To say stop moaning about A&E

[Darkcarpark]

My son (21) dislocated his shoulder and I took him to A&E. They were absolutely fabulous with him, because it was an emergency! He had bloods taken, X-rays, two doctors and a nurse manipulate his shoulder back into place with morphine and a further X-ray, all in under 3 hours. So I just want to say to all the people moaning about A&E waiting times to think about whether you were a genuine accident or emergency and for anyone what has had good experiences of A&E to put a shout to the staff that are there for us in our time of need.

I never mentioned my critical thinking skills. I just said let’s stop moaning.

No, you're implying people who have long waits don't need to be there or aren't 'real' emergencies.

Fucking hell OP. You've started a really divisive post and are now arguing with someone about whether the pain they were suffering was good enough to warrant fast treatment. Fuck right off!

This is such a silly post. Everyone's experiences vary wildly and for you to say it's all great cus you happened to get lucky is not the "I told you so" moment you think it is.

May daughter has had a chronic condition which results in acute dislocation for the past two years. Sure we have had times that resemble yours and theyve been great but they are massively on the minority. We've sat with her in acute pain and no relief for 10 hours plus as that shift decides she needs to be triaged to surgery and they give her nothing. We've had 4 hour waits for triage with no pain relief.
Weve had referrals to surgeon who don't attend 3 hours later and state no need to review. We've had brilliant pathways to admittance as needed. Every single time has been different. And most of the horrific. Great it worked for you this one single time but please stop trying to extrapolate your random lucky instance across the NHS.

Op, it might not have been your intention (I think you're expressing happiness & gratitude for your experience) but your post did come over somewhat preachy

My daughter has a respiratory condition which one time put her in intensive care with a serious risk to life. it can come on rapidly with subtle first signs.

it only comes on at night and at its worst it happened fortnightly for about a year. She was 1- 2yo at this time.

we were always told at the first sign to go to a&e. After that experience I folllowed those rules.

Because I took her in before she got terrible, we would have to wait in triage for about 5 hours (would usually arrive at 10pm). Then monitoring was 4hrs once in the system.

this happened fortnightly. I’m a working single parent with an older child. It was absolutely terrible. The staff etc were great, but that whole experience was awful.

And I’m sure I was judged by people thinking it wasn’t an emergency cos she was bouncing around triage.

Very pleased that you had great treatment but the system often fails.

I'm so sorry for your loss, how devastating for your family

OP show some sensitivity ffs

I have a colleague whose son was sent home from A&E erroneously, the next morning they woke up and he was dead. He was 7.

Your poor mum, that is so sad. But as you say and as I am trying to say the staff are brilliant. It’s the system that has let your poor mum down. I really wish her a speedy recovery.

Oh go away OP, I have every right to moan about a service I pay for that treats me with utter contempt. A few months ago I had to go to A&E with my wife as she was having difficulty breathing. We were treated like utter shit for the 14 hours we were there. She has a long term medical condition that was completely ignored. The triaging doctor did not even examine her and decided that she was “just” having a panic attack and that we didn’t need to be there. Long story short it actually turned out that she was having a sustained allergic reaction that is still under investigation and she has been on a cocktail of medication ever since. If we can’t even use front line emergency services when we literally cannot breathe then what on earth are they for?

The a&e staff who didn't bother to xray my 87-year-old dad after a fall last year and sent him home with an undiagnosed broken hip weren't doing a great job. Neither was the receptionist who refused to call me when he was ready to come home on another occasion because she apparently knew she would be too busy wasn' t doing a great job either.
Why do we constantly feel the need to congratulate and praise people for doing the job they are paid to do anyway?

My penultimate interaction with A&E was when they sent my adult DC2 away after diagnosing them with a UTI. They ended up having an urgent appendectomy just over 24 hours later, with their operation being delayed by two more urgent cases at 12.30am and 2.30am. I’m not grateful that the ‘doctor’ who saw them initially didn’t check their bloods and neither was that surgeon who admitted them for the surgery.

And it’s this apathy that keeps things shit. Why should we just put up and shut up?

Isn't everything "suspected" when you enter a+e? They don't know until you've been tested, x-rayed etc.

Just because you've had one good experience, it doesn't invalidate everyone else's experiences. Lovely for your son, that he was seen so quickly despite no threat to life. That isn't the reality for many

I’m implying some aren’t. But most are. No one want to rock up at A&E for no reason do they. Do you disagree with that? I want to express with all the negativity about the NHS , that sometimes, in an emergency it does a brilliant job. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’m not mentioning any negative experiences I have had. I just want to praise the good.

Right, everyone in the UK who's had a bad experience at A&E or lost a loved one due to the shocking waiting times should stop moaning because @Darkcarpark had a good experience 😂😂

This whole thread is so weird OP, I'm calling troll

You absolutely are. You’re telling people to stop moaning with no thought as to why they might feel the need to moan or that they weren’t as lucky as you despite going to a&e for far more life threatening things than a dislocated shoulder.

You’ve been given numerous examples explaining why your thread is tone deaf and an opportunity to wind your neck in but you’re doubling down. Embarrassing for you.

I’m so sorry about your mum. No one should be dying on a trolley in a corridor.

If that was really true you could contact the hospital you went to and send them a compliment via PALS.

@Darkcarpark Why would we stop moaning? You have been saying that you had a genuine accident/emergency.

My mum was in a corridor in A&E after a stroke for 22 hours. Previous incident, also a suspected stroke, was 18 hours.

Does that not count as an emergency for you?

I have seen amazing staff do amazing work but they haven't got enough support.

And I think it's perfectly reasonable to complain about some of the experiences people are having in A&E.

Your headline says stop moaning about it. Once a fortnight I had literally no sleep for a year because of a&e systems. I work! It was an impossible way of living. The people were great yes. But the a&e system was terrible for me.

I think with issues like dislocations, broken bones, clean cuts etc treatment can be fast. The issue with long waits is where an inpatient bed is required, or further tests, or if the reason for the symptoms is unknown.

No clinician wants long waits to occur. Some emergencies are more simple than others to treat, but that doesn’t mean the emergencies that require a long wait are less urgent or less of an emergency, if that makes sense!

This does count as an emergency, most definitely! And you had a long wait, which is awful and I hope you complained to pals.

DH had a fractured and dislocated shoulder last year. Took 2 hours to get an xray and another 1.5 after thay to get any pain relief. One nurse told him to stop making a fuss when they trying to reset it as he passed out with the pain.

Ah I will pass your instruction onto my grandmother. She was in A and E on a trolley for 3 days with sepsis before she was finally admitted. I will tell her she should not have moaned about it, even though the trolley was incredibly uncomfortable and she almost died in a corridor.

I had a reasonably short wait in A&E once.

All the other times, they kept me waiting for endless hours in uncomfortable conditions, messed about my medication, they've been rude, been snappy, outright lied about test results, physically injured me... I can go on.