A+E! Worse now than ever...

[HJ2020]

Been sat in A+E since half 10, there are still 6 people in front of me and probably another 40 behind me!

They have told everyone, if you need to go to the hospital then go... but they don't have the staff to treat the numbers! Its fucking TUESDAY night ( Wednesday morning now ) and the amount of pissed up idiots is unreal!

Honestly, if your not dieing stay at home 🤦🏻‍♀️

That's the Agenda for Change 2018 three year deal which actually won't even apply to all nurses.
Don't be misled.

Cryptic. Probably gallbladder but likes to be all mysterious except to denigrate others who are also there to get medical treatment, they can't possibly need it as much.

Idiotic comment. I once sat in A&E with a GP’s referral letter waiting to be admitted for my 4th operation in 6 months. Whilst waiting, there was a couple with 2 small children still in school uniform running around. They were there before I’d arrived but within half an hour the dad just said he’s had enough of waiting and wanted to go home. So they all left. What do you think could have been that seriously wrong with them? A&E is there for emergencies not pisstakers. .

@Newdaynewname1

I personally think that everyone getting injured drunk should have to pay the full costs of their treatment. and (appart from life threatening cases) be at the end of the queue. Would either reduce numbers a bit, or at least fund the system. If you have money and time to get drunk, you can afford the consequences.

Same for skiing injuries then? Rugby injuries? Driving injuries for journeys that could have been done on foot?

@Billben

Cryptic. Probably gallbladder but likes to be all mysterious except to denigrate others who are also there to get medical treatment, they can't possibly need it as much.

Idiotic comment. I once sat in A&E with a GP’s referral letter waiting to be admitted for my 4th operation in 6 months. Whilst waiting, there was a couple with 2 small children still in school uniform running around. They were there before I’d arrived but within half an hour the dad just said he’s had enough of waiting and wanted to go home. So they all left. What do you think could have been that seriously wrong with them? A&E is there for emergencies not pisstakers. .

That made me laugh! It brought back a memory of when mine was 2 and fell over on concrete; blood was pouring or rather what seemed like pumping, out of the top of his forehead, we couldn't stem it so I put him in car seat and went to A&E. We sat there - and sat there - after what seemed like a few hours the bleeding had stopped and I could see it was a very small cut, he and other children were charging about in a play area on pedal cars and the like, having great fun. So we went home and he was fine.

@Josette77

But you are there too and well enough to post?

🙄

You clearly haven’t given much thought to your reply, have you? Or are you one of those pisstakers OP is talking about and you feel offended?

YANBU to think you shouldn't be waiting that long in A&E.

YABVU to think it's the fault of your fellow patients, the vast majority of whom probably need to be there as much as you do. As others have said, blame a decade of underfunding and underinvestment. Both in A&E and the NHS in general.

It wasn't idiotic to tell people to stop avoiding A&E. There have been far too many untreated heart attacks and strokes with awful consequences because people were scared to go.

Ours is usually 5hrs plus I've once waited 8 hours. I once went (from a smaller hosp in an ambulance) waited so long that I was feeling better by the time they got round to me. The first hosp was actually pretty worried lol.

Drunk people being charged is a stupid idea. It's one of those things that sounds all nice and righteous, but then fails to withstand even basic scrutiny.

For one thing, lots of people who are injured because they've been attacked are under the influence. If someone's had a few cocktails, been assaulted and needs to come and have their injuries seen to, under the charge the drunks model they'd have to pay for it. I imagine someone will say there can be a system where fault is attributed and you don't have to pay if you're judged to be a victim, but good luck with the grey areas on that one. Systems also become more expensive when you caveat them, so if you try to introduce any complexity at all, that makes it increasingly less likely that you won't be an expense yourself. You'd also need some kind of definition of what drunk is, so what would you go for? Blood alcohol? Best make sure it's something that doesn't vary according to sex and ethnicity or you'd be opening yourself up to a world of legal action.

Then we get to the hopelessly addicted, who you'd deter from seeking treatment which is not generally considered to be a sensible idea, and the homeless. This is not a high income cohort. It's going to mainly comprise people who simply don't have the money to pay for treatment every time they come in. A debt that cannot be paid will not be. But it will be invoiced and chased, both of which cost money. Frankly I'd rather spend it on more A and E nurses.

I’ve spent a couple of full days in A&E coming in by ambulance and seeing behind the scenes post admittance in the last year or so (pre-Covid) including on a Saturday night in a pretty rough town, and IME what’s filling them up is not so much the idiot drunks in the waiting room, it’s the little old ladies and gents who’ve fallen over or had a (dangerous) funny turn.

It really opened my eyes to the reality of something I knew about on paper - the strain on the NHS of an ageing population. No amount of efficiency will do the job without more money - I personally don’t care whether we pump more taxes in directly or move to the best of the European public/private systems but it needs more money and staff.

I personally think that everyone getting injured drunk should have to pay the full costs of their treatment. and (appart from life threatening cases) be at the end of the queue. Would either reduce numbers a bit, or at least fund the system. If you have money and time to get drunk, you can afford the consequences

What a short sighted, ill thought out comment.

What about people who were driving too fast and had a car crash which was their fault? Should they pay?

What about a teenager who tried drugs at a party for the first time, should they pay?

What about someone who injured themselves playing sport?

What about someone who self harms?

Perhaps the receptionist could morally assess who does or doesn't deserve free treatment based on their culpability?

Well A&E is back to normal then. I spent 11 hours in A&E with my 90 yr old dad on new year's eve and that was before the rush of drunks. He had fallen and hit his head and was dazed and confused. It took hours to get a doctor to look at his file and returned tests to make the decision to discharge him. They staff were having a lovely time eating choc ices and chatting.

I was in and out of a & e last week in an hour. Check in, triage and treatment.

It really depends on why you are there. We were in and out in 90 minutes the other week, but it was an emergency, they scheduled surgery for 8am in the morning but said go home first. The waiting room was full of people who probably should have seen their gp or were drunk

@cptartapp

That's the Agenda for Change 2018 three year deal which actually won't even apply to all nurses. Don't be misled.

According to nurses.co.uk, all nurses will receive at least 6.5% over 3 years, and some will recieve more. Plus annual increments for those that are entitled to them. Is that website incorrect?

Dh was in and out of a&e last week ,including an x ray in under an hour . Obviously not that bad every where

I recall taking my youngest to a cottage hospital at 6 weeks old. He was found to be in “severe respiratory distress” and couldn’t breathe. He was also in septic shock.
We were taken by ambulance to the Nearest big hospital, where he was taken off the ambulance ventilator and I heard the paramedics inform no less than 3 nurses that he needed back on the ventilator.
30 minutes later I was still sat on a plastic chair begging any member of staff to please please give my baby some oxygen.
All I got was hes not our patient until you’re booked onto the ward, currently you’re being triaged. 1 hour later they Hooked him to an oxygen meter. When his stats blipped below a certain point, the nurse would come and turn off the noise, to save waking her other patients! 3 hours later, at which point I had given him cpr myself over and over, we got taken into a room and suddenly it’s “he’s in serious respiratory failure” “dying” and me being hustled out of the room.
He was lucky, he survived, but I honestly don’t think my respect for the nhs has ever come back. I don’t think it ever will.
Now when we get ill I pay £200 for the first time and nothing else all year and get paid for, private medical treatment with little to no waiting and appropriate care.

I was in A&E last week for 6 hours (dislocated elbow). It was very busy in there and there was not enough space to put anyone. I spent quite a lot of time in corridors after being taken to X-ray (3 times). Several other people were also in the corridors.

The staff were great but there is clearly just more demand than they can cope with.

Tuesday and Wednesday statistically are the busiest times in A&E nationwide. I was surprised too.

It's easy to dismiss other people waiting, but you don't know the reasons someone has felt the need to go to A&E. To others OP might look like a time waster on their phone.

People avoiding A&E and GP clinics for months was always going to lead to a build up later. Lots of surgeries and clinics have been cancelled, many are barely managing. I'd rather they present now than in winter when there's less capacity.

I have just walked out of A&E now. It took 1.5 hrs including an X-ray. It would have been quicker only the X-ray dept wasn't open that early in the morning so I had to wait for that to open.

Sounds normal to me but that doesn't mean it's not frustrating. As PP says, at least you're not in America. Hope you're ok.

@ToffeePennie I am so upset reading your post, horrific.

Please have some sympathy for the OP. She wouldn't be there unless it was necessary. As for the drunks, let's be honest. Whether they need to be there or not, drunks are always a pain. Not what you need when you're in A&E and already distressed.

@ToffeePennie dreadful. I’ve also lost respect for some aspects of the NHS (luckily we have a wonderful GP).
DH had a blood clot last year. He’d just been discharged from an extended hospital stay and recognised the symptoms. Unfortunately they decided he was a time waster and decided to ignore him. He was on a lot of medication so wasn’t at his best either.
It was only because of a junior doctor who happened to notice he was basically being ignored by his consultant and organised some tests, diagnosing a deep vein thrombosis. The junior doctor was really angry about the whole thing.
I’m furious. He hasn’t actually even been in an A&E for over 20 years, so not like he was a frequent flyer.

MrBenn if it says "all" nurses then yes. Thousands of nurses, myself included who work for the NHS don't work to Agenda for Change terms and conditions. Misleading.