Just checking if iabu before I kick off...

[TheSnootiestFox]

Is 4 and a half hours in an urgent treatment centre without being seen even for triage unreasonable for a 12 year old with a suspected broken foot? No pain relief, nothing and he's been crying and begging me for help for hours.....my blood is boiling but I just need a reality check before I decide whether to say something or not. Opinions please!

Oh @TheSnootiestFox - how absolutely horrendous for you all.

We have one A&E here. Everywhere else is a "minor injuries" or whatever. We had to travel 50 miles to find an X Ray that was open on a Saturday. When we arrived we were told it was closed after 5pm. We then had to drive to A&E only to be yelled at (!!) by the nurse for going with a broken arm.

They actually wanted me to go Saturday and Sunday with a broken and partially dislocated shoulder.

Actually, writing this post has made me realise I don't want to die here. I don't trust the NHS here to look after us or my children.....

Unfortunately most people I know absolutely love Rishi. Outrageous, I know.

But, with respect, I did ask after 2 hours if he could take pain killers and was told not until he'd been triaged, which never happened!

It’s so completely unacceptable and I agree with you that the people who think it’s fine are part of the problem. We shouldn’t be accepting this as normal. I have every respect for the poor nurses doing an absolutely impossible job but the system is broken and not fit for purpose. I have no patience with posters saying people go when they shouldn’t; you can’t see a GP, 111 often take hours and hours to phone back, people aren’t medical professionals and are often scared, desperate, and in pain.

Posters on here who say the NHS is amazing have obviously never been stuck on a trolley in A and E for 12 hours. I was on a trolley for 9 hours with acute pancreatitis (incredibly painful and frequently fatal) having been rushed there by ambulance. I was nearly 3 hours in the ambulance waiting to get into the hospital but at least they gave me painkillers. Once on the trolley in hospital I was ignored for 9 hours. The pain was unimaginable once the ambulance painkillers wore off but, like the OP, no one would give me more until I was seen. There was an old lady on the trolley in front of me crying and screaming in pain the whole 9 hours. She was ignored. It was heartbreaking. I survived, but it felt more through luck than anything else. I asked the ambulance what happens to heart attacks etc when there are 10 ambulances stacked outside and they said they have to wait and hope for the best.

I am terrified of the healthcare in this country. I’m scared to get old because it just seems to get worse and worse.

Posters on here who say the NHS is amazing have obviously never been stuck on a trolley in A and E for 12 hours

The thing is - you can only go by your own experience cant you?

I am extremely fortunate that I have only had good experiences - perhaps our A&E is a bit less busy than the rest of the country but I’ve never been waiting that long. I’ve also been sent an ambulance by 111 which turned up about 10 mins later.

I read the news and see how awful it is elsewhere, but I imagine there are lots of other people who are also in a similar position and in which case, probably struggling to understand that things are as bad as other people have experienced.

No you didn't say it was sensible to take your own pain relief, you said, "Why on earth didn't you give him some paracetamol before you went?" Which sounds quite judgemental to someone who has come on here for a bit of support.

OP I hope the negative posts aren't getting to you. Some people are just so perfect, I know what it is like to get a call from school and dashing to pick up child when you have no idea what is wrong and packing a goody bag with snacks, books, drugs etc isn't the first thing you do.

Exactly, thank you, plus I had to make sure his brother was taken care of too. It would never have occurred to me to take drugs to a medical setting, I thought they had to control what the patient took, not send me to the shop!

You never know what you are going to get at school as well, I've done a mad dash from work, rushed into school in a panic, looked at child and thought what the hell is the fuss about. On another occasion, with another football accident, my son looked like he was growing another head as the swelling was so bad. Why they didn't call an ambulance I will never know.

I'm beginning to think we could save the NHS by banning football. Most of my trips to A&E have been football related.

Please don't kick off, they're doing their best. Maybe go and tell a nurse your child needs analgesia as they are in severe pain. It might move them up the triage list. Thing about waiting in emergency rooms is that they work on priority so it means (as awful as it is for you and your child with broken foot/pain) that there is someone deemed more of a life threatening case that they need to see to first.. Hope you're seen soon xx

I worked for 111 as a nurse advisor and we were never able to prebook appointments for people at A&E and minor injuries. We were able to tell them the waiting times though. The only prebooking we could do was making a GP out of hours appointment or an emergency dental appointment.

Maybe the system has changed if 111 callers were being prioritised over those already waiting though. That's concerning.

Thats the way it is these days. They might have had an emergency traffic accident come in. You can try asking to be seen sooner.

Nobody is saying it's acceptable. Do you honestly think the people working in this system think it's acceptable. The point is though that you won't make it acceptable by fighting with the frontline staff. The problem absolutely isn't lazy, uncaring frontline staff it's lack of resources. Write to your MP. Actually vote for someone who wants to make things better not people who are laughing in your face. Anything else is pointless. Frontlije staff are as angry and demoralised as you are I can promise you that

Precisely

And OP has no idea how serious the other patients may be. They may have life-threatening conditions.

The system is overloaded and underfunded.

Tories want this, so they can introduce a private, profit-led system. No chance of being treated then OP

Im currently a student nurse, and on an A&E placement, and i cant quite believe the things im seeing. The corridors are no longer corridors, they are on systems as actual bed spaces, there are 26 C-beds. There were 2 separate triage systems, one for walk in patients, one for ambulance patients. I recently did a shift on ambulance triage patients, and we saw over 60 patients in the 10 hours i spent there. It wasnt just for the booking in and information, that happened prior, but bloods, cannulas, fluids, pain relief, ecgs, xrays, scans, urine tests, covid swabs, any other testing they may need, everything we did needed documenting at the point of completion on a live computer system, but there was only one computer between the staff based there and the drs coming in, then after the drs review and documentation, they were directed to the correct area, be that remain in a diff area of a&e, a ward, surgical assessment etc. As we took a patient to the next place, (and some were there a while, required personal care, assisting to the toilet, helping to get changed out of soiled clothes etc, wounds cleaning up and basic dressing applied in the mean time) the triage bed space (12 spaces) was immediately filled. There were two qualified nurses, and myself in the area. It was relentless. No stopping for anything as there wasnt time, the list of what needed doing just grew and grew. When i left, there were atleast 12 ambulances waiting outside to be seen, plus more in an ambulance waiting room waiting to be booked in. People, being brought in by ambulance, were waiting hours for initial triage, but the staff cannot and could not do more than they were doing. I had a 10 min break all day.

I dont know what the solution is, but that isnt sustainable. Its impossible. For both the patients requiring medical attention, and the staff working in the department.

OP, im sorry for your experience, i truly am, and in your shoes i would be angry and upset for my child. But having seen it first hand, on the other side, its just impossible.

Not in an urgent treatment centre. This wasn't A&E.

And I thought me waiting for 7 hours last year for similar was too much We had to leave a hospital after DH couldn't find me a wheelchair for 20 minutes and then spent 7 hours at another. After 6 hours the nurse decided that I could be sent for x-rays. The x-ray room was empty, apart from a teenage girl and her family! They had been waiting for even longer! Why couldn't somebody else have sent me there but instead you have to get passed from nurse 1 to goodness knows how many nurses? The administration is absolutely terrible!!

Best of luck to your DS

It is shocking the way you were treated and the way the NHS is these days.

it is almost as shocking that people see,m to defend it and think it is acceptable.

my son was in hospital last year, three days wait for an ‘urgent’ (their words, were ruling out ‘serious’ condition) MRI, very little treatment, pathetic attempts at pain relief, bad attitudes from many. I was expecting ‘House’, I got something a country with 1/10th the wealth of ours would have found embarrassing.

I know people on the continent. Medicine just isn’t an issue, same day MRIs for relatively minor issues, same day Hap appointments as a norm.

if we don’t admit we are being utterly mistreated by the NHS, it will never improve.

people should take to the streets over it.

Hope it's all sorted out now. No need (EVER!) to kick off in an A&E over this. I had over 8 hours with DS and a broken hand and that was WITH an x ray so knew it definitely was broken. If you are waiting a few hours its because there are people ahead of you who need medical attention more than you do. You just wait. Get someone to bring chargers/snacks etc, but you wait.

She didn't come for support she asked if she was being unreasonable to kick off. My opinion, which she asked for, was that she was unreasonable. You are welcome to your own opinion.

Glad you're all sorted now, OP.

For those saying you should have/they would have gone straight to A&E with a suspected fracture.. why? Fractures are part of the remit for most urgent care centres. Often limited on hours, but they have the relevant equipment, fracture clinics etc there.

Glad you are sorted now OP. I went to an urgent treatment centre with my son for a head wound caused by teeth. The wait was going to be massive and they also said they couldn't guarantee that they could treat it because he might need antibiotics (although they still suggested I wait!). So I went straight to A&E which got us a quick triage albeit a long wait then to have it glued up. The receptionist at A&E said they constantly had people who'd been sent from urgent treatment centres (and was quite rude about them). I suspect their efficacy varies from place to place.

@WonderingWanda ,

People used to be shocked at a 4 hour wait, now it can be 12+. Can you imagine how traumatic for a child to be in serious pain and then, when they go for help, be to suck it up for hours on end.

if you want a 2 tier medical system, sucking it up is the way to go. There are already private A&Es opening in London. The NHS is rapidly becoming like Blue Cross in the U.S.

People who rang 111 will have done their waiting at home and have an appointment. So they have waited. You can do the same thing and get him some painkillers yourself.

I'd be interested to know who you voted for last election OP? If it was the Tories then you are very, very unreasonable.