12 hours waiting for emergency hospital admission

[shad0wm00n]

I am utterly desperate and don’t know what I can do!

My Father has been poorly lately, losing weight and feeling generally unwell. He had a doctors appointment today and the doctors said his liver is failing and they suspect stomach cancer. She said he needs to be admitted to hospital for tests and fluids etc immediately.

The surgery called an ambulance and was advised there was a 4 hour wait! So told us to drive him there instead and they printed off an admissions letter and off we rushed.

That was 12 hours ago and my parents have been sat at the hospital ever since, as apparently there are no beds ok wards.

Dad has had an X-ray and bloods and he’s waiting for a CT scan and a few more tests but they’ve confirmed he has cancer and 2 additional and serious issues, all of which will require admission.

Dad is not on a drip and has had no food for 3 days, he H’s just been left in a waiting room.

He’s been told he will have to spend the next 24 hours sitting in A&E waiting for a trolley (he can’t even lie down at the moment and his legs are very swollen) and if he’s lucky, after that he may get a bed within 48 hours.

I can’t believe my dearly loved father is being treated like this and I don’t know how I can help. If he is still alive by the time he gets a bed it will be a miracle!

AIBU to say the NHS has already collapsed and that more people need to know just how bad it is.

if anyone knows anything I can do. Please let me know. Is this a PALs issue? Surely they’re failing in their duty of care?

And this is not simply governmental neglect. As others have pointed out, it is deliberate. The Tories want to increase the systemic use of private health insurance because they/their backers will make a lot of money out of that.

Glad your dad is finally being looked after, just remember you also need to look after yourself in order to support him x

@Snowjive2
I am appalled that yet another person wants to make political capital out of a thread about a worried poster's family health problems.

The OP's father has now been admitted so can some people just stop hi-jacking this thread in order to bang the left-wing drum?

Those that want to debate the NHS situation can start their own threat.

OP I'm glad your dad is now in safe hands and is feeling more comfortable.

But it isn’t making political capital, or whatever else you want to call it. It is describing WHY this is happening.

What would you suggest? I’m all ears.

@Nat6999

"No, shame on you for obfuscating. This IS a governmental issue, it IS a political issue and pretending otherwise helps no one. So pipe down."

maybe it is, maybe it isn't but this isn't the threat to debate it.

No one is debating it. And who made you the arbiter of what can and can’t be discussed? I’m not sure what YOUR agenda is other than to attempt to shut down dialogue.

@Grananger

"What would you suggest? I’m all ears."

Debate it on another thread - not on a thread where someone is looking for support and empathy.

@Grananger

"I’m not sure what YOUR agenda is other than to attempt to shut down dialogue."

Please read what I posted.

I'm all for dialogue, but this thread isn't the place.

I'm sorry you are so busy banging the political drum you have lost any sympathy you might have had for the OP.

@Thesefeetaremadeforwalking you may want to actually read the OP.

AIBU to say the NHS has already collapsed and that more people need to know just how bad it is.

if anyone knows anything I can do. Please let me know. Is this a PALs issue? Surely they’re failing in their duty of care?

People are literally responding directly to what the OP has said, so maybe it’s for them to say what should and shouldn’t be discussed on their thread…?

Perhaps you should consider why the truth makes you so uncomfortable. Stating the facts that the NHS budget has been slashed repeatedly by the Tory government leading to catastrophic circumstances is not “banging the left wing drum”, it is a concrete fact. You can look up budget allocation yourself rather than take my word for it. Equally, Brexit has had a devastating effect on staffing levels, as we were reliant on our overseas colleagues who now feel a lot less welcome. Again, you can look international staffing numbers up rather than take my word for it. Oh, and the reason we can’t just recruit from the UK? The Tories cut the nursing bursary and abolished the midwifery bursary making it prohibitively expensive for many to train.

@Thesefeetaremadeforwalking

Who died (probably due to a massively underfunded and understaffed NHS due to 12 years of ideologically driven Tory underfunding of health and social care) and made you king of what can be discussed on a thread?

Is there any way of going private? Can any money be accessed/cobbled together? It's an absolute disgrace. Every single Tory voter has blood on their hands.

It’s a whole thread of people discussing the state of the NHS.

The OP didn’t just ask for a handhold. And now their DF is getting care, they’re looking ahead to complaining to their MP. This IS political.

It's a social care issue. I guarantee you there are 50 people in that hospital waiting > 2 days for residential care places. Need to expand the care sector massively.

I am so sorry to hear about your father's diagnosis, but glad that he is at long last comfortable. It is a disgrace that our health services are so run down - I have personal experience of this and have spent a lot of money on private surgery because I would have been immobile and deteriorating if I had waited for NHS surgery.

I hope that you can find the proper care for your father and that this last stage of his life is pain free and peaceful.

It's awful. DH is an anaesthetist (which means he attends all emergencies, trauma etc in hospital as well as the stuff we think of anaesthetists doing, as he is an airway specialist). He is meant to work 12 hour days/nights but they are never less than 14 and the whole shift is just running around madly, he doesn't get time to eat or drink or use the bathroom. I'm really worried about his health. And that's how it is across the NHS.

It's completely broken which just adds to the trauma of the patient and their family. I'm so sorry about your dad. Glad he's comfortable now.

missingeu "My mum at Easter was in A&E waiting room for a week"

a week? My jaw is on the floor.

The state of the NHS is shocking. In June I fell down the steps in the garden and injured my spine. I was in agony but was being quoted 6hrs for an ambulance. So my family lifted me into the back of my Dad’s work van and took me to hospital. Managed to carry me in and I was quickly assessed, then told I had to sit in the waiting room for up to 12 hours for treatment. I said I’m not capable of sitting, my spine is badly injured and I can only lie down. They said go home then!

I was like “Erm, what?” They said you have to sit in the waiting room, if you can’t sit in the waiting room you can’t receive treatment. Wouldn’t let me lie on the waiting room floor because it’s against policy. Wouldn’t give me a trolley to lie on either. No beds available. They said if you need to lie down you’ll have to go and lie down at home.

And that was it. Kicked out of the door with no treatment. Because I was too badly injured to be able to sit in the waiting room.

@Perfect28 "Is there any way of going private? Can any money be accessed/cobbled together? It's an absolute disgrace. Every single Tory voter has blood on their hands."

Another load of emotive claptrap that helps nothing or nobody.

Bloody awful OP, your poor dad. No advice just sympathy 💐 🫂

What do you mean social care, Botox?

This is the horrible reality now. I work in the nhs and get multiple calls from bed managers asking for beds in our ward. We dont usually have any and as soon as one is free it is filled often with someone completely unsuitable to be in a surgical ward. There are people in hospital for weeks who are medically fit for discharge but the care at home cannot be put in place. It’s not rare that there is not one spare bed in the hospital.

Huge huge sympathy for your situation. Please contact PALS. I cross my fingers for a good outcome, just awful.

A loved one needing hospital treatment is my greatest fear at the moment because the NHS is broken.

I desperately want us as a society to have a hard-headed, unemotional debate about the future of healthcare in this country. A system like Germany or France is my preference; absolutely not a US system. But the NHS is broken; I will not continue to feel grateful for the crumbs off its table, and made to feel like it's a "free" service for which I should be thankful. However, all political parties have done a tremendous job of making the NHS an untouchable totem of national pride, and any discussion of reform is immediately equated to the shitty US system and people dying in the streets because they can't afford treatment. That does not happen in the vast majority of countries, and with careful reform it won't happen here either. It surely cannot be worse than the OP's experience:-(

Not a PALS issue. I was in casualty in a trolley for 12 hours in April, it was horrendous. I’d just had 4 seizures and I was so confused and so hungry I could have chewed my own arm off. After a seizure I need sugar, not the occasional dry cheese sandwich and tea without sugar. I just tried to sleep but it was hideous. Then, I get to the ward and a woman is there with her cater screaming (literally every 10 seconds) ‘kill me’ ‘they’re trying to kill me’ and making animal noises/reciting the alphabet. So awful.

*carer

This is awful. I hope he is given proper treatment soon.

It’s not just Tories though , two years ago I had a heart attack in Wales (Labour run NHS) and sat for 10 hours in the public waiting room on a hard plastic chair, didn’t even get through doors of A and E until the 11th hour. Others with me just got up and went home, even they were in no fit state to do so. It’s v scarey wherever you are.