To think the current A&E wait times are mad

[Iamunsure]

I live in west Midlands and the current wait times in our area's A&E is currently 9 hours to be seen for general and 6-7 hours for children A&E. We took our DC to A&E as asked by 111 triage. It's absolutely mad with people sitting on floor for hours to be seen.
How are the waiting times in your area and how's your experience been. I think it's absolutely mad and gone massively downhill for NHS.

My parent ended up at A&E as instructed by their GP recently and whilst bloods were taken after 3+ hours they finally saw a doctor after 7 hours. The staff were great but whilst my elderly parent had a seat, as the patient, I had to stand for 3 hours as it was rammed. I will definitely take a folding chair in future!

We don’t spend as much on healthcare as other countries. Here’s an image from the BMA, and the article it was taken from.

https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/nhs-delivery-and-workforce/funding/health-funding-data-analysis#:~:text=Prior%20to%20the%20pandemic%2C%20healthcare,EU14%20average%20of%20%C2%A33%2C655.

Honestly, it’s always been like this, or at least always has been where I’m from. I was a severely sick child, I have a chronic illness that causes severe pain and weakens my immune system. I got an ear infection that went septic and almost went to my brain, among other things that are ‘normal’ that go away itself, it would always be severe for me that I’d almost end up dying (and that’s not even being dramatic). Anyway, this resulted me being in a&e very often as a child. Still; even with severe conditions, the wait times were horrendous. And this was 15+ years ago. I remember one time having to lay on the floor due to the lack of seats and me crying in agony and no one would come and medicate me and help me I just had to ‘wait’. Children’s a&e is just the same as adult a&e with the wait, if not likely worse as children are more prone to getting injured, illnesses and overall overly worried parents/carers.

On the other hand, I have a wonderful emergency centre for breaks and burns near me who see you instantly. I broke my thumb, got checked in, scanned and seen all within 20 minutes. It’s just a shame that the genuine life or death emergencies are not like this.

people are dreadful at actually knowing where to go and when. GP appointments are almost impossible to get, so people go to hospital when they really don’t need to. People call ambulances instead of taxis so they don’t have to pay, PEOPLE make bad choices.

doctors and nurses do their best in utter shit conditions surrounded by these PEOPLE who do nothing but complain.

My DD has Crohn's and yes, admission is via (planned) A and E at the children's hospital, so we spend quite a bit of time there.

I would say most of the time 50 percent of people in peads A and E are babies and small children with nasty coughs, a further 10 percent are vomiting toddlers. I expect a good half of them could and should be GP assessment. For some reason some patients seem to make a family day out of it, with brother and sister, mum and dad as well as the patient. I think it should be one person plus the patient except in exceptional circs (eg nursing baby as an extra).

People go to A&E, sometimes unnecessarily, because there is no other way to access care. My MIL (who admittedly has a series of complex needs) spent 27 hours waiting in A&E last week with what turned out to be a UTI. We tried everything to get a GP visit for her, but they actually said if it's an infection it needs testing to know which antibiotic to give, and for that she needs to go to A&E. I found this completely astounding but they refused to set her. Whilst waiting in. A&E for the results they put her on penicillin anyway (which surely the GP could have done). I really can't believe that A&E was the best and most sensible route for her to be treated for a UTI, but the GP told us that was the only way. It isn't always the fault of the people showing up there.

Similarly when DD was a baby screaming in pain with acid reflux, the GP said go to A&E there was nothing they could do. We were eventually admitted to paediatrics and she was started on ranitidine (zantac). Again.... Surely A&E shouldn't be the only way to get that, but we were told it was. Again, it isn't always the fault if the people showing up there.

I don't understand what is going wrong in this part of the system, but urgent care needs of this kind are being shunted to A&E, and it's not clear why.

Where I am, other parts of the system are fortunately working well. Both my parents and in laws have had a range of treatments and surgeries recently, some planned some not, and received excellent care.

The biggest problem is that people don't look after themselves well in the UK so healh care is stretched and also people massively misuse all health services.

They go to the GP with every cough and cold ( I remember being told by family members every time one of my children had a viral illness as a baby that they "need antibiotics ") not one of them ever had a course of antibiitics under the age of 2.

A&E is used like a drop in centre. Tonsillitis, sore foot etc. People need to really learn what can be dealt with at home, what a pharmacist can offer (most people think they dispense medicine not are health care professionals ) and when it's A&E.

I think better A&E gate keeping and sending home the walking well would be a good start. In general unless you might not make it through the next 24 hours without intervention or a limb is hanging off and won't repair without a medical professional then you probably don't need A&E.

When my ds 12 had a scooter accident this is time last week I dreaded the wait after everything I've read about. He basically went over the handle bars and took the fall full on his face. No skin on one side of his face, cuts, massive egg and missing three front teeth. We arrived at 4.30pm seen the first nurse at 6.00pm and we're out with painkillers and head injury leaflets just after 7pm that was him being seen my a Dr and a consultant aswell. I can't say we were rushed out the door and I feel his injuries were investigated fully. We are in Scotland

We really need a system that monitors your health and so people that don't look after themselves don't get to drain the resources and also we need a system based on you getting out of the system what you put in. I.e. at least semi privatised.

Because people think of it as "free" they think they may as well just hop on down and get seen.

It's a ridiculous system really having a completely free at the point of entry system regardless of how you look after yourself and what you have paid in.

Try being told by your GP to (needlessly) bring your child with tonsillitis to A&E.. All because they couldn’t fit her in for an appointment that day 🤦‍♀️ They even asked me to do it on a second occasion but I point blank refused - genuinely embarrassing having to turn up to A&E knowing full well that there was no reason for us to be there

Our a&e performance figures are generally good. Elderly patients aren't admitted through a&e, unless traumatic injury or similar. We've got a service which can provide rapid assessment at home for over 65's to assess and treat at home as far as possible.

I called 111 after dd had partially dislocated her kneecap at school. Previously we'd have been sent straight to a&e, where we'd have waited and waited and probably have needed to return once swelling down etc. Instead I got a call from an a&e doctor who triaged over the phone, arranged an appointment for the next day (with plans that if things got worse I could bring her straight in), by the next morning DD's knee was much better, so I called to cancel appointment.

Need to think system wide to solve system wide issues.

We really need a system that monitors your health and so people that don't look after themselves don't get to drain the resources - ah, that sounds nice and cheap to run!!

A lot of it is chronic underfunding by the Tory government, however there is a small but not insignificant percentage down to how the local hospital/services are run. Some run better than others (although all are in a shit situation due to funding regardless.) My local children's hospital is usually really great. When we took our then 8 month old in when she had bronchiolitis, they immediately triaged her. Realised that while she was sick, she wasn't urgently sick. We were sent to a separate area of A&E staffed by nurse practitioners who directly reported to one overseeing doctor. We were quickly seen, treated, and sent home. Far more efficient than insisting we see/wait for a doctor when realistically baby didn't need that (she just needed someone to suction all the snot out of her nose so she could feed again! The nurse said she was impressed by how much snot she had up there, the most amount of snot she'd ever seen apparently 🤣).

5 million more people, and a million more over 65's since 2010, doesn't help. You can argue of course that requires more funding, of course it does, but also looking at the stats, there are more staff, more treatments, more of everything, than ever, but it is never enough. Needs reform, and better focus of where funds are spent.

The biggest problem is not the increased population but an increased aging population.

My local A&E has reported this week that the longest they have had a patient in A&E waiting recently is 1 week. I was in last year after falling down the stairs and fracturing my lower back, there were elderly people that had been sat in the waiting room for 28 hours. The HCA brought them a hot meal and said as you have now been sat here for more than 24 hours we have to feed you a meal.
The hospital is shockingly bad though and should be investigated for its insane amount of failings

Your experience sounds similar to ours @MaloneMeadow , it very often isn't the fault of the people waiting there, many of whom would happily and even tried very hard to access healthcare in a number of different ways and got pushed to A&E by other parts of the NHS, despite being fully aware that it makes no sense. If it's truly the only option, and you are told that by other NHS services, then people are forced to take it.

I recently had to go to an urgent treatment centre (which is alongside the A&E at our local hospital) in large London hospital during a weekday. In and out within 1.5hours including x ray taken. Couldn’t have been more impressed to be honest, I had taken a bag prepared for a long sit.

I’ve had more than my fair share of A&E waits with relatives who are seriously ill in the past five years. It gets worse and worse. I don’t think it’s due to people going with unnecessary things, it’s because there aren’t any beds on the wards available. Often down to the discharge process. It seems to take 24-48 hours for the appropriate forms to be signed and medication dispensed, so people sit on wards that don’t need to. And if they haven’t done that by 3pm on Friday afternoon you end up staying all weekend. I’ve seen it happen so many times while my relatives were in hospital. Both my parents were on a trolley in A&E for 48 hours plus. When my mother was there the trolleys and corridors had bed numbers. There is such a shortage of staff. Nobody can chase anything up. It’s very scary. Luckily my parents and husband had me to ask for them when they were incredibly ill, but some elderly people were left alone for most of the time and couldn’t move. I’m terrified of how it will be by the time I’m elderly.

Yes. When people are being left on the floor in agony for hours, we need as many threads as possible and to be talking about it as much as possible.

Fil had to go last week and it was a 19 hour wait announced on the screen but he was seen quite a lot quicker than that, within about 2 hours he said.

That will be for an insurance claim. They’ll say they have whiplash.

You can always spot the Tories on threads like these. Blaming the astronomical wait times on people using the service unnecessarily when the reality is that they are a small number.

I disagree. I was in A&E a few months ago in agony with a suspected blocked bowel. I wasn’t paying much attention to who else was in the waiting room as I was crying in pain but my mum who accompanied me did.

There was a woman (around 40yo) chatting to my mum saying she was there with a chest infection and couldn’t get a GP appointment. A man who stormed out who said he couldn’t be arsed to wait any longer as he had already waited 5 hours to be seen with foot pain. A young couple in their 20’s, not sure who was the patient but they ended up having an argument and both left before seeing a doctor.

Oh please, my Dad with stage 4 cancer and after a fall was left in a side room for hours, no one allowed to be there even though post covid. Fortunately a member of my family worked there and could check on him. He was in agony, crying out, had a drink next to him but couldn't get it. I was waiting and Fortunately he was being taken for scans etc but meanwhile surely anyone crying out in pain to be ignored? Broke my heart, as did the subsequent treatment, only one designated visitor was allowed, so that was my elderly Mum. Same again, couldn't reach water, wasn't drinking (if he did would be sick after) and she had to tell them this so eventually drip, too late, he had already got a urine infection from being dehydrated on top of no immune system to fight it. Weeks later palliative care.

When he was critical ot was the best care, same for everyone I know, but before that stage it's really not good enough.

We are so lucky to have the NHS, most staff are marvellous, but it seems to take to being critical that the best care is given from my experience. Then of course it really can be too late...