To think this is a fucking joke - A@E wait?

[CanNeverThinkOfAName]

So our local hospital serves 350,000 residents from a large area.

Arrived at A&E at 11pm. Expected it to be packed and to have a long wait. There were around 15 patients waiting. At 3am there were 4 still in the waiting area plus us.

From that time only one person has been called to see a doctor and at least 10 people have gone out after being seen.

Ambulance staff check patients in near where we are sitting and only 3 have checked in since we got here.

Obviously not a busy night.

AIBU to think this is totally piss take and the staff must be on a bloody go slow or something?

Not at all. It depends what doctors or consultants people are waiting for. If it’s a quick sprain or break you’re normally in an out

The only thing to blame here is the persistent underfunding of the NHS, not staff.

It really depends how many staff are on. I waited 9 hours with my son alongside about 10 others as there was no doctor to see us.

Funnily enough I am in the same position. I’ve been in a&e for 7 hours now with suspected wrist break. Its quiet ish in here but people are being called on average 1 an hour. I am so tired!

Why are there no doctors though? They normally use the excuse that they are busy with emergencies. They’re not!

We were told by out of hours GP to go straight to A@E as DD has a suspected medical emergency.

Medical emergency!

No because you won’t see the trauma entrance

not all ambulances go through that entrance

sometimes doctors are needed on wards and are taken from a&e because they have a lack of staff generally

If that’s true how do you explain the finding that productivity is in quite rapid decline? According to the IFS:

“The NHS has more funding and more staff than pre-pandemic, but the number of patients being treated in hospital has increased by nowhere near the same amount. On the face of it, that implies that the system has become less productive – and alarmingly so.”

and

“The less productive the NHS is, the more the government – and therefore current or future taxpayers – have to spend for the same quality and quantity of healthcare services.”

Yes there are other factors when looking at how time is used but when staffing has gone up by as much as 25% in some roles but treatment volumes either fell or increased by less than 2% you need to question what is actually going on.

Figure 1. Hospital staffing and treatment volumes in 2023 compared with 2019

Aaarggh. I thought I was quite clear that ambulance staff have to check patients into A&E reception. Patients are not with them, they are in resus or whatever. There have only been 3 all night with single patients - all of then with breathing difficulties or chest pain. No RTAs.

I'm sorry you've had to wait but the fact you can sit and type a post complaining about the lack of staffing in A&E (and it doesn't look like a post done in haste or panic), even though you/someone you are with is suffering, indicates it's possibly not a high priority.

What absolute nonsense. DD is laying across some chairs almost passed out with pain. What the hell else can I do?

I'm sorry. I hope you are seen soon. A&e is horrible and broken. I was sent there in June for high bp in pregnancy and had to wait over 12 hours before being admitted. I lost the baby in the end but that would have happened anyway. I am still traumatised by the experience.

Being in a&e was the worst part of it for me

A child is almost unconscious from pain in the waiting room?

Time to put the phone down and return to the triage desk to advocate for further analgesia and raise your concerns about your child’s decreased level of consciousness.

It’s my adult child and with suspected intestinal bleeding so she can’t have painkillers. No I don’t need to put my phone down.

With the best will in the world what you’re describing bears no resemblance at all to OPs experience,

I dont understand why so many of you are trying to minimise it for her?

• she’s been clear that there have been no emergency admissions overnight
• who are you to suggest that her daughter is just “feeling a bit ill”
• your broken bone 25 years ago doesn’t exactly qualify you to comment on what things are like today, and unless you were privy to the diagnosis when you “went with your friend” how can you conclude that people “feeling a bit ill” are not experiencing the symptoms of something much more serious?

If there's cardiac arrests in main hospital/ icu, depending on hospital, sometimes a&e staff attend.

Usually pain relief can be given after triage? Hope your dd is seen and feeling better soon. If its not an emergency (life/limb-threatening) or serious accident, you will be a low priority unfortunately.

Long waits are due to lack of staff. There may be only 1 dr on duty dealing with heart attack or another complex case. There should be more staff on duty at 6?am. I hope you get seen soon. Please don’t blame the staff. They aren’t sitting round doing nothing

The OP is not talking about how things are prioritised, she’s talking about almost nobody being seen at all!!!

Just read message re-intestinal bleed. I hope you're seen soon and understand why no pain relief now.

Because they're in the main hospital. Have you worked in a&e? I have.

It be might be a backlog of patients on trolleys who are waiting for beds ( even on ward corridors)
If there are no beds people have to stay in A@E.
We waited 14 hrs in A&E and the waiting room had about 10 people

Ambulance crew can bring people into wait area but the trauma entrance is always away from public eyes and there will be a different reception for them.
GP referrals also different entrance.
Its probably pandemonium where you cant see it.

Your dd will have been triaged at least ?

In an adult A&E it’s probably due to a lack of space to actually see patients, in my experience. They only have a finite number of cubicles, and those are often filled with patients who are waiting to be admitted to the wards, but there’s no space on the wards for them, so they end up staying in A&E. Overnight there will be very very few discharges from the wards compared to during the day, so the cubicles stay full, and then there’s nowhere else to see new patients. Lack of staffing will be an important issue, but it’s not the only problem.

I’m so so sorry this is happening to you and your DD OP, I hope you’re seen soon.