AIBU to be angry at A&E?

[fashu]

I'm currently in hospital A&E, I've been here for 9 and a half hours. I'm 35 weeks pregnant. AIBU for getting upset or should I just suck it up?

At 8pm last night I had the oncoming of a migraine, funny vision, light-headedness etc.
I went to tell my husband and called the midwife, then started having a chat with DH. Mid conversation I started talking nonsense. Instead of car I was was saying mayonnaise, on top of other things I was just talking crap.
I tried to Google the symptoms and I couldn't type either. I couldn't think of what I wanted to write, although I knew what I was doing and when I did think of the words it looked like this 'hdhcjsk'

I panicked a bit and went back to my husband and then I went completely numb on in my hands and my mouth. I panicked and told him to call an ambulance. Ambulance came just over an hour later and said I needed to go to hospital as it sounds like a mini stroke.
Queue major panic mode!

Paramedics called maternity unit they said its not for them but keep them updated.

So I arrived in an ambulance at A&E just after 12am. Went to majors and the triage said to wait in waiting room and they will tell senior doctors.

Well I'm still waiting. 35 weeks pregnant on a hard metal chair. For 9 and a half hours. Panicking that I've had a mini stroke.

I've told the reception and nurses several times that my belly is now hurting from sitting for so long and being awake for 26 hours. I asked for water and they said I had to use the vending machine for a can of coke.
Receptionist told me I'm not poorly enough for a bed or the arm chairs.

I'm so upset, emotional and scared. DH has dropped kids off at my mums now as they were asleep and didn't want to disturb them in the night.

But, am I right to be upset or is this just how it is? Surely a pregnant woman with suspected mini stroke should be left for this long alone without treatment?

I sincerely hope he/she isn't medical or in the nursing profession. As a nurse this is the most lacking in compassion I have seen from a poster. A disgrace to either profession if so.

https://www.nationalmigrainecentre.org.uk/understanding-migraine/factsheets-and-resources/hemiplegic-migraine/

Hope this helps, obviously I’m no medical professional and your doing absolutely the right thing being checked over and having the MRI but your post resonated with me as it was exactly what I went through during my pregnancy! Xxx

Of course its the Tories fault. It's not just monetary, but the workforce plan very clearly sets out their plan and patient safety is not featured at all. It's outrageous that a heavily pregnant woman displaying these symptoms is waiting so long, we should all be outraged! This isn't a sleight on the hard working staff who are working in ludicrous conditions, I'm sure they'd be thankful of people advocating for better conditions and staffing levels though.

I’m really sorry. It must be horrible. A and E do sometimes get their priorities wrong. In any case it isn’t very nice or comfy for you. Sometimes with a mild stroke they can’t be certain what has happened. Are you aware of migraine babble? It causes exactly your symptoms before you went to hospital and can be very frightening. As a young woman my mum was always diagnosed with mini strokes and then saw a migraine specialist who confirmed that it was simply a different presentation of the migraine and would do no permanent harm. My mum will be experiencing regular migraine symptoms and then loses the ability to talk, can’t tell you her name or remember her dogs names, doesn’t know where she is. She knows to sit down and wait for an hour. It tends to happen with her at times of stress, so always when she is travelling sadly. She does have to be very firm with some drs who aren’t aware of the condition and think she might be having tia’s. Please try not to worry.

Hope you are doing ok op. I really shocked by some of the people who say they work in the NHS and the dismissive attitude. Yes there is a triage but they don’t always get it right. The amount of apologies the NHS have to send out for missing things, misdiagnosis, terrible care, leaving patients starving and dehydrated is absolutely shocking. The NHS is terrible and no amount of money will improve it.

This is true and what I don't understand is why we're not all screaming off the rooftops about it!??

I was neglected and badly treated by nursing staff to the point my life was compromised. I'd just had a high risk urgent / emergency surgery but it was nothing to do with that, if I'd come to harm who would have been blamed? The consultant surgeon in charge of my case probably but it wasn't her it was the nurses repeated errors and callous hateful spiteful sadistic treatment. I am so baffled as to why anyone goes to work and behaves like that!? It was cruel and I was traumatised.

If I were a surgeon, consultant, technical staff, etc, I would refuse to work for the NHS any longer as the horrific admin and nursing errors would be putting my career and reputation on the line.

What are we supposed to do? The Labour party are no more promising to 'save the NHS' than the Tories are and anyway their election promises mean nothing all round.

My DD has unstable asthma and currently lives in England. Collapsed in work with an asthma attack and they sent her home ( on her own- that’s another story) She rang me on way ( I live 8hours away) so I could talk to her the whole way home. Contacted 111 and was told ‘sorry there are 200 in front of you’ and it will be at least 8hours’. At that point her sats were below 94 and dropping. She took 15 rescue puffs ( supposed to be 10) and put herself to bed… thankfully this time she resolved but she should have had immediate treatment, nebs and probo magnesium iv.
If she was where I live she would have been nebbed by GP within half hour. I have now ordered her her own nebuliser, sent her extra inhalers and have ‘lied’ to get her some pred to keep in house. We are both well experienced in how to handle our unstable asthma and if the hospital isn’t going to look after her then I will.
It is appalling

I had this when I was in late pregnancy with my DD (now 17). They took me in for monitoring on the antenatal ward and my BP was up slightly. It was put down to migraine. I’ve had a few similar in the years since and once 111 wanted to send an ambulance in case it was a stroke. I made my own way to hospital, by which time the confusion has resolved and the headache had started, they did book me an MRI for a few weeks later though to still check for mini stroke. They are very frightening. I hope you’re ok ❤️

It was however better under Labour. There was a 98% will be seen, treated and admitted or discharged target under Labour, this was met more than 90% of the time. Under the coalition that was almost immediately reduced to 95% and the NHS has been failing to meet it by ever bigger margins since. Largely this is because there are no available beds, either because people can't be discharged into underfunded social care, or because the available stock of beds has fallen by 8% at a time of rising and ageing population. Fixing this certainly won't be easy, but it has been done previously, and entrusting the job to those who made the change last time is not cloud cuckoo land.

This isn’t acceptable OP!! This absolutely IS for maternity triage as could be signs of pre-eclampsia!! I would absolutely go to maternity triage. These are signs we are told to go to them for in the US!

Tony Blair was also the master of Spin....

The PT isn't in the US. The two symptoms work very differently.
Pre eclampsia would have been ruled out at triage

Where would you work if you were a surgeon?

What for pointing out facts?

Had my first baby in the UK with the NHs and also went to maternity triage for the same symptoms! So yes it absolutely should be a maternity triage issue! The systems worked the same in both countries based on where I lived in the East of England. Any pre-eclampsia signs and right in to triage at the maternity ward. I’m grateful I was never sent to A&E and was always seen promptly but the maternity ward I delivered at was on special measures for dangerous midwife practices as they were so badly overworked around the time I delivered my first baby. The NHS isn’t fit for service and sounds like it’s only got worse and patient care is badly impacted! Grateful to anyone who still works for the NHs as I used to and never would again. Private practice or a change of career for me I’m afraid

Presumably private sector or emigrate as it’s a skilled profession…

I say this as a Labour voter. Wales NHS is regulated by a Labour government. NHS Wales has 15% more funding per person than England. On almost every measure England outperformes Wales. Wait times in A&E, wait times for operations, Treatable mortality rates. There is no area that Wales outperforms. We are not talking about a couple of percent either, some of the stats are incredible eg:
The figures show that 20.1% of patients in Wales - almost 134,000 in those consultant-led specialisms - are waiting more than a year, compared to 5.2% of patients on similar waiting lists in England.
So whilst we say that NHS has been run into the ground by The Tories, this is not shown in the stats.

The NHS is broken, and frankly needs emergency care itself to survive. It is not just down to funding.

sorry to have highjacked your thread OP, what has happened to you is terrible, and should be allowed. But as a previous poster said, be thankful you are not in Wales, you would probably still be waiting. Wishing you and your baby well.

Blame the conservatives not the NHS.

As scary as they are, hopefully just a hemiplegic migraine. The numbness, unable to find the words, slurred speech, visual disturbances are all normal symptoms. I know how horrible it is because I get them too - had one start right in the middle of Christmas dinner! - and I'm glad you're getting checked out.

Hope you now get the right treatment, OP. It is disgraceful how long you've had to wait, but moreover, the lack of compassion shown by the staff in not even getting you a glass of water.

All those saying it's the Tories fault seem to forget it was no better under Labour last time, and I'm sure it was Blair who brought in private contracts.
Unfortunately, all governments once in power, don't give a shit, and just line their own pockets and/or egos. They're all just as bad as one another as for most politicians it's not really about doing their best for their constituents; it's all for their own ego/agendas.

Thank goodness!

What a complete mess it is. The number of people on here who are not shocked by this treatment, and who have attempted to justify it is frightening.

I totally agree with@SomeCatFromJapan. The faith people are putting in triage is misplaced. My DH was seriously unwell. I phoned 111 they advised he needed to be seen at A and E immediately. I got him to A and E myself as no ambulances were available. The reception staff were appalling and couldn’t have cared less. We sat down to wait by this point my DH was on the verge of collapse. He was then triaged. The triage nurse couldn’t have cared less she ignored my DH and myself when we tried to explain his symptoms. He didn’t even receive the most basic of checks. We were then chucked back out into the waiting area. My DH eventually collapsed and I shouted for help. A fellow patient hammered on the door of the ‘inner sanctum’ shouting for help. Staff eventually came and he was loaded onto a trolley unconscious and we were taken into the treatment area.This area was like another world quiet, hardly any patients, staff standing around chatting and laughing. Something has gone badly wrong and I am not qualified enough to know how to fix it. The hospital this happened at is now putting in Portacabins to herd more people into who have been ‘triaged’. I hope you and your baby are doing well OP and receiving the care and treatment you deserve. I wanted to put all this in a previous thread regarding the lack of care in A and E departments. To be honest I was so traumatised by what happened to my DH I needed time to process it. I just am so so scared of ever needing to go to A and E again.

"it really makes me laugh"

Oh wow, nobody panic, Dr windowtwankywashroom is here, OP is completely fine.

My DC is a Dr in A and E today. It was extremely busy yesterday, and they were expecting the same today, to the extent that it is life or death patients they are dealing with.
Some of the problems in A&E is bed blocking, by patients who are not able to go home but really not ill enough to require full on care, eg only need blood taking every week, not needing constant monitoring.
more nursing home places would ease some of the pressure on the NHS . Council social care budgets are slashed.

Who exactly are you angry at OP? A&E has many elements..

Nurses?
Doctors?
Hospital Managers?
Health Trust?
Government?

Because just having worked throughout Christmas in a rammed A&E I can tell you you're not alone in feeling frustration/anger.

It is utterly miserable for the drs and nurses too. We are under-staffed, exhausted, computers/printers not working, nowhere to sit to write notes, nowhere to examine patients. Quite often the butt of the anger from patients and colleagues who are at the end of their capacity too.

I would direct your anger at the last 3 on the list.

You sound well - I don't mean that passive aggressively. You will have been triaged and monitored even if it didn't seem like that. But it's not ideal at your stage of pregnancy and I'm sorry you had such an uncomfortable wait. Let's hope it improves because this is not sustainable.