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?

@CherryBlossomAutumn

I also really worry, particularly in A&E and ICU, that Covid has stretched everyone. It really is in crisis. They just aren’t allowed to go public and say this. The covid case rates have been too high, for too long, and the hospitals are not coping. That on top of everything else.

What? Chris Hobson - Chair of NHS trusts, has been on Telly almost weekly for months telling us the NHS overwhelmed, chairs of care homes and social care have been saying exactly the same thing about their sectors.

Every country in the EU has free healthcare at the point of use, they sometimes have to pay a small amount for a GP appoint but thats no different for us having to pay £10 for a prescription at the end of the appointment.

I can meet you half way as I can see it’s a chicken and egg effect in a lot of ways. And it’s why fixing bad management won’t fix the funding issues. I do agree that both need to be done together at once

I agree overall more budget is needed and both need to move but where I've reached the point of taking a harder line is just too many years (decades!) of institutions which don't want to change, which don't focus on the patient and hide behind the money problems.

Other state backed health care systems save money by introducing better patient centred processes as a part of modern business practices. This doesn't require huge strategic investment, it is a culture and attitude and an openness to other ideas. The system does not reward those who do try to be patient centred, it actively discourages it.

Blaming money is a very easy hiding place for those who refuse to change and it also means those who try to bring a more patient focused approach to practice are not rewarded for the improvements. This helps nobody, especially the patient and contributes to endless frustrations and disengagement for staff who at least start by trying to do good.

In other countries nobody would defend waiting times of 6+ hours just to be seen in an emergency. The fact that, as someone said up thread, there might only be two junior doctors staffing an emergency department with 120 patients waiting to be seen isn't defensible - its not a case of "be grateful they're doing their best, what do you expect them to do?" its a case of being outraged that the staffing is approaching third world levels!

This, we often compare our public services to, in particular, Northern European countries but the fact is that in those countries everyone pays more tax and that includes those at the bottom of the income level and those at the top. They pay for good services and they value them rather than in this country where we hate paying anything in tax and then oscillate wildly between revering the service and not tolerating any criticism of it and complaining that waiting times etc are too long.

My son works on the frontline as a Doctor, often in A&E. At the start of the Covid crisis, patience was at a high level, and he noticed that patients and their relatives were actually very kind to medical staff. This now appears to have reversed, as resources have got even thinner, and they were thin to start with. The impact on the staff is that the environment is toxic. Sickness levels are high, as are mental health problems within the team. The absence of staff again impacts service, so we run the risk of entering a doom loop.

@Brainwave89 I absolutely agree with your post. At the weekend people worked 5 hours over their shift with no breaks to help the next shift. 17-18 hours in an extremely stressful environment. Leave cancelled, mental health poor and a sometimes hostile public ( which we do understand on the whole). People are resigning - they just can’t continue.

You've seen a doctor who probably thought you weren't describing cardiac chest pain. You had a chest x-ray which is because it is likely you have a chest infection. You sound clinically well enough to be waiting tbh. I think seeing a doctor that quickly is pretty ideal.