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!

Exactly, @NovemberMorn - it’s simply not good enough from GP services. I hope you are better now.

I had to go to eye casualty yesterday. Was really unsure about whether I should go there or get an optician's appointment. Fortunately my colleagues told be to go to eye casualty. And they confirmed it was the right decision. I was seen and done with in an hour. I couldn't believe it. I'm a nurse in the same hospital and it's usually several hours wait for kids we send there.

Nope, not my experience. In with MIL with her stuck on a trolley for 48 hours basically being mostly ignored by staff. We couldn't leave her, so had to take a rota to sit with her for the full 48 hours. The only people complaining to staff were those who'd been there ridiculous amounts of time and were getting exasperated by them.

It’s a combination of both. The NHS is on its knees AND people do abuse it to an extent. There are many people in A&E who do not need to be there however I wouldn’t criticise them as a lot of the time they are there because they can’t get care anywhere else and don’t know what else to do. Trying to get a GP appointment is ridiculously difficult, waiting times are outrageous leading to people living in pain for a lot longer than they should leading to disability and further health problems. It’s just a total mess. So yes sometimes it is a society problem but the issue is a lot more complicated than people just behaving badly.

Just chatted to someone who works in A&E hospitals are not safe at present. Your point about society has validity but to pretend we have even adequate healthcare in UK is a joke. It is dangerous and people die unnecessarily every single day and mostly relatives don't even realise!!

You're confusing disrespectful people with there not being problems in A&Es up and down the country though?

They're two completely separate things.

If my local A&E was packed full of delightfully lovely patients, there'd still be a standard 6-8 hour wait.

My experience has always been good and quick, but only used when genuine A and E case.
The patients that had injuries that were minor and could be dealt with at home, gp or minor injuries unit were the ones waiting.

I think there needs to be an additional service that's essentially a triage for the fracture clinic as a good proportion of break or sprain needs an X-Ray and if nowhere else can do it you end up in this backlog where you are very much not an 'emergency' in that your life is not immediately in danger but you do need to be seen in the hospital where they can appropriately treat the break. I broke a leg abroad, and despite trying every service (GP, Minor Injuries and the Fracture Clinic switchboard) on return, they all said I had to go to A&E and be triaged to get into 'the system'. I had a letter saying be seen by your own fracture clinic within 2 weeks, it was just in German and nowhere would accept it, so had to have my already casted leg X-Rayed again. What a waste!

I really do agree!

The staff need greater powers to kick people out.

There must be 50% of people there that shouldn't be.

20 ambulances queuing outside our A&E today, and I can assure you it's not because the waiting room is full of people eating curries! There aren't anywhere near enough beds in the hospital, even the corridors are pretty full now, so that causes a blockage in A&E.
14 years of under funding didn't help, also silly decision making eg. closing cottage hospitals, building new departments with less beds, closing some A&Es to "centralise" services.

Absolutely this, people turning up at A and E when it's neither an accident or emergency

I agree the issues at A&E are related to the problem with people struggling to get a GP appointment but the number of people who waste GP appointments is also astounding. My friend is a GP and she has told me that lots of the people she sees dont need to be seen by a GP - they have minor ailments that they should manage at home themselves. Then you have the people who dont even turn up for their appointment and you have an enormous waste of GP time.
We live in a society now where a large group of the population lack basic resilience. They seem to think the NHS can (and should) fix any ailment they have (however minor) and that it is their right to have a GP appointment or to camp out in A&E until someone sees them. The idea that perhaps they can ride out a virus or minor knee strain with some self care is not even a consideration.

Well yes, some members of the public are twats, that's not a surprise to anyone who has ever worked in a public - facing role. That doesn't change the fact that waiting times in A&E are huge and vulnerable people are left suffering in corridors for hours.

It's many problems and what you are describing is a small part. There are no beds to move people out of A&E too, not enough staff, GPs being so awful at seeing people that they end up having no choice but to go to A&E, people having to go to A&E that would previously have been dealt with in the community/social care....

you realise that in many parts of the UK, you wait 12-24h. Just because you didn't, it doesn't mean the NHS is doing fine. Do you ever read the news?

Agree entirely. Had the misfortune to spend some time in A&E recently. A woman vaping, whilst literally holding her oxygen tank, kept vaping despite staff telling her not to. Lots of people who had clearly been taking drugs. A few people drinking larger whilst in A&E. If you won’t look after yourself, why should the country and the taxpayer look after you?!

In France you have to ring ahead or press a buzzer for A&E.
You can’t just walk in.
There’s no way you’d get in to charge your phone or as a large family group with only one person ill.
In fact unless it’s a dc no one is allowed in the ambulance besides the patient and paramedics.

Depends when and where you go and with what TBH.

Drakeford - now finance minster once first minster - say the problem in Wales is too many hospitals. I think we have longest waiting lists and poorest ambulance response times of UK nations. They did at one boast Welsh A&E waits were better than England - then it turned out they were excluding something like 60% of people presenting at A&E in those stats when they shouldn't have been - then it was all down to drunk people blocking up A&E.

One of mine had a medical emergency a- not life threating but time dependent - got there via taxi bypassed most of triage and wait of A&E and was in operation theater with an hour - combination of condition and luck with timing - average wait in A&E at that time was 8 hours.

I think there's a lot of blaming people trying to use a service rather than looking at the service and seeing why it's not doing well.

When primary care isn't accessible patients do get shunted to A&E - and sometime the chronic condition have deteriorated A&E by that stage is appropriate.

3 hours is really good.
Last time I was in a&e I was triaged within 20 minutes, in an observation bed half an hour after that and admitted to a ward after 6 hours.
Time before that was with ds - took 6 hours to see a doctor and he was admitted onto a ward within the hour. So even when you're really sick it can take time.

Agree.
I’ve fortunately never needed A&E until last Oct.
My GP sent me down as she thought I could be having a heart attack. Luckily it was Reflux/wind 🫢
I had my b/p and other basic checks. An ecg, loads of blood tests and a chest x ray over a 5 hour period.
As we waited, from 7pm to midnight, this was a Friday.
The amount of moaning, especially from a few older men, one who kept piping up every time the male nurse who was looking after us walked past, that the nhs was NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE!!
When in fact, to me anyway, they couldn’t have been more on it and organised.
The bloke in question seemed to be fine and was certainly eating well considering he felt so ill 🙄
They were assessing everyone in order of urgency. A baby was rushed in about 11pm and the parents were hurried though straight away.
Me and DH got back home about 1am. Totally in awe of all the staff and what they have to put up with day in day out 👏🏻👏🏻

This is a very unhelpful post. It’s not people’s fault that hospitals are failing. It’s a general run down of services over the last 20 years.

They honestly did! They were talking very loudly about it... They knew where the sockets were any everything.
Perhaps they were homeless / no money for the meter / dealing with issues that meant they couldn't charge at home - (which makes me feel bad for moaning about them)... but again, a&e is not the place... they shouldn't have to rely on a&e to charge their phones up for whatever reason.

I agree it’s people actually. Half the people, at least, waiting in A&E shouldn’t be there because what’s wrong with them is not an accident or emergency requiring emergency hospital treatment. They could have waited for their GP, they could have waited for a minor injuries appointment.

I’ve never gone to A&E, or taken my kids there, unless it has been absolutely necessary and I can’t remember ever waiting more than an hour because you go to the front of the queue if you’re there for something and everyone else shouldn’t be there.

I’ve never had this experience. I’ve only been to A&E with children recently and so we usually are in Children’s A&E and I tend to see glimpses of the adult A&E as I’m walking in and out. Over the past 6 months we’ve had to use the service at 2 different hospitals - sadly for an actually emergency - I say this because (and I’ve been guilty of this too) sometimes GPs are so full and can’t see you for issues that they would have seen you for in the past - not life threatening but painful or has a timeframe for which you need to be seen (say you have a swollen thumb and the GP won’t see you for another week - where do you go?) - all of those people are flocking to A&E. Some of the people I spoke to came in for issues I know the GP should be dead king with - but the system is so broken.

And then I’ve noticed that there is quite often many emergency cases which then means your waiting time increases.

A&E have become the new GO. I thought pharmacies were meant to step in but none in my area have (we have gone for minor things like suspected ear or eye infections and they’ve told us to go home without checking).

But yes, society is also broken right now.

Casualty is a dreadful fucking place where people go to die. Staff aren’t trying their best they have compassion fatigue and no longer care.