MIL has been in A&E 17½ hours. AIBU to think this is totally unreasonable

[PearlyShamps]

MIL has pain shooting from her groin, down her leg. Cannot walk or bear weight. GP advised to call 111. They advised to go to A&E. There, at 6pm yesterday, she was told 5 hour wait. She and her husband (both well into there 70s) have now been waiting almost 18 hours. She has been triaged, but not seen by a dr. They have missed 2 meals and a night's sleep. We feel useless and unable to help. Its utterly ridiculous!

2/5 of the NHS budget is spent on the over 65's. Falls alone in this age group cost the NHS more than £4.6 million a day

I know a 65 year old who is waiting for a knee replacement. When this is done I should imagine this will lessen his chances of a fall.

I saw 'behind the scenes' in A&E recently when my DF was taken in by ambulance and we were taken through. The corridors were shocking, they were filled with (mainly old) people on trolleys, staff were working flat out but it was shocking to witness. No idea how long they had been there, one lady I walked past fast asleep but her mobile was ringing, felt so awful for the person on the other end probably worried sick not getting a response. Had to walk out through the waiting room later and that was full too.

This. What the hell was the GP thinking?! Utter bloody madness. Neither an accident or as this lady says, clearly not deemed an emergency or else she would have been seen by now.

I twisted my knee 7 weeks ago - worst pain I've ever had. Managed to get to the GP and they referred me for an MRI. I cheekily asked should I just go to A+ and quite rightly she said no. Had to wait 5 weeks for the MRI and then another 2 weeks for the result and I have to have surgery.

Does sound like they've forgotten they're there though which is ridiculous. How can you be on the desk your entire shift and not notice an elderly couple haven't moved.

All the money that has been wasted on the jubilee could have gone in to the NHS, a better memorial than what it is being used for.

Heartbroken2007 · Today 14:20
Honest question. If they have survived 17.5 hours in A&E wouldn't they have been better waiting at home overnight and calling the GP

In my experience if you leave A&E then go back you start all over again.

Awful what is happening to our NHS ( and many other services). This Tory government are despicable.
So sorry to hear about your MIL.

Sadly, a very similar story here. Mil (85) lives alone, always quite fit and well, driving until recently.
A month ago she was found at home, delirious. Her friends called an ambulance after the fire brigade had to break into her house to get help for her.

Her wait for A&E, on a trolley, in a corridor, in a queue was 15 hours.

Bewildered, unwell, not aware of where she was, no health care staff to check on her or help. Left so long she soiled herself and urinated till it dripped off the trolley. Left stinking.

Absolutely no dignity at all.

Shameful treatment of a beautiful lady.

Really sorry for your MIL OP, and for the others who had long waits or poor treatment.

I always try to remember to thank those who voted Tory for this situation.

Greatly depends on where you live. I'm in the southwest, touristy area and A&E visits increase hugely!

Your poor PIL's , what a nightmare for them. I don't know why the Goverment aren't doing more to make sure the NHS functions better , they are absolutely responsible for it at the end of the day, from how it worked before, how it functioned during the pandemic and how it functions now. They are absolutely responsible. They are also absolutely responsible for social care, which has a huge knock on effect on the ability of the NHS to function efficently .

I hope your MIL is OK @PearlyShamps . I have had a similar experience and it was something that could be dealt with by physio's and NSAID's, so keeping my fingers crossed it is the same for your MIL.

The more people who complain to their MP about this the better, we pay them to represent our interests in Parliament and if things that the Government are responsible for aren't working, they need to know we see this and aren't happy.

The haemorrhaging of doctors and consultants to Australia and Canada has gained considerable momentum in recent months. We are no longer able to replace these doctors as we are not attracting doctors from abroad. Those who are still willing to come aren't always the best trained either.

My poor DF was in A&E for 10.5 hours only to be sent home. He ended up on a trolley for 16.5 hours with the same illness only more serious. We were not allowed to be with him. He was looked after by a soldier! ( I did not know this was a thing).
He was given a bed at 6.30am and discharged prematurely after 2 days. His illness came back after 2 days at home and he's refusing to go in now.

Check out JuniorDoctorsUK on Reddit to see how a lot of doctors actually feel about the NHS - there is so much anger and dissatisfaction. The staff are treated very badly too and they are well aware of that. All our blame should be directed at successive governments.

Not just Dr's etc, healthcare staff, across all disciplines are leaving, the numbers of EU staff that have left is totally ignored by the media and politicians that supported Brexit.
My DD was approached to work in Australia before she had even qualified.

Blame Jeremy Hunt and Govt he represented, wrecked moral, low pay and charging 50k to train.

Nope, the last 12 years of the Tories... Blair invested a fortune in the NHS, tripled spending in real terms.
Pre CV, between 2010 and 2018, 200,000 nurses left the NHS, Labour called this out in 2019 (along with a host of other very depressing numbers)and came up with a plan to turn it around.... we decided on another 5 years of the Tories.

So who is really to blame?

@Alexandra2001 ...successive Tory governments, exactly... did you misread my post? I think there are a thousand problems with Labour but I didn't criticise them here.

@AnnaKar i hope your MIL has recovered now 💐

When I was in last year, a lady about the same age as your MIL was on my ward, she had been laying on her floor for 3 days, luckily her gardener found her. She was such a lovely lady as well!

@PearlyShamps how is your MIL today??

@ATadConfused Thats so sad that she was on the floor for that long. Just awful.

My MIL is able to walk a little with a stick today. They did loads of tests and she went home at 10pm. They called her back first thing this morning for more tests. Not found the cause yet. More tests needed. Once the ball got rolling the drs & nurses have been brilliant. Thanks for asking x

Sure but the problem is when folk say "successive" Govt's its usually meant to try and rope Labour into the mix of why things are so bad.. i'm sure you didn't mean to though.

As Labour haven't been in Govt for so long, who knows what their problems may be... all we have to go on is 12 years of the Tories (ok Cameron gave the LDs a junior role & still managed to divert the blame for their decisions onto the LD's)
and as far as i can tell, pretty much everything is now worse.

Yanbu however that is the reality of ED waits right now

Its not the staff's fault.

They're (on the whole) doing their very best in awful circumstances