AIBU to question my husband's treatment in a hospital waiting room?

[SadlyNotATroll]

Posting here for traffic sorry. DH had a routine blood test on Thursday and was sent straight to hospital after some concerning numbers relating to his kidneys I think. He was there all day Thursday having tests and sent home. Was called at 10:30 on Thursday evening saying he had to go back in the next morning. I don’t want to over share his personal details on the internet but he is being treated with IV antibiotics but isn’t actually being told what for. Last night they had no beds and he slept in a chair in the clinic waiting room. I say slept but he didn’t sleep at all. Today he’s still there and being told he will be needing to stay in over the weekend but they have no beds. He has no privacy and is sat upright in a chair.

I get that the NHS is in dire straits, I really do. But how can he be treated in a waiting room chair and be expected to sleep and recover there? Do we have any recourse at all? Please don’t think this is a nurse/NHS bashing thread. The staff have been wonderful and it’s not their fault at all.

Is there any possbility he could have the iv antibiotics at home under the district nursing team? (I don't know, just a thought.).

Both my parents have had extended stays on trolleys recently, and actually were made pretty comfortable, but not chairs in the waiting room 😮

We have asked, many times. Nurses won’t say and he hasn’t seen an actual doctor the whole time.

Didn't he have to consent for the treatment. How can he do that without knowing what it's for?

I spent 48 hours in A&E a while back with cardiac issues. I got a bed after over 24 hours, but no ward with space to send me to. There were people on drips asleep on the floor under blankets. Old people in chairs on drips all that time. No room at the inn. And when I got to a ward eventually it was like a care home with bays full of very elderly, frail in poor state.
I do question this constant prolonging of life at all costs. To everyone.
Nurse of 37 years.

Oh. So probably, the blood tests show infection markers and they're giving him the antibiotics as a precaution until a doctor gets to him? They don't know what they're treating. It sounds miserable.

First of all why hasn’t he asked what he’s being treated for ?
How many times a day are his IVABs ? He could go in specifically for them.

A very outdated term refers to people who need care or are waiting for a nursing home. Usually elderly. A stupid comment b

I'm sorry. I just don't believe this.

Actually, there is. A trolley in the corridor would be better. Or a transfer to another hospital.

When the medical needs of our population rise and people vote for no tax increases.

When striking Drs are ignored.

When striking nurses are ignored.

When old hospitals aren’t maintained and new PFI hospitals aren’t ours and charge obscene rent for smaller spaces = this is the result.

Drs have been counting hundreds of excess deaths from corridor care - declaring emergencies - until people vote to fund and prioritise the NHS ..this is the result.

There are many local save our NHS groups..they have been active for years 💙

@SadlyNotATroll i'm so sorry - an awful situation

Someone must have given the order for the antibiotics. You could try asking them who that was. I find it utterly bizarre
that no one will tell. I suspect the answer is it's precautionary. Probably not so much to stop him being ill but stop them being sued. Sorry if that sounds mad, but all my recent experience of the NHS is mad.

I've been told off for looking in my parents notes but that way I found out that mum was being given something she's allergic to - I was able to prevent it happening before the first dose.

good for you

That's the same as my experience with my 86 year old MIL. The IV kept coming adrift and spilling all down her arm as she moved around. 37 hours on a hard chair FFS.

Why don't you believe it? This is the collective experience of many people using the NHS.

Sounds like the treatment team would rather treat him in a chair than take the risk of not treating him at all

as others have said, no bed = no bed, what they supposed to do ?
push another patient out that they are treating ?
or squash another one in - your DH and do their best to???

what are you hoping for ? An apology ? Contact PALS

I received several different IV treatments and had blood tests in an A&E waiting room, with other patients right next to me, over a period of 12 hours this time last year, and was vomiting on and off for the entire time and in extreme pain, to the point where I was curled in a foetal ball on the floor. There were other people in a similar state. I also then spent a full week on a 'temporary' emergency ward with very few facilities (or even the ability to turn the lights off at night...!) because there were no beds available on the ward they wanted to put me on.

It's absolutely appalling and you can certainly complain to have your voice heard, but it's highly unlikely the hospital can do a single thing about it.

You might want to write to your MP, as the more people who raise these issues with their MPs, the more likely they are to raise them in turn with the Dept of Health.

In cost effectiveness and treatments given it IS.

Sadly people vote to keep taxes low whilst health costs are rising - the results show in poorer NHS services

Sadly it doesn't surprise me.
Last year I started having seizures, following admission I was in a chair for 24hrs (some people had been three days), Then a tranport type bed in a hallway for a night and then admitted to a bed. The ward had extra beds shoved in where they wouldn't normally be so everything was cramped and crazy.
Staff were wonderful, seemingly plenty of doctors and nurses, but no beds.

When there are far too many people in the country.

I’m so sorry it’s just appalling. My sister in law was recently induced in a London hospital and she spent 2.5 days in a chair having painful contractions in the pre admission waiting room for the birthing centre. She wasn’t allowed a bed until she went into labour, so she was awake for two whole nights having painful contractions in a waiting room chair! Her induction was also delayed by 3 days because they admitted they were too busy. During her pregnancy they had put the fear of god put in her saying that given she’s 42 she’s high risk of still birth, so she needs to be induced and shouldn’t go a day over 40 weeks. When she got to 40 weeks it took three days of phoning the hospital (and worrying at home given what they’d said before) before they offered her an appt at 11.45pm at night to come in to be induced

Shocking that we’re a first world country.

i know of less developed countries who do better.

Many of whom do not contribute...

I don't believe that medical personnel wouldn't tell a patient (or the patient's spouse) what treatment they were being given and why when asked.

That's such a horrible word. The NHS don't allow 'bed blockers' when there is an alternative