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?

72 hours in a corridor! That is horrific! I had a friend who was sent to hospital by her GP last year - to the Acute Medical Unit - and she waited 4 and a half hours in the corridor before they took her in. She was passing out in the corridor and had to lie on the floor. After 3 HOURS of waiting (and 2 hours lying on the floor,) they gave her a trolley bed!

I thought THAT was bad enough. Even so, when she finally got her bed in a side room - it was another 4 hours before anyone saw her.

As for tour elderly relative... 72 hours in a corridor in hospital (3 DAYS?!) That's like something out of a post apocalyptic horror film. Is this what the NHS has become now?

I have to concur with this. Whilst there are many amazing, hard working people in hospitals/in the NHS, I think it's fair to assume that some will be a bit workshy, and have some days when they CBA.

Indeed, when my friend was in hospital last summer for 2 nights/3 days, she said half the night (both nights) she was struggling to sleep, because of the nurses farting about, laughing and giggling, and chasing each other up and down the corridors. Speaking loudly about their social life, and laughing loudly, preventing her from sleeping - she was in a side room..., They also mocked her behind her back. She overheard them and was really upset. She didn't report it, but I think she should have.

A couple of the nurses were rude to her too and quite snappy, and told her 'we have OTHER patients to see!' when she was worried about her saline drip/cannula malfunctioning and screeching and beeping, and tried to cll them with her 'call button.' The bloody thing was going straight into her veins/bloodstream, and she was worried sick. But she got scolded like she was a nuisance.

So yes, disclaimer, many NHS staff work very hard and deserve all the praise, but they - like teachers/school staff - should not be exempt from criticism.

Re, the OP, as I said, it's very odd that only 3 patients were seen in 4-5 hours. That's pretty ridiculous tbh.

This is exactly why the Tories have run the NHS into the ground over the last 10 years. They want an "adult conversation" about it so they can privatise and the rich (Tory voters) can get better healthcare than the poor and profit from it. The NHS was in a good state only 10-15 years ago before the Tories f**ked it up. Of course a public health service can work.

Listening to some of these stories is so scary. The NHS seems so broken now. On the other hand I went to A&E last year as I was suffering horrible shoulder/rib pain and couldn't sleep because of it. It didn't feel like an emergency to me but I also couldn't imagine how I was going to get up in the night with my baby when I was feeling like this so was hoping they'd at least give me some stronger painkillers.

I checked in at 19:10 and 3 hours later I'd been triaged, bloods done, given a bed in resus and seen by a doctor. No one was sure what the problem was but I'd had a chest scan and was about to go for a CT scan. It all seemed very efficient but very different from what I hear about on here.

Even once I was well enough to be on a ward nowhere seemed to be overcrowded and there were certainly no beds waiting in corridors. Even as an outpatient I've had no problems with my care. I wish everyone's experience was like this, it should be.

I had the same last year. Waited over 10 hours with a sick child and people were being called in about one an hour. There was a complete stop for 3 hours in the middle of the night. We’d been sent there by an out of hours GP.

YABU to make assumptions it’s lazy staff, you have no idea what’s going on.

CanNeverThinkOfAName · Today 05:36

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.”

You do. You’ll be aware that a woman with internal bleeding died whilst waiting in A&E last week. I’m am absolutely not advocating aggression or rudeness but there are polite ways to be persistent. I’ve e learned through bitter experience that sharp elbows and tears are sometimes the only way.

Really hope your daughter recovers fully.

But they are not working! It is physically impossible to make good judgment calls after a 13 hour shift with no breaks at all. I did one last weekend and it was awful. I had to take a deep breath and double check each clinical decision because I was aware I was running on empty.

Yes it's miserable to sit without food or drink waiting to be seen. But it's not safe that the staff are expected to work under these conditions.

This thread is crushing my last scrap of goodwill. So many posters who have clue how hard we work.

@Isitovernow123

The US does have free healthcare.

So the NHS can't cope because the population is changing? Really? And that's not predictable? Shouldn't the service change to meet the needs of the population it serves?

You're too highly strung about the role you personally play rather than the fact that the service isn't fit for purpose as a whole.

It's not about whether the triage nurse knows what she's doing. It still doesn't make it right for unwell people spending hours in a waiting room.

And the fact you are arguing that's ok shows how damaged the NHS culture has become.

I recently spent 10 hours in A and E with my mum. Once she'd finally got through the door she was treated in a timely manner, but getting there was just horrendous. They couldn't send an ambulance for hours, so I took her. She couldn't walk, but I couldn't find a wheelchair (I knocked on the window of a waiting ambulance in the end. The paramedics helped her). She was triaged and deemed a low priority ("you'll be waiting for 7 hours"). She was desperately unwell, in extreme pain and they didn't even offer so much as a couple of paracetamol. I agitated in the end and they got her something after it became clear to me that this was potentially a serious situation. She ended up in majors.

I was left wondering just how effective triage always is, tbh.

There could be any number of reasons for delays @CanNeverThinkOfAName

That is a medical emergency and no you shouldn’t be kept waiting.

I was sent to small local hospital with same but during the height of Covid. ( summer 2020) I was seen straight away ( within 10-15 minutes of arriving) Transferred after a few hours to a major hospital and was in a bed within 15 minutes of arrival. Had to be swabbed for Covid and wait but was moved, examined, bloods taken and on a blood transfusion within an hour- hour and a half tops. There were lots of staff and I was seen twice daily by a doctor. Something has gone drastically wrong since the pandemic.

Return to desk and ask for PALS ? I hope your dd is seen and treated very soon.

Could be in theatres doing emergency surgery , in the scanner ,on the ward , dealing with a very ill patient taking bloods etc ......let me assure you thàt they won't be sitting down drinking tea and heaven forbid a slice of cold toast or a pee

There was a thread on here a couple of weeks ago where pregnant woman waited hours in A&E and was refused a drink of water. Was that safe? I'm not denying you should be able to eat and drink, of course you should. I have a lot of compassion for overworked staff. But equally if I was tired, hungry, in pain and weak, and had been waiting hours, I'd be a bit frustrated sitting and watching those who were being paid to take care of me merrily eating and drinking. Surely you can understand how they feel?

I’d rather eat my own foot than work in an A and E department. It looks extremely hard work, and from some of the responses on this thread, deeply undervalued.

they seem to find money for lots of other stuff. very expensive but seemingly ineffective managers for instance.

I've seen private insurance bills and also realise how much the services of the NHS cost in the real world - they do need to rationalise.

ime there is little co-ordination between departments let alone hospitals and people who need help often fall through the cracks of a system that is no longer fit for purpose.

throwing money at it will not solve the problem.

Do we have any figures of people attending a and e vs staffing levels to handle the numbers

So that's the standard we should be aiming for? Seriously?

So as an employee you think it is OK to work under this sort of regime for years? Apart from anything else it is a legal requirement for workers to get breaks.

It isn't right for patients either but do you want to have someone calculating your meds, inserting cannulas when they are feeling dehydrated and with low blood sugar?

Let's sink to the bottom, maybe if a nurse is caring for you when you've had surgery they should have to have the same, fairs fair.

Wales NHS is run by Welsh Labour, worse than England's NHS. We need tough decision making on the NHS, more billions won't solve it. I hope Wes Streeting is going to make a difference as Health Secretary if Starmer will let him.

This is just very poor management. In my local hospital (London borough) everything in A&E is on paper, each set of notes looked at dozens of times without an overarching, easy to see list of which chair or bed requires medication and the time for that medication.
NO member of staff should be eating or drinking in a clinical setting. It is very distressing for those 'nil by mouth', especially when procedures are delayed multiple times.

The % of GDP the UK spends on the NHS is almost equal to France, Germany, Italy and Spain. In fact it is more than Italy and France spend. We spend more on the NHS than Japan, which has an elderly population and as a % of GDP we spend more than most wealthy nations.

The NHS is poorly run and should be benchmarked against comparator countries around the world to improve it's performance.

That depends on the trust. In my trust they absolutely do - I've been apologised to by ambulance staff for it because they had to go. I was having a major gallstone attack and they'd given me an IV including IV paracetamol in the ambulance. Somehow IV paracetamol makes you groggy because it takes effect faster? Anyway they push me to A&E in a wheelchair, I sit there feeling halfway to passing out and when I finally see a nurse because I'm so woozy she accuses me of drinking. So no, clearly she didn't get much in terms of handover.

It is unbelievable isn't it. I liken it to the advice when on a plane if the oxygen masks come down you put yours on first and then your childs. If you do theirs's first you may become unable to look after them. I think the same for medical staff, if they are collapsing with hunger or exhaustion how can they offer good and safe care?

Sorry OP. I feel your pain. Nothing more anger inducing/frustrating than being abandoned for hours in A&E while you are in pain/exhausted. I often see posts on here of people posting about their child with a high fever in the middle of the night and roll my eyes at the number of people who guilt the poster into waking them up to take them to A&E. I personally will never visit A&E in the night now after several experiences where I've realised patients just don't get called through to a doctor until the morning shift. There is no urgency, pain relief etc. The patients would be better off in bed with home care than on a plastic chair all night. They honestly might as well close A&E overnight.

Yes, we pay, but what you pay, even if you are on a 6 figure salary is a tiny fraction of what you would have to pay even for the current level of service if you paid privately, never mind if you wanted to be turned up and whisked in straight away.

I regularly prescribe drugs that would cost the patient tens of thousands of pounds per year if they had to pay for them - and I have a few hundred patients like this, and there will be a couple of thousand patients like this in my dept. that's leaving aside the less expensive drugs they take, and the cost of visiting a GP or hospital clinic.

There is a reason why there are so few private emergency medical services in the UK - it's because they are incredibly expensive to run, and hence not profitable.