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!!
AIBU?
To be really annoyed at the NHS today?
BlueNeighbourhood · 29/01/2017 14:39
"The reason we took him home was because he was falling asleep...."
But you were worried about concussion?
Look, here's my problem with this tale. Most sober, stable adults can stay awake when they need to. All night if necessary. I do it often when I do night shifts. It isn't pleasant, but you can do it.
But your brother was falling asleep. People who can't stay awake at the time you are talking about can't stay awake for one of two reasons, usually:
- They're ill.
- They're drunk.
Now, you're saying he wasn't drunk. Yet you weren't concerned about the fact that he was falling asleep while you were awake enough to waiting in A&E with him? That's odd. If I were with him (and admittedly, I'm a nurse) I'd be thinking 'my brother bashed his head, he's been concussed, and now he can't stay awake. But you thought "damned NHS, what a crappy service, I'll take my concussed brother home and let him sleep it off??" That seems a bit barmy to me, sorry.
Here , have one of these 
it'll keep you going while you wait to be seen!
You've obviously never been to A&E before otherwise you'd realise that there may well have been emergencies/ resuscitation going on while your brother waited to be seen
A&E at the hospital where I work is understaffed and overstretched and there's constantly ambulances queuing up
The problem is that there are insufficient beds open in wards to move people into which then causes a backlog in ED....years of underfunding and bed closures have eroded the NHS....it's only going to get worse as more staff ( esp nurses) leave as they've had enough and are retiring
This reply has been deleted
Message withdrawn at poster's request.
He had concussion and he was falling asleep but you took him home?
You should have stayed there, he would have been seen eventually.
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