Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be really annoyed at the NHS today?

153 replies

BlueNeighbourhood · 29/01/2017 14:39

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!!

OP posts:
Klaphat · 29/01/2017 19:04

I was stone cold sober when I tripped and broke my arm so badly that the bone was through the skin and the arm really was actually hanging off. So you would have suspected me of being drunk

People without neurological impairment do not land directly on their face when falling from standing. They put their arms out, and their hands or arms or shoulders take some of the force of their landing. They do not smash their faces up.

CatAmongPigeons · 29/01/2017 20:41

The NHS is inadequate. It wasn't any better under Labour.

That's quite a pernicious falsehood. We had a decade of proper investment in the NHS under Tony Blair/Gordon Brown. Bringing the system up to what it can do, after two decades of Tory running it down.

The Tories want to run it down again, so people like the OP think that it's rubbish, and so no-one will object to the NHS being sold off to private suppliers. The Tories are ideologically opposed to public spending and free public services. They want you to pay for them all, OP and if you can't afford to, well, that's your fault for being poor.

SunsetOnTheHorizon · 29/01/2017 20:41

I took my 7yr old to A&E bk in the summer. He fell down a whole flight of stairs was in obvious pain and was vomitting while I was waiting for the triage nurse. There was no special treatment, no one rushed over, I had to get the sick bowl myself, and yet I calmly waited to be seen. Didnt complain, had no problems with the delay but instead appreciated the fact he was seen and assesed (he had a skull fracture and bruising on the brain) and he was given the right care. Ended up staying in for a few nights but came out grateful for the care he recieved (and still is as he hasnt been discharged) Maybe we should look at the positives and be grateful for what we actually have.

mirokarikovo · 29/01/2017 21:04

You were very unreasonable to take him home. And very lucky that you didn't worsen his condition by doing so. The walk in centre told you he needed to be seen by A&E so he needed to stay there and be seen. Obviously he was going to be a low priority because he wasn't immediately dying. But taking someone with suspected concussion home because they appear to be losing consciousness is a really stupid thing to do.

Like others said - save your anger for the tories. The NHS are brilliant.

OrcinusOrca · 29/01/2017 21:11

A lot would argue that if you can walk out due to being annoyed at the wait, did you really need to be there?

I was sat in OOH a few months ago and the receptionist was dealing with someone moaning about having waited two hours and how it wasn't good enough and he might as well go home. He got told that surely if he could think about going home he was well enough to wait to see his GP Monday.

Almostfifty · 29/01/2017 21:16

NorthernLurker

I fell one morning on my way to town. I ended up almost scalping myself (around 60 stitches in my head) and broke two toes. It was a midweek day, and I'd not had a drink for three nights.

These accidents do happen.

Lorelei76 · 29/01/2017 21:20

You can also fall on your face if you have your hands in your pockets.

ConfessorKahlan · 29/01/2017 21:21

YABVU. Even with all of the issues faced by the NHS, every time my family or I have needed them, they been great. Yes, there are long waiting times, but they have to prioritse which patients need the most urgent care.

I have used NHS emergency services this weekend with my daughter and we waited ages, but she got the care and treatment that she needed.

I completely agree that funding is a major issue and many problems, but I would hate to imagine this country without our wonderful NHS and its dedicated staff.

seven201 · 29/01/2017 22:06

Ywbu to take him home without being seen. I have nothing but praise for the amazing NHS staff. Yes it's shit waiting, but if you've been told to go, you need to stay!

Squeegle · 29/01/2017 22:22

It was much better under labour, waiting lists went down and provision went up. Since the goriest have been it it has got much worse, and Jeremy hunt and his crazy impositions have been the icing on the cake. I am shocked really as the referendum showed (if nothing else), that all of us would like to spend more on the NHS, and yet we seem to be continually ignor

Frogqueen13 · 29/01/2017 22:27

Yabu

I was working in ED last night. We had 2 paediatric cardiac arrests, 2 adult cardiac arrests about 10 severely septic patients requiring intensive care 1 with a spontaneous intracerebral bleed which was life changing and multiple alcohol related injuries. It was a particularly horrific shift one of the worst I have had in a while and the rest of the county was in the same situation.

You were in ED with 3 other adults- why didn't you wash his face? And he was see by 2 professionals who assessed him and didn't class his as a priority.

So yes YABU

jacks11 · 29/01/2017 22:47

YABU but can understand the frustration.

In an ideal world every patient would be seen and treated promptly, admitted to a bed if necessary or discharged home.

However, in the real world where there is a shortage of Drs and nurses working in A&E, and shortage of beds in hospitals meaning people who need to be admitted are waiting on trollies (or lining up outside A&E in ambulances) until a bed becomes available, people who are not emergencies may need to wait longer than they (and the staff, BTW) would like.

I have colleagues who are very angry at the care they are able give to patients, but they can only work within the resources that they have. They need to treat the most seriously unwell first, everyone else has to wait.

All of that said, your brother was triaged and presumably it was decided that he wasn't urgent enough to move up the queue. Yes, they were missing targets but it was a Saturday night which is often busy. Do you feel he was incorrectly triaged? On the other hand, you seem to have decided he was not in desperate need of treatment that night as you took him home and kept watch yourselves. I can understand if your DB was tired and sore that may seem the best idea, so not criticising, but it does suggest that you didn't feel his need for treatment outweighed his discomfort at having to wait? Which would suggest that he was triaged correctly?

jacks11 · 29/01/2017 22:53

Actually, when I say I wouldn't criticise you for taking him home I mean I can understand why you might think that, but it wasn't the most sensible thing to do.

Foxesarefriends · 29/01/2017 22:55

Fruit juice is no better for teeth than fizzy drinks.
I am seeing a real difference in opinions here which leans quite heavily to one group being far more evidence based.

Foxesarefriends · 29/01/2017 22:56

Wrong thread Soz Grin

OopsDearyMe · 29/01/2017 22:56

YABU as other have said its not NHS at fault , it is a government closing hospitals and failing to provide either funds or replacements for services that they cut. Its time that this country woke up a quit taking advantage of the NHS. Expecting too much.
You must have been aware that the day and timing of this injury would mean you were attending A and E at a particularly busy and stressed time. Clearly the police officer was not too concerned or would have called an ambulance and not chosen to take him to A and E, he was obviously not seriously injured as he was conscious and an!e to sit in the walk in centre for a good period of time and again at A and E.

Longdistance · 29/01/2017 23:14

Yabu.

He was there with the rest of the drunks wasting NHS resources.
You could have cleaned his face, and waiting 4 hours is pretty good on a Saturday night.
He was breathing, and not bleeding to death, so it wasn't a priority.
Why were there 3 adults waiting at A&E anyway? One should have stayed for company. The rest should have been at home.

ICantThinkOfAUsernameH · 29/01/2017 23:19

OP asked a question and has accepted everyone's views and replied to questions, yet some are replying quite rudely. They have agreed that they were unreasonable.

Squeegle · 29/01/2017 23:32

People do love to be rude online don't they Confused just not needed. No need to insult her brother at all.

stopfuckingshoutingatme · 29/01/2017 23:35

Oh OP - what do you want to hear ? It's a mess and it's so busy CIA of pissheads falling over . 4 hours is nothing either . Sorry but this is exasperating thread TBH

WrongTrouser · 29/01/2017 23:39

To be fair, the place wasn't even full of drunks

Atenco · 30/01/2017 00:56

Longdistance Are totally abstemious?

If you aren't I don't think you can criticise a man for having had a couple of drinks on a Saturday night. I don't like binge drinking and really feel for nurses and doctors who have to deal with obstreperous drunks, but people have accidents and sometimes they were drinking before the accident, is that a crime?

Topseyt · 30/01/2017 01:42

Klaphat, what a ridiculous generalisation.

I am sorry to inform you that you are completely wrong.

I have injured myself in the ways you describe and I am not neurologically impaired thank you very much.

Klaphat · 30/01/2017 02:44

You've managed to land on your face from standing without making any attempt to reduce the force of the fall? Or are you misreading my post? I didn't describe 'ways'. I described one way.

PenelopeFlintstone · 30/01/2017 03:14

YANBU, and it didn't sound at all to me like you were blaming the staff. He should have been triaged straight away - that's the point of triage! And if there wasn't anyone to do it then there should have been.