It's not A&E that's the problem - it's people!!!

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Was in A&E last night. Busy east London Hospital...
3 hours in and out. Staff amazing. Tests done etc... Facilities (not pretty) but fine. Had a seat. Seen in privacy and treated with respect and care...

However the people waiting were awful.. one woman kept coming in a racially abusing the reception staff... security kept taking her out. Stopping the staff from getting on with their jobs.

Entire family (6 of them) eating a curry and having very loud family time up the back of the waiting room - so loud that the Dr.s calling people's names were not being heard... causing delay.

2 homeless people sleeping across multiple chairs (not begrudging them a warm spot to sleep.. but they should not have to be there.)

2 woman came in just to charge their phones up!

It's not the NHS that is on its knees it's society. And A&E is the harsh reflection of society!

What was @PinkSparklyPussyCat supposed to do if she was specifically advised to go to A&E? With something like a Bartholin's cyst, it would be ridiculous to make people wait a week or more for a GP appointment.

When I had a cyst under my arm, I too was sent by Minor Injuries to A&E. I queried whether it was really necessary, and was very apologetic when I got to A&E. However, they confirmed it was absolutely the right place for me to be, as the cyst needed to be dealt with in appropriately sterile conditions without delay to avoid the danger of infection spreading. I was referred on within an hour or so to a ward where they drained and dressed it, gave me antibiotics and sent me on my way, feeling a hell of a lot better.

@Callsluvsbunnies, every time I have had extended dealings with the NHS, it has been extremely obvious that the service couldn't possibly be run without immigrants. I for one have been extremely grateful that they have been willing to come here and use their considerable range of skills within the NHS. If you think the UK is so bad, do feel free to leave and become an immigrant somewhere else.

Haha you say that as if I’m not from the UK, worked for the NHS including A&E and still have family and friends using it. Pretty sure I’d know more about the local area in the part of the UK I’m from than you. And no you don’t just get to order whatever tests when using private insurance, nor do your Drs. I don’t know anyone that has been in and out that fast including a friend that went in very recently. She was there 11 hours. But sure you know more than me.

I’ve just spent 24 hrs with elderly father in A&E - he is severely immunocompromised and suffering from sepsis. He was kept in A&E as no bed to go to. He was put on a trolley in a curtained off bay directly as someone was taken out. When I asked if I could clean the space they refused.

Today they told me to wear a plastic apron and gloves to protect him. Yet the toilet he had to use defied belief.

All this came after he was kept several hours sitting in a crowded room next to a woman bleeding into a plastic bag.

Drunks were politely ushered out and I heard the porters reporting that they had been taken to the bus stop.

A crowd of pissed up teenagers were hanging out at the entrance, I’m pretty sure just for the hell of it.

A woman suffering with an ectopic pregnancy was screaming on a trolley in a corridor with gas and air as the nurse desperately called around for someone to take her to a proper environment.

What point am I making? It was a scene of the good, the bad and the ugly. And sadly mostly the latter two.