To be really annoyed at the NHS today?

[BlueNeighbourhood]

As a first point, I want to say how awesome the police are...which I'm sure will become apparent in this thread.

My brother was out last night at a local pub with his friends, he wasn't too drunk, just merry and decided to leave around 9pm to get a taxi home. Somehow from leaving the pub he's tripped and fell into the road, smashing his face up and some damage to his foot. Fortunately a police riot van was passing and found him in the street, picked him up and took him straight to the local walk in centre. They stayed with him right until me and my parents got there last night (my parents had both had a glass of wine with dinner so didn't want to drive).

So at the walk in, we were told they wouldn't even clean up the wound on his face or X-Ray his foot, he should go to hospital. They told us we should take him as an ambulance would be a 90 minute wait. At this point he's quite concussed and struggling to stay awake. So I drove straight to hospital.

In A&E it's two flights of stairs and along a corridor in a temporary box room while waiting for a new one to be constructed. Poky, too hot and very much squished in. It then took two hours to be seen by a triage nurse followed by another two hours to see a nurse who said she couldn't do anything and needed to wait for a doctor who wasn't available.

All the while the room is getting more and more full, he's complaining of headaches and pain in his foot and wants to sleep. In the end at 3.30am we took him home and my Mum watched over him all night while he slept to make sure he was okay.

It just seems so fundamentally wrong in there, it was an accident and he's been in hospitals for more than four hours without someone as much as taking some cotton wool to his face. No help whatsoever! But I have to say the police in all of this were so kind and great. It's just the NHS was a complete let down.

And breathe...rant over!!

[ChicRock]

So he didn't actually need to be in A&E at their busiest time of the week or ser a doctor, it could have, and did, wait until this morning.

You chose not to wait. Missing the problem here.

[Ibelieve123]

Don't blame the nhs for being stretched, understaffed & busy
Blame the government they are the ones that are responsible for attempting to ruin what is one of the best things about this country.

[ChicRock]

*see a doctor

[midcenturymodern]

YABU to expect a doctor and a radiographer to be on duty in a walk in centre late at night. It's not the walk in centre's fault that he wasn't taken to hospital sooner.

[SauvignonBlanche]

Bastard A&E staff prioritising resuscitating people, dealing with stroke and heart attack victims, people haemorrhaging or dying over your DB with a broken toe and a cut to his face.

[AndNowItsSeven]

He should have stayed not gone home. You said it your op he was merry so likely his injury was alcohol related.

[BlueNeighbourhood]

The NHS in this country is a wonderful resource, and should be praised for the hard work the staff do there. like everyone has said, funding cuts mean there just isn't enough people at peak times to treat everyone required.

Thank you for everyone's input into this, now I know I'm being unreasonable I'll get back in my box

[Jessesbitch]

If he concussion and needed stitches then you were being very unreasonable to leave after 4 hours.

[BlueNeighbourhood]

And finally can please everyone understand, we were TOLD by the walk in that we MUST take him to hospital as soon as possible.

I didn't want to go at 10pm on a Saturday night, I had every vision possible of it being full of drunks fighting. I would much rather have taken him home and be seen the next day. However we were basically ordered to drive him there.

[Akire]

This is problem with NHS if you are urgent they will see you ASAP but if you are in so much pain you feel like will pass out you are in no more priority than someone who bumped their toe 2 weeks ago and now decides to get it looked at.

[Northernlurker]

Sober young men do not trip and smash their face in so badly it needs stitches whilst also breaking toes. That's an alcohol related injury.
Th NHS is not at fault here.

[sum1killthepawpatrollers]

so why leave after 4hours if you were told you MUST take him to hospital asap??

[NarkyMcDinkyChops]

Then why didn't you stay until you were seen, if you believed the walk in that it was necessary for him to see a dr? This is the bit that doesn't make sense.
"I believed he absolutely needed to see a dr until I couldn't be bothered to wait any longer" isn't going to get much sympathy.

[ChardonnayKnickertonSmythe]

What you should get annoyed at is the announcement that next year real spending for person will be cut.

[m0therofdragons]

In an accute hospital the emergency docs also deal with emergencies on the wards. 4 hour wait is pretty standard and an otherwise healthy male with cut face and broken toe isn't going to be high up the list. Yes he needed medical help but he wasn't close to death. I really don't get what your complaint is. And ambulances should only be called for real life-threatening emergencies like heart attack or stroke.

[PrincessNakedAsAJayBird]

May have picked you up wrong In A&E it's two flights of stairs and along a corridor in a temporary box room they've put A&E upstairs? How were you seeing all the ambulance brought in patients?

[BlueNeighbourhood]

As I've said, I've apologised to all users for being absolutely outrageously unbelievably wrong for daring to question something of which I've had no experience of previously. On a serious note, I do apologise if I've offended anyone.

I've requested for the thread to be deleted.

[nurseinwonderland]

I'm an A&E nurse. There is a problem with a shortage of doctors overnight. We have our ED doctors who see patients first, then they refer to the speciality Dr's eg medical, surgical etc.
Overnight these doctors are covering the whole of the hospital. If you get an arrest call on a ward, and an emergency in resus, that's all the doctors tied up. Unfortunately "walking wounded" such as your brother are lower priority.
Believe me, we are as frustrated as you.

[Strongerthanme]

Haven't read all the posts in here so sorry if duplicating but please don't be angry at the amazing A&E staff who are so stretched & under so much pressure. They are doing the best they can in shit conditions often without sufficient resources.
In 5 years the NHS might not exist. Then you'll have something to be frustrated about.
Hope your brother gets well soon.

[NarkyMcDinkyChops]

Threads aren't deleted because the OP doesn't like the answers.

Why not just answer people's questions?

[BlueNeighbourhood]

May have picked you up wrong In A&E it's two flights of stairs and along a corridor in a temporary box room they've put A&E upstairs? How were you seeing all the ambulance brought in patients?

Yep, which was strange even for me. They were coming up in lifts with the paramedics and straight into a room next door.

[m0therofdragons]

Going to hospital is fine, you were advised to, but he wasn't in a life-threatening condition so you had to wait. It's normal. Not sure what your expectations were.

[Foxesarefriends]

Blue you can apologise again and again and say that you accept that you are being unreasonable but posters will still keep piling in.
It's a shame that there isn't a feature to turn comments off.

Some of the comments about your brother are completely unnecessary.
Hide the thread, I doubt it will get deleted.

[BlueNeighbourhood]

I've answered every single question that's been put to me.

The reason we took him home was because he was falling asleep, he kept telling us he was fine and just wanted to go home. And so we did as he asked. From the initial walk in centre staff advising us that it was such a big deal he needed to be there in a flash, to then being left for hours we left him to decide what he wanted to do. He was perfectly sober at this point and fine to return home.

[sum1killthepawpatrollers]

blue youre not in yorkshire are you by any chance?