To love A&E despite the wait?

[HotTiredDog]

Over 9 hours in a very busy city A&E today with DM, following a fall at home.
They have established that her heart is fine, lots of good blood stuff, X-rays of queries and carried out dressing of wounds.
This was free at the point of need & was carried out by amazing professionals, with the utmost care & thoughtfulness.
Seriously, 9 hours was nothing for all this attention, not really.
The tragedy was on the MH side, with some seriously unwell folk who couldn’t be given the care they so desperately need - I dearly wanted to help but had no way of doing so.
I am so proud of & grateful for the people of A&E. We must keep it safe.

I have had mixed experiences. I have had bloods taken, been admitted and been in theatre within 3 hours for an obstructed ureter. I have also waited 12 hours in A&E recently with post-surgery complications when I really should have been seen elsewhere - the ward I was discharged from refused to review me, gp could only send me to A&E, consultant that performed my surgery was in theatre all day - I was eventually seen by a nurse practitioner who couldn’t help and I ended up readmitted a couple of days later anyway.

I think it’s partly down to luck whether or not you get seen quickly and by the right people!

If you are really poorly it’s an absolutely awful environment to be waiting in.

My local hospital has an adults A&E and a child's A&E completely separate from each other.

Absolutely. At one point, there were around 1/4 of the patients called who just weren’t there any more. Nurses said that wasn’t uncommon and was, obviously, really frustrating for them and a complete waste of resources. Hopefully none of them had deteriorating issues that they then suffered from, but also its on them if they chose to go.

@MrListerSir I have lived in other countries. Glad you’re so worldly wise though.

@HotTiredDog If that's true then it's even more bizarre you think 9 hours in A&E is reasonable. Whenever I've been unlucky enough to need care abroad (fracturing my ankle was one extremely memorable occasion!) I was seen and began treatment within 30 mins.

UK emergency healthcare is just... awful.

I agree but I wonder how much of it is depends on where you live as well. I’ve always been seen pretty quickly and I’ve found they’re really good with young children. We are in a small town in the north. My 72 year old mum lives fairly rurally and she was seen quickly and admitted recently too so I think my family have been very fortunate but I know not everyone is. I do really appreciate everyone who works in A&E and within our NHS and is doing the best they can.

Having seen A&Es in France vs UK, I often think that residents of Kent would be better off getting le shuttle to Calais in an emergency

Couldnt say love it exactly! So busy (not their fault obv) wait for hours !

Times i’ve been to A&E - acute pancreatitis x 2, very unwell, seen immediately both times despite it being packed. Never went back to waiting room after triage, and appendix rupture. So no, I didn’t love it; but was appreciative of the fact I was treated urgently and given pain relief.

A 9 hour wait sounds mental. I waited 1.5 hrs and all I needed was just a couple stitches. So glad I left the UK 😬

I think YABU. Why do you love it?

Not unreasonable and I totally agree. I had to visit A&E on one of their busiest days recently and yes it was slow, even the staff said it’s much busier and slower than usual, and I got seen by a nurse, had a blood test, saw a doctor, spoke to a consultant, had a scan and saw another consultant before heading home about 10 hours later. Totally free and in and out in a day, treated and reassured. The staff we are all lovely in horrible circumstances. Honestly we are lucky.

Yes I was really grateful to be pumped full of morphine and left in a wheelchair in the waiting area for 8 hours before being seen 😳

it’s not the staff’s fault but let’s not pretend the NHS isn’t a complete shit show in almost every area

You’d have to have been seen to be given the pain relief though.

i really don’t understand people moaning about the wait. They have ambulances coming constantly with emergencies, small children and people in immediate danger, which always take priority.

Perhaps the thread title should have been “to appreciate” instead of love.

I have been in A n E in Ireland where I live, Spain and Italy when on holiday. They are all awful!! Although the one in Italy was the most efficient! My must recent stay in Ireland I was very ill with calcium level of 1.57 which is dangerously low. I knew I would need IV calcium and that I would be kept as an inpatient for a few days. I still had to stay 23 hours on a trolley, hooked up to an IV and a cardiac monitor with people coming and going all night and day long. Extremely rude patients, who were not that ill having full blown conversations with their ‘visitors’ at 4am. And being discharged an hour later!! Other patients out of their heads on drink and/or drugs roaring and shouting all day and night. I’m more convinced than ever that they should all be in a separate holding drunk tank. It’s self inflicted and can be avoided. Mine wasn’t nor were the older people with pneumonia etc. I’ve also been on a trolley on a cardiac monitor and a drip for 26 hours with dangerously low phosphate of 0.29 and potassium of 3.1 but I was eventually moved to a quieter part of the ED, still on the trolley, where there was a clear glass door, the rooms were added during Covid as isolation units. But there was still bright light coming through. Got a few minutes of sleep there!

When asked the worst A and E in Europe Google says:

Determining the "worst" Accident and Emergency (A&E) care in Europe generally centers on nations struggling with severe waiting times, doctor shortages, and underfunding. Both Ireland and the United Kingdom (particularly within the NHS) consistently rank among the lowest in Europe for hospital wait times.

Yay, only a 9 hour wait to be seen! Wonderful!

How low our expectations have got.

We're very fortunate to have a minor injuries/urgent treatment unit in the former "cottage hospital" where I live. It's open 8am-8pm 7 days a week. They're brilliant, and even when the waiting room is full, the wait is rarely more than a couple of hours, and that's usually on a Sunday morning, when it's full of footballers and rugby players who've hurt themselves.

It must save lots of trips to A&E and I don't know why they're not more common.

It's also fortunate that we have 2 A&Es within easy reach. One is 12 miles away in a large commuter town, the other is 7 miles away in a city. The further one is infinitely preferable to the city one. The city has a big homelessness problem, a drug problem, a lot of residents with MH issues, loads of nightclubs and is a popular place for stag/hen parties. Consequently, the city A&E is always busy, especially late at night, and the wait is not only long but fraught. You get seen much more quickly at the town one.

I'd always go to the town one if I was travelling under my own steam, but ambulances always seem to take people from here to the city one, where the waiting times are much longer.

Having said all that, the only time I've had to wait more than a couple of hours was when it was snowy and icy and the waiting room was full of people who'd either fallen over or crashed their cars because of the icy roads. They almost ran out of plaster of Paris because they dealt with so many fractures that day.

Acts I was given the pain relief by the paramedics. They said they would give me a big dose cause they knew it was going to be hours before I was seen.

A&E care is so variable that it's not even worth discussing. I wouldn't consider a 9h wait as positive.

@stayput (eta: & @sosolong)
It was 20 mins to be triaged, not “to be seen”.
Nine hours in total for investigations, treatment & discharge.

(If you’re new to MN, etiquette if you aren’t going to RTFT is to at least read the OPs)

I'm afraid I disagree. I think your standards are set far too low, though I am glad your mum got out OK.

My mum (91) is currently in hospital and experience has been poor to say the least. She was in a cubicle in resus/majors for well over 24 hours before a bed on a ward could be found. She wasn't even the worst because at least she had a cubicle with curtains.

Other people (lots of them) were on trolleys in the corridors and outside were still others being treated in ambulances. There were actually up to 30 ambulances outside A & E with people being treated in them. That obviously means that until they can hand over their patients properly those vehicles are off the road and unavailable to go to attend other emergencies.

My mother is still in there, and still hasn't been seen for the main reason she was transferred (at 2am) to that hospital a week and a half ago.

So I really can't agree with you at all. The system is shit, utterly broken. Of course, it can work, but it frequently fails spectacularly.

You had a better experience than most and that's OK, but I would still stop short of singing the praises of such a shit and broken system.

I'm glad your experience was OK and that your mum came through it well. Unfortunately for me, it's looking as though mine won't.

It's appalling service, staff, derelict buildings. It's not free. They sell your data to Palantir and you pay them for the privilege. What's not to love.

The NHS version of A&E is probably acceptable if you’ve spent your entire life living in a cave and are unfamiliar with modern healthcare and its efficient delivery. Otherwise, it’s like a fucking field hospital without the war

Unfortunately true at times.

We have similar in Finland. We have emergency rooms in hospitals which are like proper A&Es and then health care centres will have their own 'emergency' area which are like urgent care. The one in my town used to be open 24/7 and it was bloody amazing, still is amazing but not open 24/7 any more due to cuts but can still go there and be triaged, seen, and treated within an hour or so usually, longer if there's quite a few people or more complicated cases, and a bed ward if you're not well enough to go home but not ill enough to need to be transferred to the hospital - stayed there once for observation when I had an unusually bad headache.