5hr Wait to see a Dr with sick child - how are we at this point

[IAmADancer]

Just that really. Called 111 as my DD is poorly, very high temp, vomiting, lethargic, can’t put chin to her neck as it hurts. Was told she had to attend A&E.

She is currently sat on a plastic chair, looking horrendously pale and feeling so unwell. Seen the nurse and been told it’s a 5 hr wait for a dr.

Why do we accept this as the norm, it’s awful. I feel so frustrated that this is the best we can expect and that a small child who is obviously poorly is left to wait this long

Exactly. I have every sympathy for @IAmADancer and her daughter but it is really frustrating to read once again that people cast their eyes around a waiting room and decide that they know who needs treatment and who doesn't.

Last time I was in A&e I bumped into someone I knew there and we were chatting while we waited to be triaged. It was lovely to see them and a big distraction from the pain. For her it was a big distraction from her symptoms too. It probably looked like we were just having a lovely time and didn't need to be there. But she was sent straight from triage to a ward, and when I went through to triage the nurse literally ran to get a doctor after examining me

I find it really grim that people sit in A&E and judge others. I'm either just focused on whatever I am worrying about my child or my pain, or if I do notice others it is to extend empathy to them because I'm sure nobody goes there for fun.

I took my son (then 15), to A and E last year. He had not kept any food down for 48 hours and had diarrhea symptoms for 6 days that had worsened, having abdominal pain and going every half an hour and passing blood. If you'd seen him in the waiting room (between all the toilet visits) he looked like a typical teen boy slouched in a chair scrolling on his phone, and would think he was fine.
As it was they didnt find anything specifically wrong, but I thought the symptoms were severe enough to go, and they checked for, and ruled out, appendicitis...but I didnt feel we were wasting time.

I’m so sorry. I haven’t had to go to A&E personally for years and only twice as an adult for my own health, including a suspected miscarriage and pancreatitis due to gallstones. But I am happy to pay for decent healthcare because I don’t want it to happen for anyone like it happened to you.

We should all stop trying to get things on the cheap, dodge taxes, whinging about paying for things. Because when you’re ill or your loved ones are ill it suddenly becomes the most important thing of all.

My 2 year old was running around like a lunatic with a broken wrist.

Bu the time we got seen I was thinking shall we just go home she’s fine. But nope, it was broken.

it is awful and sadly our waits in Norfolk have if anything been longer. Last year I was in A&E for 12 hours all told. Seven of those without being seen. Not enough seats for everyone so non-patients having to stand. We do have a walk in centre though which I have found to be a little but better, but not much. I know the NHS is slowly improving, but A&E can feel like a war zone and sadly emergency medicine in the UK is now worse than most of Europe and a good proportion of Asia in my opinion.

If they suspected meningitis they would have dealt with her quickly. I would just go home!

@IAmADancer How is she this morning?

It’s horrendous. I was there with 18 month old DD before Christmas and despite her oxygen levels being low, high temp not coming down, we were sat for 10 hours. Waiting room was full of children similar age with similar symptoms.

Have you checked her throat. When My daughter gets tonsillitis he temp sky rockets, and she become incoherent and starts to say strange things. The last time this happened she got sent to A&E as her temp was so high, we were in and out in 30 minutes (we are in Scotland) Doctor was amazing he checked everything, last thing he checked was her throat and that's where he saw the tonsillitis. Gave her pain relief and antibiotics. Hope she is checked soon and she gets better soon.

My 4 year old is asthmatic and on our most recent A&E trip when she couldn’t breathe, we were asked to use her blue inhaler and waited 6.5 hours to be seen.
Got there at 11pm after 999 advised we drive ourself in, seen at 5:30am. Admitted to the ward as urgent patient as soon as we were seen.

this includes me repetitively asking anyone to check on her/us with how unwell she was.

it saddens me greatly that this is where we are. Thankful that the other bazillion visits we’ve had they’ve been amazing, probably why that particular visit shocked me so much.

Hope your little one is doing better today OP.

Not necessarily….I’m currently in A&E now with suspected meningitis. I’ve been here since 9pm last night
They are now in the process of ordering a lumber puncture….which I’m dreading

This is the bottom line. Selfish people don’t want to pay either their fair share they should already be paying, or vote against any hint of an increase, for a first world first class healthcare system, so instead this is where we are.

So sorry for your ds and you OP, hope she’s better soon 🤞

I can see why you might assume that, but don’t bet on it!

The NHS is a beyond saving, we need to move to a privatised system similar to the Scandi countries or Ireland or any of the many other non-USA developed countries who seem to manage a hell of a lot better than we do. This does not mean people who can’t afford it will be left without healthcare ffs as there would obviously be a system to ensure they are treated. People need to wake up to this reality and then we might actually start getting somewhere.

This is a GP scenario, not A&E. Now perhaps you couldn’t get a GP appointment for a long time so had no option, but this is one of the many problems with the current system.

I hope your little one is much better today.

I’m old so know the NHS is always left in a terrible state after a conservative government. It will take years to get it back to how it should be.

Wow, you've clearly been lucky enough to have had way better experiences of NHS 'care' than I have, if you're confident of that!

In any event, OP's description of a wildly understaffed A&E, that isn't even separated between paeds and adults, would give you pause for thought, I would think.

Things do get overlooked in A&E and patients do die unnecessarily through lack of timely attention.

The symptoms escalated in the early hours of saturday morning and I called 111, they advised me to take him to A and E within an hour.

But getting a GP appointment is virtually impossible, the last time we needed one, after 3 days of calling, waiting in a 40 min queue, and not getting one, I took the morning off work and took him to a walk in-centre with a gp

It really isn't all about money. If the NHS absorbed 100% of tax receipts there would still be massive problems

My type 1 diabetic child sits and looks at his phone whilst waiting to be treated, you would have no idea how potentially ill he is or can be just by looking at him.

You did the right thing - her finding putting her chin on neck is a sign of meningitis. I’ve noticed on a few A&E visits (suggested by 111) that sometimes there are no drs during early hours of morning.

I was on a chair in A&E yesterday for 21hrs while they considered both what was wrong with me and if I needed emergency surgery. It took them five hours to give me paracetamol and after 11hrs they started me on morphine.

They said if I needed emergency surgery I would be on the waiting room chair for four days until Friday. You can only be given morphine while in a hospital. We ended up giving me antibiotics and the codiene to take home and now I am on a one year wait surgery list.

while I consider my experience bad - not having a dr around to see a child with suspected meningitis is appalling. Hopefully she doesn’t have meningitis but what if she had.

Saying strange things is pretty expected with a really high temp though op btw !

"... It's completely unacceptable, but we've been conditioned to accept 'it'll do' in the NHS, rather than a reasonable standard of care..."

No.

It's that the electorate have decided they don't want to pay enough in tax to get a reasonable standard of care

The one time we had to take our youngest child (2 at the time) to a&e at our loval hospital ( 15 min drive away) it was a 8 hour wait in childrens dept
We then drove to birmingham childrens hospital which is over an hour away and she was seen within 20 mins
Its the one and only time weve had to take her luckily
But it is awful, getting a drs or dentist appointment is a nightmare
I dread those words "they need to go to a&e" it shouldnt be like that

Its hell on earth. 12hr wait with kidney failure and leaking urine into body. Another 11hr wait for getting back on the ward with infections. We definitely do not treat animals like this.