A & E Wait Time Overnight With NO Doctors!!

[ShabbyNat]

Last Saturday night I arrived at my local A & E at 7.45pm by ambulance, with lights & sirens going with a suspected stroke.
Went through Triage within about 20 minutes after being kept waiting in the back of the ambulance for 30 minutes, which meant the ambulance could not go back out to help anyone else in that time!!
After Triage, I then sat in A & E until 5am Sunday morning, with obs only being done once & me asking several times "what was I waiting for?"-bloods, "how long is the wait for my bloods to be taken?"-no bloods, your waiting to see the doctor, "how long to see the doctor?"-there are no doctors in A & E!!
Lots of nurses & cleaners though, with the cleaners looking bored stiff as no cleaning really needed doing as no treatments were going ahead & nobody was really moving about much as it was overnight-too tired!!, & nobody really eating as too tired & ill !!
I ended up walking out at 5am & going to my GP on Monday morning, who diagnosed Bells Palsy.
So, my AIBU is, after stewing on it for a week now, AIBU to be getting quite angry about an A & E department who did not have even 1 doctor in the whole department overnight to actually see anyone??

@dalmatianmad I'm sorry but I don't know a single person who would ever think it's easier to nip to A&E. My elderly neighbour went recently, on the orders of his GP in regards to swelling and rash (the gp did not see him in person, just heard the description and told him over the phone to go to A&E). He spent 11 hours there. No food, no water. Scared to leave the waiting room to get anything incase he missed being called. No one allowed in with him, and his phone died after a couple of hours. Just to be eventually seen by a doctor, told it's an infection, and given a prescription for antibiotics. He was only with a doctor for about 3 minutes.

As I said I don't know how anyone would think that's easier than seeing a GP. Who presumably, had they agreed to see my father in person, would have diagnosed and prescribed the same thing. But no, he was told specifically to go to A&E. Weeks have passed, the antibiotics did nothing, and my father is refusing to go to the GP who "doesnt give a toss" and refusing to go to A&E as he doesn't have the energy to go through all that again. So he's no better than he was at the beginning, and is barely leaving the house due to the pain he's in.

To be honest, I am quite jealous you live somewhere with good services, as you say. Unfortunately it appears to be a postcode lottery and giving the experiences of majority on here, you're one of the lucky few.

We went to A&E last night having "prebooked" via NHS 111
50 min wait in a queue outside to be told it would be approx 7 hours to be seen

This is a problem with 111. You cannot prebook an appointment in ED, and they should not be telling patients this. The amount of abuse I used to get when I worked in ED and explained this is ridiculous

Some A&E's have an Urgent Treatment Centre next to them. I've found 111 often gets confused because UTC's do have prebooked and 111 can book them. Too often 111 tells the patient they've got an appointment booked at A&E and too often the booked appointment gets missed or nearly missed until it dawns on someone what's happened.

@QuidditchThroughtheAges thats not always true that being left to wait and then going home means you could of been seen by a gp is it
I recently had a bad fall and due to complications had to go back to a & e several times as i couldn't be treated by a dr and i was often left waiting for hours as i needed seeing by them as they said i had to go there but that i obviously could wait compared to some others that may of come in
Its mot patients fault either that the nhs is no longer fit for purpose

@dalmatianmad there lays some. Issues , around here there are no dentists taking in nhs patients and no private either , 111 doesn't find them a dentist either so of course end up in a & e
Drs appts are like gold dust too.
Poster on here earlier who go wouldn't see son as he had covid symptoms but had done a negative test , the gp told them to go to a walk in centre
Not everywhere has a walk in so another one in a & e , its not the patients fault always either
The nhs needs a huge shake up its not fit for purpose anymore and the staff have to do way too much , many for poor pay as well

@MrsOwainGlyndŵr so untrue people walk out and can still be very very poorly

This. The fault lies with the govt and the people that voted for them.

Where patients are to blame is voting in a party whose ideology is at odds with a National Health Service

Long waits in Greece.
20+ hour waits in South Korea as recently as 2016.
14 hours at one Singapore hospital in June 2022.
30+% of people waiting > 6 hours in New Zealand ERs.

Staffing is really skeletal these days and it is almost impossible to get locums in the event of sickness. Doctors don’t want to do extra work as they have had enough .
the only way to solve this is for the government to stop underfunding the NHS and for trusts to stop overworking and mistreating media staff.

@SweetSunflowerBoo that is horrendous!!!! I'm so sorry that happened

I've done two 10 hour days this week at a GP surgery on the phone. I answered every query. I gave an appointment to everyone who asked for one. It may not be after work. You may have to be flexible. It's really vital that you answer the phone when we call back.

My mum died in A&E three years ago. I can remember going into the waiting room to find out what was going on. It was fairly quiet. Someone I knew was there with her son. When I got to where my mum was I found a doctor who was pulling out all the stops to try and save my mum. When she was not responding to anything they called a priest and we were able to say goodbye to her there in the ward. The shock was massive. Mum has a cerebral haemorrhage. She couldn't be saved. The kindness shown by the nurse will stay with me always.

The systems are inefficient too which doesn’t help when resources are so scarce.

Dc had a sporting accident an hour and half away from home. St Johns ambulance gave initial care then advised A&E. in our local health board (wales) we are supposed to call 111, get a call back and follow their advice. They can give a time slot to attend A&E (not an appointment time). However I called 111 and after being in a queue for 20 minutes I got cut off - twice. So I took dc to the minor injuries unit that was closest to where the accident had occurred. We were seen there and out within 2 hours but advised that follow up needed to be arranged urgently in our local health board. The only way for that to be arranged was for us to attend A&E 2 days after the initial injury. When we were there, they checked the original X-rays, agreed that trauma clinic follow up was needed and put a sticky label on a piece of paper to secure an appt in trauma clinic the following week. We really didn’t need to attend A&E that day, but it was the only way to access the necessary follow up - bonkers!

Blimey ! Sounds terrifying. Delighted to hear you have recovered.