To be really angry

[EnoughIsEnough2020]

I took my 9 month old DD to A&E today and have been there since 8. We have only just left.

We were seen at 10pm and after collecting a sample from her I was told to wait in a room opposite the desk.

The whole time (nearly 5 hours) there were 9 staff members chatting, literally just chatting and sitting around eating biscuits. Fine if there's nothing to do..

After an hour I came out and asked what was happening. They were all very nice and said just to wait for the results. I noticed that the waiting room was empty and there didn't seem to be any other patients in the other rooms.

I waited again and after another hour and a half I got up to go and find something to eat.

One of the ladies then told me I needed to wait for the results and that if I left they would need to contact the health visitor. Fair enough of she thought I was leaving the hospital but one of the women immediately picked up a piece of paper from the desk in front of her and said that everything was fine and we could leave.

I have no idea how much longer I would have been sitting there if I hadn't left the room and i'm not only annoyed at being completely forgotten about, but also the way they spoke to me and tried to infer that I was neglecting my child's health!

The A&E staff May have been less busy, but it wasn’t them processing the test results.
Not disagreeing with you that it is frustrating but it’s likely they were waiting for the lab results and then they came in?
I may be wrong but it is quite likely.
Also I hope your little one is ok

It is frustrating but the tests would have been sent elsewhere, it's always a waiting game in the hospital.

I’ve also spent the night in A&E with my DD so I sympathise.
I get you’re tired, you’ve had a really stressful evening and must have been so worried about your DD, but it really isn’t the nursing staffs fault, as the pp said, they don’t process results.
I hope your DD is feeling brighter in the morning, try and forget about it and get some sleep x

Yeah, they have to wait for pathology to test the sample. That can take a few hours. Did you think they test things in A&E? A&E May have been blessedly quiet (that’s a good thing) but you we’re waiting for pathology. Please don’t begrudge them a few biscuits with tea...

What if you had left and they hadn't said anything to you? They could get in trouble. How are they supposed to know where you're going?

It wasn't them working on the results, not their fault there was nothing to do, if anything it's positive that an A&E was empty!

I hope your daughter is okay

YANBU and the other posters clearly haven't read the thread, considering she already had the results in front of her and failed to tell you them promptly.

One day public servants will treat you as what you are: the customer.
Unfortunately that day seems a long way off. Whether it is the NHS, the council, the universal credit or PIP assessor, or the DWP, they all treat you as a hassle rather than a customer.

@EnoughIsEnough2020 as a parent I can understand your frustration. However as someone who has worked for the NHS for 30/years I can tell you that since Covid 19 there has been a HUGE DOWNTURN in the number of people presenting at A&E and also contacting the ambulance service. The fact that staff in A&E were able to sit down and actually TALK TO EACH OTHER is very unusual. Please be grateful we in the UK have the NHS, don’t bitch about it. I hope your DD is okay

So, you were stuck there waiting while the results were sitting right there in front of them? Of course that’s terrible. I think most people would be really angry about this.

Oh, and before long someone will come along to say that you should be thankful (or even lucky) for what you get.

If this kind of thing happens call your health visitor. Obviously they won't be available late but they'll call you back when they can and they have access to results

Even if they have the results they need a medic to review and sign off in them/make a plan. Medics are notorious for going missing when needed and were probably waiting for them to come and review.

God forbid they should eat. A few biscuits

Okay everyone, I've calmed down now

I wasn't annoyed about the wait as such (or the biscuits), I've waited much longer for myself in A&E and expected to be quite some time.

It's more the fact that they could see us and hear my daughter crying but still didn't bother to give us the results. The woman hadn't left the desk for ages so must have had them for some time. Had my DD not felt better (which they didn't know) I would have been as worried as when I entered and been panicking unnecessarily.

There's no excuse for the staff if those results had been signed off ages ago and they'd not picked up on it

Disagree that we are customers, we are service users.

It doesn't sound ideal, and one thing I remember from a period where we needed a lot of health support is that it can feel upsetting that staff are detached/unstressed whilst you are really worried. But of course if they weren't like that they wouldn't last five minutes with the stuff they had to deal with, as they never know who will come through the door.