To have discharged myself from A&E?

[AandEnightmare]

As the username suggests…

I attended A&E with numbness is my hand, pins and needles in both arms and legs, blurred vision and extreme stuff neck pain.

Stroke nurse was happy it wasn’t a stroke but wanted an MRI as did A&E consultant.

Both concerned about MS and tragically I then urinated myself in the A&E waiting room where I was left on a wooden chair for 8 hours.

i asked for a change of clothes, just a hospital gown and was told until I was seen by a neurologist who agreed to book me in; this wasn’t possible.

I have long covid and extreme fatigue and pain at the best of times and I was in tears in the waiting room crippled in pain and exhaustion and was just told repeatedly that only a neurologist could determine if an MRI was needed as an emergency or as an outpatient and on the time of leaving, after 7 hours, I was number 13 on the list so expected to be seen by this evening.

I will ring my GP as soon as open but I’ve never had such a terrible experience in a hospital in my life!

i feel shocked

@LardyCakeAgain the RNLI and Mpuntain Rescue are not funded through National Insirance Contributions. They may receive some relatively low funding through taxation.

The point about volunteers is that caring/nursing shoukd be rendered by paid staff who are accountable for their actions and are covered by indemnity insurance.

My suggestion wasn't about caring though was it? I suggested they could have stores of sick bags, donated clean clothes, and be a greeter/gopher. I have no idea why people with such low reading comprehension have decided that I'm suggesting they should be nursing in the waiting room!

Gosh aren't you full of Christmas cheer.

What??? 😆 honestly....

I have no idea why people with such low reading comprehension have decided that I'm suggesting they should be nursing in the waiting room!

For ffs no one is saying they should be nursing in the waiting room. We are all 100% clear on that. What we are also 100% clear on is that putting them in a position of handing out sick bags and new clothes is fraught with peril in a legal sense. They are volunteers. There is no indemnity in this situation. Someone tells them they need a sick bag and why. The volunteer says ‘poor thing, here’s your sick bag, let me know if you need another’. Then they wander off to hand out clothes. However, part of that ‘why’ is extremely relevant and medically may be a flag. But the volunteer does not pass that part of the conversation on because they didn’t realise it was significant. Ditto for the person who wets themselves, is it that they are there with a possible broken foot and physically can’t get to the loo so wet themselves (no issue and no one needs to know), or they have wet themselves and didn’t realise they were doing it until wet (could indicate a serious issue). Will a volunteer provide such a quiz to people, what if they get it wrong and make an incorrect judgement and don’t pass over relevant information. They are not employed, this is not covered when the shit hits the fan in a court when someone decides to sue and fingers are pointed. Because a volunteer (who is not accountable, nor covered)is now doing a job that someone who should be accountable or covered is doing. It’s simple. Nothing wrong with anyone’s comprehension. The issue is lack of EMPLOYED people who should be doing this. The problem is there is no budget to address this. But it is clear volunteers can’t fill this gap. They can however, not interact with patients and make cups of tea or whatnot, and show someone the way from the front door to radiology for example. If the patient collapses on the way they have a call instruction but may not interact with the patient in the same way they would be able to do so as a random on the street for example. It’s for legal reasons.

Completely different scenario to rescuing someone on a mountain, or looking for someone missing in a forest if you want to as a volunteer. Different legal scenarios as part of such volunteer organisations or as a random with hand up to help.

A and E was SO busy when we were in (I mentioned earlier at one point it said it would be 13 hours til we were seen but couldn't go home to get some sleep)

Once we'd been triaged a hca did come round every so often to do peoples obs. In the waiting room. It was like an extension of the (very overcrowded, top to tail beds in corridor) A and E.

It felt like somethinf out of a film or what were shown about "developing countries".

This system really isn't okay. I don't know if it needs more hospitals built with growing population? Or GPS actually giving appointments? Or what. Our A and E is due to be closed....

It’s a shame that a doctor or nurse being caring in the nhs is now a minority and not the majority as it should be.

i wonder if they should go back to training nurses on the job

I was in A&E in July. I waited 7hrs for stitches and then another hour for a tetanus shot. I bled through my bandages 3 times whilst waiting, dripping blood all over myself and the floor. When I asked for the bandages to be changed for the third time, the triage nurse rolled his eyes and pointed at a chair, where he changed the dressing in silence. He was pretty rough with me as well and I winced (I needed 7 stitches, it was quite a nasty wound). He muttered "for fuck's sake" as I moved back to the main waiting area. No other words from him. I felt like leaving, but the bleeding wouldn't stop and I needed medical attention. He was the same with a miscarrying woman, a woman who had been mauled by a dog, a man bleeding really heavily and grey with it, a woman who was clearly deeply in the middle of a psychotic break and on and on and on.

I understand he was probably tired and burnt out but he was rolling his eyes and huffing. No speaking to anybody. We could hear him grumbling to himself about "fuck this" and "fuck that". Clearly, he needed somebody to care for him as well. The whole thing was completely and utterly broken.

This is absolutely a management issue. I get that they're exhausted, but lots of people have jobs where they deal with the angry/distressed public for long hours or double shifts, and if they spoke to them like that they'd be fired for being unprofessional. Its expected to at least keep a veneer of civility which seems to be lacking in the NHS in many areas. Nurses and doctors don't have the monopoly on hard, understaffed, important jobs. You only have to read the NMC hearing outcomes each month to see what kind of behaviour is tolerated.

You do realise 50% of nurse training is on the wards don't you??

OT Degree
Pharmacist Degree
Physio Degree
Dr Degree
Dietician Degree

Most of the people in the team have degree but you want to go backwards, why shouldn't the nurse, who is doing the hands the majority of the work, not have a degree?
Countless evidence over the years have shown having degree educated nurses improves patient outcomes!

Who is going to staff these new hospitals?
There aren't enough GP to cover patients demands.

Oh widow I agree completely. There's a crisis that needs addressing on so many levels isn't there. Improving cmconditions/reducing caseloads/physically not closing A and E wards/more staff...

But is that going to happen!?

I can almost belive the conspiracy theories that torys are running nhs into the ground so that there "has" tk be another system...

I genuinely don't know what the future holds, it's frightening.

But the laughable thing is, if Labour get in, everyone thinks it's going to change over night!

No agree there. It's run down for so long hasn't it? I have no idea what the answer will be.

But it's awful now.... and I can't see what the future will look like 😬.

I genuinely now wish we earnt enough for private health care.