lifeisontheup. Can I just say a big thank you to you guys. My father was unable to breathe in March. The ambulance people were amazing and so very very professional and kind. They saw instantly that he was in heart failure and took him straight to resuss. It beggars belief that people use you so poorly. However, my father was a GP and my mother remembers taking a call at home at about 8.00 pm just as he walked in from a woman who was screaming that her baby was seriously hurt. He had to drive back up to London only to find the baby was a massive 25 year old bloke with a cut finger!

To the OP. its horrible waiting and also slightly scary to have something wrong with your neck but in the grand scheme of things there would have been people there that needed immediate treatment.

LadyMaryCreepyCrawley · 24/10/2012 18:39

Bleach in the eye can be very serious, FlaminNora.

ShiftyFades · 24/10/2012 18:39

Sad at having that much pain, really do feel for you. I have back / hip and neck problems and I do know how painful it can be, especially if you trap a nerve.

However, not having the scan when they offered it to you (regardless of the extra time waiting) was cutting your nose off to spite your face and utter madness imo Confused

That said, I don't think you were BU to go to hospital if you were in that much pain. Pain is a sign that something is wrong and shouldn't be ignored.
You are, however, BVU to complain about the wait.

This time last year I was very ill, for 2 months in all. I only saw GP, I told her that I was struggling to breathe so much that'd I'd nearly called an ambulance, she said I should have done. Turned out I had pneumonia.
The reason I didn't ring an ambulance was because I tried to think of what hospital could do that the GP wasn't doing already and the answer was "nothing" imo. I had pain killers, I had an inhaler, I was on antibiotics.
Also, I suffer from anaphylaxis, I've been that person who is blue-lighted into A&E, I've been in resus, I've nearly died a fair few times. So for me, personally, I think very hard before I go to A&E.
And even though I'm always put in major, they may have to take staff from minor to treat me, because they don't always have enough people in to deal with lots of life / death situations.

I hope your neck gets better soon, pain is horrid and you have my sympathy xxxx

LeucanTheMopsis · 24/10/2012 18:42

I had a lovely trip to A&E once [wistful]. Gas, nee-nah ambulance, blood, morphine, unconsciousness, the works.

I've also had trapped nerves, a broken foot, renal colic (ow) and just gone and wept at my GP the next day, poor woman that she is.

Not saintly, just an awareness of life-threatening versus GP-threatening if no painkillers/treatment is forthcoming.

quoteunquote · 24/10/2012 18:42

I've been in A&E quite a few times this year, phoned ahead, arrived and was seen immediately, quite amazed at fast I was receiving life saving treatment, those drips were in and working within minutes of arrival, but then I had neurtropenic sepsis going on,

The staff got abuse on several occasions because I was "queue jumping", as did my husband as he left to go move the car from outside A&E once he had handed me over,

They see who is mostly like die first, quite a good arrangement really, can't think of a better one.

When thinking about how the NHS cuts effect you, please remember

The government cannot give anything --
that they have not first taken from someone else

If you write to your MP demanding that waiting times be cut, then something else will be cut to pay for it.

ClutchingPearls · 24/10/2012 18:47

Did anyone see in the papers a little girl not quite 2, died waiting 70 minutes to see the GP despite her dad repeatedly telling the receptionist she was getting worse and eventually asking for an ambulance to be called.

That's what I call waiting too long.