To be very frustrated in A and E just now.

[changeitatanytime]

I'm in Scotland, was advised by my doctor to go directly to A and E as have been having shortness of breath for few weeks and today I had an episode of chest pain.

Arrived at A and E at 4 pm. Was told to stand outside as shortness of breath was Covid symptom. Then brought into own room so I'm isolated (negative LFT). Was seen by doctor fairly quickly and was told would get bloods done, an ecg and a chest X-ray.

Had my bloods taken at 5 pm and chest X-ray at 5.10.

I have now been sat in this room alone for 1.5 hours without anyone even popping their head in to let me know what is happening. And no one has done an ecg.

I understand that they are very busy but someone presenting with shortness of breath and heart pain not being checked on for an hour and a half? Surely that's not right.

I'm not the most patient person and can feel my heart rate going up and blood starting to boil.

Am I allowed to just walk out the hospital without saying a thing? Do you think I'm being unreasonable? What time should I give them to until leaving?

@TheGirlWhoLived absolutely The problem is that people forget what a and e is for
Think many think it's Anything and Everything!

Are you sure you didn’t have a typo and have been waiting 15 hrs instead of 1.5hrs? Otherwise do not understand why your blood is “boiling”? A doctor examined you within an hour of arriving, so safe to say you are not having a heart attack.

To check your bloods for troponin the bloods are taken 4 hours apart.

Sit tight.

Fwiw I spent 4 hours in an ambulance last night with my septic patient, as there were no beds to off load into.

You'll be seen in order of priority.

If you've had shortness of breath for a few weeks, have you had that looked into at all before now?

We are short staffed & over run right now and it's only going to get worse sadly.

Wow… my view is that if you’re left waiting at A and E that there is someone a lot more seriously ill than you. No wonder you’ve got blood pressure issues if you can’t deal with a 1.5 hour wait. Have you not read the news where people in ambulances need to wait 8 plus hours….

I know that A & E is busy, and the NHS is struggling right now, but my friend was in hospital in May, with a severe tummy bug that had lasted 5 days and left her badly dehydrated. (Norovirus.) She went to hospital at 4pm on the Monday, after vomiting and pooping since Thursday, (she had been to the GP and he rang the hospital to get her admitted.)

She and her DH waited outside the 'acute medicine unit' for 5 hours, until she was given a bed. She was dying on her arse, and ended up lying on the floor because she couldn't sit up. They eventually brought her a trolley-bed to lie on - after 2 hours, but then it was another 3 hours before she was taken into the ward.

So it was now 9pm. She was then left in the room they took her in for 2 hours before anyone came to her. (11pm by now.) They did her obs (blood pressure/temperature etc,) and then left her alone AGAIN til 1am! (Another 2 hours.)

They came in then to do her obs again, give her a commode to poop into - that she had to ask for as she was struggling to make it to the toilet in time - and to wire her up with a drip to rehydrate her. (She had to ASK for the rehydration drip, even though that was one of the main reasons the GP had admitted her! So she could be rehydrated.)

The drip kept malfunctioning. Every time she moved a millimetre it started howling. She kept pressing her buzzer for help and no-one came for 15-20 minutes the first 3 or 4 times ... After that they didn't come at all.

Long story short, she was royally ignored 95% of the night, not offered water, not offered food, not quizzed much about what was wrong, had to request the rehydrating drip herself, and had to try and sleep with a howling drip next to her whee-ing and screeching away, and wondering if the malfunction was going to put an air bubble into her blood stream.

The nurses were curt and rude and treated her like she was a nuisance. (Not nurse-bashing btw, but these ones were rude. And they weren't overly stressed or super busy, because my friend could hear them laughing and joking and singing outside her little room half the time she was there.)

She got a trainee nurse to remove the canula from her hand, (at 7am) and she just walked out and got her DH to pick her up. She was still vomiting a bit and pooping (when she got home,) but had been rehydrated so felt a bit better.

She said her treatment was so lame and poor that she will have to be in a coma to ever go into hospital again. She also said, she has never wished so much EVER in her 52 years, that she had private medical care, as (in her words) the NHS treatment is piss poor.

Like most people, she cannot afford private health care, so she has to take the poor service dealt out by the NHS these days ... (like most people do...)

As she said though, hell will freeze over before she goes into hospital again. She said she would much rather be ill in the comfort of her own home, with her family around her. Much better to be in a familiar place, surrounded by people who care, rather than be made to feel like you are a nuisance, and be ignored 95% of the time.

@changeitatanytime YANBU at ALL!

I went into A&E early hours last Saturday. Shortness of breath and covid positive. I was put in a monitoring room and had bloods and ecg. I was then monitored for ova every hour. I went in at 5 am had a chest X-ray at 11am and was seen by a doctor and discharged at midday. That's all minus the 1.5hours spent waiting for 111 to answer.

1.5 hours waiting in the hospital is nothing in the big scheme of things

This is appalling lets face it we should be wanting better every single time. Not saying suck it up your lucky its not been longer.

There's a bit of saying in A&E which is that "if you are waiting, you are usually one of the lucky ones".

Essentially you're waiting because they don't think you're having a heart attack, and they reason you are waiting is because they are dealing with people who are.

@KitKat1985 yes I have been to A and E a few times. The times where it has turned out serious, I have been surprised at how quickly I was seen. On one occasion I went to A and E which was packed. I was seen by a Dr within 5 minutes and then sent for various tests that happened very quickly. I ended up admitted to hospital for a week fairly ill.

I was sat in a waiting room with my seriously unwell daughter, holding an oxygen mask to her face, for 13 hours last week because there was not even a cubicle for her to go into, let alone a bed. I was very grateful that they were able to treat her at all.

The situation is entirely unacceptable but save your anger for the government who have chronically underfunded the system to the point that it is now breaking. Or broken.

1.5 hours ... pull yourself together a bit.

Wow, it actually sounds like you’ve had great care, and if you’re well enough to consider walking out in protest then do you need to be there?

@CovidMakesThingsHarder The OP has already said she overreacted. She is scared. Although it looks like she has not had a heart attack.

@LittleDandelionClock

To be fair, i wouldn't go to AE for Norovirus, its easily treated at home, so no need to even go to a GPs.

As your friend didn't actually get rehydrated nor ate (why would you if you ve severe norovirus?) or drunk much and was discharged the next day, sounds like she didn't need to either.

I go to a and e all the time - lifelong Uber rare autoimmune condition- I'd be amazed if I was dealt with in 1.5 hours. Most times it's at least 24 before transfer to a ward and even longer if the ambulances are backed up.

I'd be fuming to know that someone went to a and e with noro , it's not like there's posters everywhere in a hospital telling you not to. People like that are the reason that entire wards have to be closed off which hampers the service even more. @littledandelionclock rightly or wrongly having spent a lot of time in a and e I suspect that the nurses thought the same

[quote AndreaC67]@LittleDandelionClock

To be fair, i wouldn't go to AE for Norovirus, its easily treated at home, so no need to even go to a GPs.

As your friend didn't actually get rehydrated nor ate (why would you if you ve severe norovirus?) or drunk much and was discharged the next day, sounds like she didn't need to either.[/quote]
WTF? Did you actually read my post?!

The GP admitted my friend to hospital. She didn't go coz she had fuckall else to do and wanted to waste everyones time.. She was severely dehydrated... She had been vomiting and pooping for 5 days and had not kept anything down. No food. No water. She was severely dehydrated. I said that in my post!

If you think she should not have gone to hospital, you are clearly clueless about what damage severe dehydration can do. The GP didn't request for her to be admitted because it 'could have been sorted at home.'

And she did get rehydrated from the drip. Did you actually bother to read any of my post properly?

If you can leave A&E you don't need to be there.

[quote AndreaC67]@LittleDandelionClock

To be fair, i wouldn't go to AE for Norovirus, its easily treated at home, so no need to even go to a GPs.

As your friend didn't actually get rehydrated nor ate (why would you if you ve severe norovirus?) or drunk much and was discharged the next day, sounds like she didn't need to either.[/quote]
Surely it depends on other conditions though. EG someone with kidney problems or diabetes etc is likely to become quite ill if vomiting and not able to eat or drink. OPs friend may not be able to tolerate being dehydrated as much as someone else might be.

I had an asthma attack a few weeks ago and was seen and treated with a nebuliser quickly. But I had to wait to see a doctor and have blood tests/given steroids.

It is A and E - if you are safe and not I immediate danger I think you are ok

@KitKat1985

There's a bit of saying in A&E which is that "if you are waiting, you are usually one of the lucky ones".

Essentially you're waiting because they don't think you're having a heart attack, and they reason you are waiting is because they are dealing with people who are.

Agree with this too. I had to take my DC and was told we'd be waiting for at least 5 hours. They took a very bad turn in the waiting room, I grabbed someone and we were seen within 2 mins and admitted to the ward quickly afterward too. Was really impressed with how they handled it once it got serious.

If you walk out of A&E without properly discharging yourself, you'll waste a nurses time in trying to track you down and then reporting you missing to the police, who will also waste time tracking you down.
Stay put, or go and ask for an update.
Hope you feel better soon.

I've waited longer to offload an elderly pt with a neck of femur fracture this week - around 4.5hrs to be precise.
I'll reiterate, that time was just to offload from our ambulance trolley, prior to actual triage and eventual investigation and treatment.

And you're complaining about your situation?

@AnotherOneWithNoGoodName

Surely it depends on other conditions though. EG someone with kidney problems or diabetes etc is likely to become quite ill if vomiting and not able to eat or drink. OPs friend may not be able to tolerate being dehydrated as much as someone else might be.

This exactly. She was very very poorly, and as I said, the GP was so worried that he admitted her to hospital as soon as he saw her. She had not eaten for 5 days - OR kept any water down. She was severely dehydrated.

The treatment there however - as I said - was appalling. Left HOURS without being seen, left lying on the floor for 2 hours, ignored most of the time, and treated like she was a nuisance when she tried to get someone to sort the malfunctioning drip. It was feeding the stuff in OK thankfully, but was making dreadful noises.

Because of how she was treated (mostly ignored and treated like a nuisance,) this made my friend want to leave as soon as she was suitably rehydrated. And she left early the following morning.

I know some people don't like to see criticism of the NHS and especially nurses, but it's ludicrous to put them on some kind of pedestal and act like they should never be criticized. Parts of the NHS are not fit for purpose and some people in it do deserve criticism. And it is disingenuous and ludicrous to suggest otherwise.