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?

Sort of. I do think there is a huge issue with elderly people refusing proper care or help, resulting in repeated falls and being in and out of hospital like a revolving door.

The problem is people put off decisions about their care until they’re very old and unable to manage, they refuse to to think about it while they’re still relatively healthy and able to cope.

We have this issue with FiL at the moment. He’s mid 70s and has had both hips replaced, is in a lot of pain daily but refuses to think about downsizing from his house that has 2 flights of stairs. MiL won’t be able to lift him so nothing will change until he has a serious fall.

Things are not good at all, Dad has cancer in multiple sites. His prognosis is not good at all. He’s now in the CDU and the staff are amazing, he’s had a CT and X-ray and is responding well to the fluids and finally being able to rest.

I shocked and exhausted and very, very sad.

He’s going to be in for quite some time and I can’t bear to think about how awful the next few days?/weeks? Will be.

Thank you all for your support.

We are hoping he gets moved to a proper ward tomorrow.

God I’m so sorry to hear this. Perhaps the life limiting illness board will have some useful advice 💐

Sorry to hear this.

Unfortunately, this experience is bread and butter commonplace, taking place up and down the country on a daily basis. The NHS cannot cope. It has been in this desperate situation for a long, long time and yet people are vilified for pointing this out. The first step to solving a problem is admitting it. I’m not sure why it can’t be admitted by people in power.

So sorry

I am sorry to read your update. I hope he gets moved to a proper ward soon and that you can all get some rest.

Oh @shad0wm00n I am so sorry. Sending unmumsnetty hugs to you xxxx and FUCK THE TORIES!

For the last 25 years every time a new hospital is built it has less beds than the old one ( on a big fat finance agreement)

This isn’t a single political party problem 25 years of to and fro meddling has led us to this point

there are so many causes it would take years to unravel it

so sorry to hear your update. It sounds like he is now getting the care he needs.
don't forget to eat.

So sorry to hear the latest update.

Feel very sad for you sending hugs x

@DiscoBadgers
"It is the responsibility of the chancellor to take into account population demographics whilst setting the budget, therefore this absolutely is a government oversight."

Well someone had better get the present Chancellor a crystal ball so he can budget for future illegal immigration and health tourism.

As you are aware, those illegally crossing the Channel in order to claim asylum, as well as 40,000 failed asylum seekers, are able to get immediate and full access to the NHS. Illegal immigrants are able to access GP services despite the huge pressure and crisis which GP practices are facing due to skyrocketing demand. This is surely unfair to the millions of people who pay into the system and expect to get good NHS care when they need it.

In mid-2019 the delegates at the British Medical Association voted overwhelmingly to stop charging overseas patients for their treatment at NHS hospitals and;

Health tourism drains the NHS of at least £300-400 million each year because hospitals fail to identify overseas patients or never send them bills. Is the Chancellor expected to budget for that because overpaid, underworked hospital managers can't do their jobs properly ?

It begs the question, "Do those saying that this is not a problem believe that it should be the UK’s responsibility to extend free health care to the whole world?"

I am so sad for the NHS. Sadly over 65s don't get any respect or value. It needs to be axed immediately and a better model found where people can choose to be given basic care. This isn't new, when Blair was lobbing cash at us in the late 90s, it was just the same, just even more waste and higher management. We used to buy our pillows on a rota because we could never find any.

I wonder if Brit ex-pats in Spain do health tourism over there.

FullFact says £300 million is just 0.3% of NHS budget. They also give a lot of details on how the NHS could actually deliberately target health tourists to raise money.

And no amount of money for NHS is going to solve the social care crisis: what we need is to stop bed blocking due to no care home beds being available.

I lived in England when we had Tory governments and the NHS was brilliant. I was born when Conservative Winston Churchill was PM. In fact the NHS started under him.

There's something else going on.

The NHS was started under a Labour government and Clement Attlee was Prime Minister not Winston Churchill @BlodynGwyn

That really angers me that people arriving illegally in the UK can get full healthcare under the NHS immediately. I born and raised British and now live abroad. When I was returning to the UK to look after my very elderly parents for a few months at a time, I was not allowed 'free' treatment under the NHS. I would have to prove, even as a British person, I had lived in the UK for at least 6 months before I was allowed NHS care.

I was not on holiday, I was saving the British tax payer's money by helping my elderly parents.

No wonder the NHS is broken.

The Tories are deliberately taking the NHS to breaking point so that when they float the idea of selling it off to their mates in the private sector everyone thinks it's a great idea. It's being done on purpose.

This, exactly. It is naive to ask why those in government won’t realise or admit that the NHS is on its knees. They know. It’s their plan. There is a vast amount of money to be made from privatising health care. As with PPE, the government want to ensure that they and their friends will be the ones making that money.

So sorry about your dad, OP. It's disgusting that he had to go through that awful experience when he's so unwell.

I hope people remember this thread when they're deciding how to vote in the next general election.