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!

I've only been in a couple of times in the past 10 years, once I was in an accident and was unconscious but I presume staff were great because I was absolutely fine in the end, and the other I had to get some stitches in my forehead - felt embarrased being there as honestly it didn't even hurt that much, I'd just tripped and smacked my forehead on a door in such a way that the skin split open. Would have been more than happy to go to minor injuries but 111 said nothing available, go to A and E. I was in and out in 3 hrs (apparently there is a specific person for stitches in the face, and they weren't that busy). I have nothing but praise for the staff. Look, there will always be the odd timewaster/malingerer. But I really think they're a minority. Most people are there because they have an unmet urgent (to them) need and no other way of accessing healthcare. A and E is inappropriate, but they don't know where else to go. Its just a sharp-end symptom of a fraying social system.

It is not a "tiny minority" of people presenting at a&e unnecessarily, I can assure you. It's pretty big.
Bed blocking is the biggest issue by far.

It fully depends on the a&e surely?

I spent 8 hours in a&e one night ( not in the uk) couldn’t wait any longer as I had a plane to catch. Put up with my symptoms, caught domestic flight, pushed through until reaching our destination, DH had enough took me to the local a&e I sat down for all of a few seconds before being called in. I was out in 20 min with meds a&e Dr was disgusted I hadn’t been seen straight away even in a busy a&e given my symptoms and pregnant state.

Last week, DH & DD out in 30 mins including having an X-ray. Said a&e is our local and we’ve done the 8, 10 hour waits in the past. There is a separate children’s a&e set up for kids. We knew the drill, DD suspected break, was well enough managing ok on pain meds so we kept an eye on her over night and dropped other DCs at breakfast clubs, took dd to a&e at a time we knew it wouldn’t be busy ( GPs & walk-in centres getting ready to open) but a&e is only place for an X-ray. In and out in under 30min.

about 9 years ago, another dd head injury, we went to our local a&e ( different area) it wasn’t at a big hospital, dd was in and out in under an hour including getting her head glued.

We are half way between 2 major hospitals, I’d never willing attend one of the a&es because 10yrs would be a minimum wait every time.

Yes the nhs is on its knees but not every a&e, go surgery, hospital is the same, some are run better than others.

Individuals are not the problem. Blaming them is lazy. It's years of under funding, austerity and mismanagement coupled with social care problems.

Also I hate the thing of judging how ill people look. I have been in a&e various times not looking ill but needing to be there.

Last time I was in A and E for gallstone pain maybe 2years ago, I was left waiting in pain to see a Dr, fair enough it was busy. A youngish girl in her late 20s came in and sat near me and my sons, she had been brought in by ambulance.A nurse came over and said hi, her name was similar to rainbow bright unicorn ( I did check with my son as i thought I might have sepsi and going funny) the nurse asked is it the period pains again? She replied yes, did you take paracetamol like I told you last time? No as I don't have any at home, asked if she had eaten, said no, was given paracetamol, a drink and a sandwich. They then arranged for transport to take her home.is this what A and E is really for?

Whilst all of those things are annoying, how do they delay treatment for people who do need to be there to the point where people are waiting for 12 hours?
I have just finished a 2 month placement in A&E and the majority of people did need to be there.

The problem is not being able to sending patients up to wards because there are no beds available. This is because we cannot discharge from wards due to a lack of social care beds

The only surprising thing about that is I though we had the worse one.

The A&E department at local one was under particular scrutiny publicly stated by welsh heath sectary and the health board was getting extra monitoring. Maybe it's improved.

Though worst experience I know is now my departed father in England- admitted via A&E in ambulance long wait then no beds was was shunted off to an overflow ward made in a side corridor - a ward with few staff and no-one really in charge - clearly meant as short term stop gap for a few hours day at most- 7 days there - he was struggling with toileting, food and actually getting medicine he was on - with dire consequences a few times - was among other things diabetic he was left in filth despite having open sores- he had no treatment for infection that landed him there.

Seventh day my sibling very politely and very loudly lost it in A&E demanding to see managers - they coincidentally found a bed a two hours later - nurse in charge of that ward was horrified at state of Dad - insisted they complain - Mun was too worried to .

Our parents have appropriately called ambulances to have neighbours and extended family tell them off for doing so - despite HCP saying they did the right thing.

So I struggled to believe it's entirely the patients - I think politicians like to blame people using the services because its easier to focus on the minority - the unpopular Friday and Saturday night drunks - than provide money and planning needed.

A&E sent me home twice citing period pains. Turns out it was an ectopic pregnancy

4 hours - no way!
In Nov 23 I was in A&E for over 12 hours (w - no ambos despite them thinking I;d had a stroke (I hadn't), my dh took me in car), then at 8am the next morning they said no-one would be called for an hour because of change of shift, so I went to get food with DH (hadn't eaten since about 7pm the previous night) and when I got back they said that my name had been called. I was livid. I was feeling a lot better by then, but had to wait for test results and I asked for a CT which they begrudgingly gave so had to wait another 2 hours for those results (DH had to go as he had a work thing) - my words to the Receptionist (in a nice way) were 'I've lost the will to live' so he said to come through and wait in a more comfortable chair.
Didnt notice any awful behaviour from the other ill folk in the v uncomfortabel waiting room of a pretty well regarded London hospital.

Having said all that I would rather go to our local walk-in /minor injuries- usually it's about a 2 hour turn around which is much more preferable. They do x-ray in office hours which is good too. But no good if it's at night or with more serious injuries or illness.

I was in A&E with suspected appendicitis recently and it was full of people with colds, headaches, and ingrown toenails. Yes there were a few who had proper emergencies but given one of the nurses said to me "It's nice to see someone with a real complaint" I guess that yes, a lot of is people are incorrectly using A&E because they can't sit and wait to see if they get better at home or can't get a GP appointment (or don't want to wait for one) or don't know about walk in centres.

I can assure you its a minority in my major trauma A&E.

You have people going to A&E with colds, headaches, cat scratches and yes, broken fingernails. God knows what else. People who go for these types of reasons should be fined and made to pay for wasted time.

Quite! It's not a few down & outs staying warm or curry eaters in A&E that have brought the NHS to its knees

This is probably an example of another service failing though. Because I’m pretty sure no rational person wants to respond to period pain like this. There’s not enough detail here to judge whether it’s inability to access GP services, poverty issues or something more complex.

so sorry for the people who lost their loved ones whilst waiting to be seen or on a corridor.My Mum was admitted to A and E with an abdominal aortic rupture .Staff saw her immediately.Looking back I think she was lucky as it was 4am and quiet and my Dad drove her in.I feel if it had happened later on she would have been waiting a longer time to be seen.She had to wait a couple of hours for a bed and dr kept telling us any moment she could die.They were amazing but I didn’t want mum to pass away on a bed in a and e dept.Bless her,she held on and we were lucky she got a private room and she passed away with the family around her and with dignity.I realise we were very fortunate reading some people’s experiences

Luck of the draw, surely. I was there with a baby fairly recently and met two absolutely lovely families, also with young kids, and we really supported each other.

I wish it was the same here.

Last time I was in A&E (also in London), it was in 2022 and it was still Covid-y.

I was brought in by some friends who were swiftly ushered out by security as you weren't supposed to have a "plus one". My friends weren't planning on staying, but wanted to make sure I'd got in there OK and had a drink and a chocolate bar from the vending machine (I was in shock from an accident).

My friend had to be really short with the security guard at one point as he kept trying to stand in her way and nudging her towards the door. She said to him "we are leaving. I just want to make sure she's got what she needs first."

I then had to sit in that A&E for 8 hours, alone and in so much pain that morphine didn't even touch it.

Meanwhile, almost everyone else sitting in A&E had someone with them and not once did the security guard go and try and usher any of them out. One group was a family of four. If the kids were minors I wouldn't have said much, but they were adult children! Some of them also went out and came back with a pizza!

I was in too much pain to take it any further but it did piss me off that the security guard was cherry picking which people he allowed to have companions.

Then, as I was leaving A&E (at 3am), there was a fight in the middle of the waiting area!

I agree with you OP. While the NHS isn't perfect, the biggest hindrance to A&E staff and waiting rooms is the twattish behaviour of some people.

I agree with you (and love your user name 🤭 j

I know my local clinical commissioning group (as they were called at the time) closed ours down, but do they still have NHS walk-in centres? They used to be great (and could fast-track you to same-day Paeds etc).

She's a strapping great teen now, but I also remember having a very separate A&E waiting room for the kids to make it less scary.

My husband got sepsis from a cat scratch. Woke up in the morning and the poison had traveled right up his arm and his whole arm was red and swollen. They can be really serious. I felt a bit bad for not being nicer to him about it the night before.

My son was admitted with a life threatening condition via ambulance. His life saving treatment continued to be given while he lay on a trolley in a corridor where he remained for 3 days before he was found a proper bed. I think it was 8 blood transfusions while in the corridor. The doctors were amazing, the nurses too, but a absolutely horrific experience.

Lucky you. Waiting times at my local A+E are currently between 8 - 12 hours. As for privacy - 5 people crammed into one cubicle all getting IV drugs and think yourself fortunate because at least you're getting treated. Staff variable, especially at weekends.

Oh crikey! Hope he is okay now? That's a tough one isn't it. One one hand something like this could happen and on the other hand you wouldn't expect to go to A&E because you got scratched.