To arrive at A&E at half past five,

[earlgrey]

and expect to be out of there before twenty to eleven?

I left in the end, was waiting for a tetanus jab which would have taken all of ten minutes. I know more urgent cases come in etc etc, and appreciate children should be seen first, but I did think that was beyond the beyonds and eventually discharged myself.

Bloody rabbit .....

[LaylaandSethsmum]

I suspect you didn't really need a tetanus vaccination anyway, but your practice nurse could have found that out for you and saved you the wait.

[Loshad]

yes YARBU - A+E isn't really the place to go for a tetanus jab - your Gp's is.

[alicet]

That does sound like a long time.

But patients are seen strictly in order of priority NOT in the order they turn up. It might seem irritating to you that you had something that could be dealt with quickly but lifethreatenting emergencies take priority not things that are quick and easy to deal with.]

A long wait yes. But thank your lucky stars you didn't have something wrong that required immediate attention

[expatinscotland]

I'd have called the GP's office first or after hours NHS, because usually you can wait 24 hours after the bite for the jab.

[onetiredmummy]

Was in A&E at a children's hospital on Monday for 8 hours. DH had a convulsion, went unresponsive, then screaming with pain & fever of 102.First I was told it was a bowel disorder & they would have to operate, then met the surgeon who decided not to cut him open just to keep him in for a few days for observation, then in the 8th hour was told it was JUST A VIRUS & to go home!!

Worst bit was trying to get a urine sample by taking his nappy off & following him around, nearly bent double with a plastic bowl under his willy. Yeah got a few strange looks & mutterings under breath for that.

[mm22bys]

Did you read the report in Sunday's Indie about the state of England's A&E depts? Main story was of a girl who had her hip run over by a truck, which apparently was "like a bag of potato crips" and there weren't the resources to operate on her for three WEEKS.

[Budababe]

10.40 on a Sunday night is a good time in Budapest.

Hospital was deserted and in darkness. Security guard phoned through and the one and only English speaking doc arrived down - he was a urologist! - and took us through - staff all just waking up.

Were seen very quickly. Brought me into theatre to stitch my head. Wouldn't let DH in with me so urologist came and held my hand! All good except the doc stitching me had a cigarette in his mouth at the same time!

Did a good job though!

[Lolly68]

My brother broke his leg on Saturday. Went to A&E that put a temporary cast on it. Told him to come back on Monday for operation which he did, was told that they could not operate because there was no spaces in the hospital. He is still waiting... they said that if his leg sets they will have to re-break - ouch.

[Judy1234]

Usualyl the triage works well. When my student daughter had a head injury and couldn't speak and time before brain damage was crucial we were whisked straight in past all those toddlers and waiting drunks.

[gess]

You need to take a severely autistic child with you next time. Last time I went with ds1 they called us through before I'd even finished giving his details (we did get some looks), the time before we waited about 5 minutes. I was mightily impressed that they were able to accomodate him in that way, whenever we've been with ds2 or ds3 we've had to wait ages.

[mm22bys]

Sorry you had a long wait.

I am becoming a regular at our local hospital too. DS2 was there at the end of November, and I took him to A&E recently, and the same male nurse was on (and he remembered me/DS2)!

I anticipated a long wait, so got there at about 9.30am, but it was a nice day outside so we got seen (relatively) quickly.....

[tortoiseSHELL]

Sorry you had a long wait.

CHickens are fab pets. Ours are in our garden and my aunt has some in her garden in Oxford, (so don't think there's a problem with byelaws). Cockerels are often forbidden though, for obvious noise issues!

[SweetyDarling]

What were you doing with your killer bunny at that time in the morning?

[unknownrebelbang]

DH is no stranger to A&E through work, and he was up there a couple of weeks ago in relation to a child who had been critically injured.

Even he was amazed that the board was flashing up waiting time of up to 10 hours(!) and this was midweek! It often states up to four hours.

[tjacksonpfc]

theres nothing wrong with rabbit we breed and show them and our dd 3 and ds 2.10 handles them and palys with them a lot of it depends on where you got it from and how often it is handeled.

[earlgrey]

LOL! I really, really, really wanted chickens. H was against them, they place we went to to see them said some councils won't allow them in people's gardens, and thought Oxford was one of them.

See, I know I'm right, all of the time

[fedup1981]

Chickens make great pets, they follow you around, friendly little things. Bunnies are highly strung and crazy as a kettleful of squirrels. So now you know.

[earlgrey]

Fedup, why didn't someone on here tell me?

[fedup1981]

Rabbits are crazy little bastards in my experience anyway....They look so sweet and fluffy, the fluff conceals their massive claws and sharp teeth. Not ideal pets.

Sorry you had such a long and fruitless wait, must have been very frustrating.

[earlgrey]

fedup, I wholly appreciate all that you've said. It's just that this was the "minor injuries" dept of A&E. Thought they'd want to get shot of me sooner, that's all. Unfortunately I'm not a stranger to A&E, just thought that when there were three peeps in front of you, there surely must be more staff to that number. Sure the numbers grew as the evening progressed, but when I went in I was told an hour to an hour and a half. Then I was third on the list, then second, then at twenty to eleven, third again.

Hey ho. Still think they're great, just could have done without that yesterday.

[fedup1981]

There was a thread on here recently with a link to a nurses forum, where A&E nurses discussed the difficulties they faced in their jobs and let off steam about the attitudes of the general public.

It was amazing to read about the way they are treated, not just by people who scream at them, or spit at or bite them, or try to get free drugs out of them by faking seizures etc, but the sheer number of people who went in for fairly minor reasons such as pregnancy tests, toothache, cut fingers etc and would get aggressive and impatient when they weren't treated as a priority, whilst real emergencies were coming in thick and fast.

While I realise getting your tetanus is important, the nurses explained that at any moment in the A&E there could be any number of major emergencies, and "that little old lady who walked in looking pale after you did with your sprained ankle could now be having a major heart attack"

Those nurses are busy saving lives by making decisions about who is a priority case, as in who is bleeding to death versus who is unresponsive and turning blue, they don't have time to have "a system for quick issues" and in fact it'd do the opposite to what they need- by encouraging all the people listed above to go to A&E at 6am rather than wait for their GP's to open.

Not having a go at you, but thought it might be good for you to see the other side of the coin, you don't know what horrific stuff they may have had through the doors after you walked in.

[earlgrey]

LOL! I wish!

All I did was pick the bloomin' thing up to clean out its hutch.

[Budababe]

Oh dear. Does sounds ridiculous. You would think they would have a system for obv quick issues - just to clear the place if nothing else.

So - rabbit you say? What exactly were you going??!!! A real rabbit or the battery operated sort??