How long have you waited to be seen at the A&E Dept?

[gerry]

I had an accident at work today.At the time i thought i'd broke 3 fingers.I was sent up to the hospital to get them x-rayed.I arrived at the hospital at 1.05pm & didn't get seen till 3.50pm i then was sent to get the X-ray done which i got seen right away.After that was done i waited for near enough 20 mins for someone to get back to me & tell me if my 3 fingers were broken.It turns out only 1 of them was broken in which they put it in a splinter for me & gave me some ibuprofen tablets to try and ease the pain.I don't know about you but i think it's shocking  that it took that long.I'm in no way saying that i'm a special case  because i might have 3 broken fingers.I know the staff can only do so much at the one time &  i wouldn't have minded that much if i had only waited 1hr until i was seen.It's just sitting there for over 2 & a half hours in some pain waiting to be seen is what pi**ed me off.As i said i'm not trying to come across as some special case it's the waiting that did it.

[spunkypumpkn]

Although I'm sorry about you having to wait for that long.. as somebody who's worked in an A & E... I can assure you Gerry that the staff dont keep you waiting deliberately. They are genuinely busy. Most casualty depts now employ a 'triage' system', whereby you are assessed almost immediately by a registered nurse who has recieved triage training. They can assess your need, and decide whether or not you'll die if you dont get seen there and then. Literally. And obviously... you dont die of broken fingers. Painful.. oh yes!  Terminal??  No.

I'm sure that none of this is of consolation to you after your prolonged wait..... but I'm afraid that this is the nature of our present health care system. Hope you heal well and quickly though.

Painkillers... elevation.... and a bag of frozen veg.

Jo 

[Scarlett]

I had an operation on my nose (to enable me to breathe through it) and a few weeks later I was haemorrhaging really badly. I was taken to A&E after 4 hours bleeding over the bathroom sink in the middle of the night, and when I got there they gave me a pad to hold to my nose! I was there for a while, and then all I remember is being hoisted onto a trolley! Basically I had lost so much blood I had keeled over- but it wasn't until I fainted that I was seen by a doctor!

[kags]

I went to A & E recently with my son, who was displaying concussion symptoms after a bumped head. Despite the fact the place was heaving and there was a sign saying the waiting time was 3 hours, we were seen very quickly, x-rayed, reviewed, and admitted to the ward, all in about an hour and a half. This was down to the triage system, bumped heads are more dangerous than broken fingers - although not necessarily as painful! I don't think long waits at A & E are just part of the current NHS system, I have memories as a child in the 60s and 70s waiting for hours and hours in casualty departments! I believe it is partly to discourage people from attending in non-urgent cases. If it was a 10 minute wait we'd all be there rather than waiting for an appointment to see to our GP. Hope your fingers recover soon!  

[brawburd]

Under-resourced and under-staffed.  But I would still rather have a "free" health service and therefore the opportunity to be treated.

Personally I don't think your wait was extreme (although I sympathise that every minute probably felt like an hour).  Casualty staff do a tremendous job, and they can't time emergencies.

Get well soon.

And just be glad it wasn't a Friday night!

[katejess44]

First of all, it must have taken you ages to type all of that with dodgy fingers, so good for you for persevering!

Secondly, I have had to wait just as long if not longer at times and though I understand that urgent cases take priority, it can be frustrating when you are in pain or have a very obvious problem (!) and have to wait for so long. 

I recently had a rather severe allergic reaction (cause unknown) which caused my face and lips to swell up making me look like a cross between Martin Clunes and a cod!  So imagine my horror at having to sit in the waiting room, surrounded by a lot of staring people, for what seemed like an eternity. 

Even the nurses recoiled when they finally saw me, but after checking that I wasn't about to go into anaphylaxis, I was sent back into the waiting room until a doctor was finally available, some two hours later.  He administered some Piriton pills and told me to wait until the swelling went down - and where did he tell me to wait?  You guessed it, back in the waiting room, where I stupidly sat for another hour before finally being sent packing. 

Oh, well at least I kept an entire waiting room full of people amused/horrified for an evening!

[Hgrove]

I totally sympathise with you.  I hope and pray I don't need to go to A & E ever as I would probably get high blood pressure at being kept waiting so long.  I once went abroad to another EU country with an Australian friend. She had an asthma attack.  We went to the local hospital and were seen within 10 mins of arriving.  They were perfectly polite and although she had insurance (she could not get form E111 because she is Australian) they did not even ask to see it.  There's no excuse for hours of waiting in my opinion, I don't mean individual staff, I mean the whole under resourcing etc.

[kazza12345]

there is a simple answer - health care is expensive, so either vote tomorrow for a party that will ring-fence a tax increase to go to the nhs, or go to a private walk in centre, where you can pay to be seen quicker (springing up all over the country)

[flaming]

Hours and hours.  Once for myself at St.Thomas's Hospital, London: 6 hours, afternoon. Once with a friend, Royal Free Hospital, London: 10 hours, mid-evening weekday. Once with my ex husband ambulanced to The Whittington, London: 7 hours, Sunday evening.  And this is without people who give up and go away.  This is over a period of some years.  A&E is a weak spot in the NHS and unless some radical approach is taken, always will be. In the 'early 80s my ex husband was ambulanced in to the district hospital in Yeovil on a busy Sat. night but he was seen quite quickly, as well as on a busy pre-Christmas 1988 Saturday at The John Radcliffe Oxford.  Does that tell you anything?  It should warn you not to have an accident in London and that maybe wait times have worsened.  Some main line London rail stations have private medical centres but I think they operate only 09.00-17.00 hours - and broken fingers would be beyond them!

[Cranberry]

I spent 6 hours in A&E on Boxing Day 3 or 4 years ago!  Not the best Christmas! 

[Sammy Snake]

Last time I went, I had a gash on top of my head which was pouring blood.  Me and my friend went to to the reception and were asked 'Which one of you is the patient?'....errrr the one with blood trickling down her face holding a large cloth to her head!

Then I had to wait 4 hours to be seen by a doctor.  Once I had been seen, I only had to wait 10 mins to be stictched up but 4 hours with one hand one your head is not comfortable!

[Golem]

I'm about to upset a lot of people with my comments, but here goes ... I worked in emergency health care for 10 years and yes, the system is understaffed and underfunded but it is not helped by people who turn up for the most unnecessary reasons and clog up an already overloaded department. A woman bitten by a mosquito an hour ago worries she might have malaria; a paper cut quarter inch long on a woman's thumb; a cough for two weeks - THESE ARE NOT EMERGENCIES. Why do they do it? And a lot of people are extremely ignorant about their own bodies, have no idea what is 'normal', so present themselves in front of a doctor the moment they think something is 'unusual'. People also think that calling an ambulance will get them seen quicker - ABSOLUTELY WRONG! Just because you come wheeled in on a stretcher does not make you an emergency; you will be triaged just the same way as someone who walks in and treated according to the seriousness of your condition. And the reason someone having an asthma attack was seen within 10 minutes is not because they were in another country but because it's potentially a life-threatening condition, they would receive the same treatment here. I also think that in a society where we are becoming used to getting and having everything the instant we want it that our expectations are becoming unrealistic; that our every need, no matter how trivial it is, should be met immediatley.

And don't get me started on the Friday/Saturday night drunks who come demanding immediate attention and expect me to be personally responsible for their stupidity.

I guess you can see why I gave it up in the end.

[Golem]

gerry - I'm not suggesting for one minute that you didn't need emergency treatment, you obviously did, but I don't think your wait was excessive and it might have been influenced by the sort of factors I mentioned previously which were meant as observations on the state of the ER departments generally.

[gerry]

Thanxs for you answers guya & girls & as i said before i'm not trying to come across as a special case that was demanding  to be seen at once.Katejess44 i managed to type with my right hand and my index finger on my left.It's the middle finger on my left finger that is broken.Perhaps maybe if i had got an x-ray done right away then at least i would have known for sure if any was broken & it would have been worth my while staying all that time  to see the doctor to get it treated.I was thinking as i was sitiing there what happens when i finally get seen & none of them are broken i've wasted over 2 & a half hours just sitting here.

[magicdice]

sometimes it's easier just to go to the GP & see what they say. although i got hit by a car at 3am on a tuesday night (or wednesday morning, i guess) and was seen pretty much as soon as i got to A&E.

[kick3m0n]

sorry mate, but broken fingers?  Hardly life threatening, albeit a bit painful.  It was an accident, but it's hardly an emergency, especially since you're a grown up, not a kid.  You could have taken some painkillers before you got to A&E since you'd correctly guessed they were broken.  3 hours seems quite reasonable to me, especially for that type of fairly minor injury.  Have to agree with Golem on most of what he/she says.

[Hippy]

1968, North London, I was hit by car in the street and could not stand up. I was whisked to Stanmore Hospital in an ambulance, stretchered in and seen by nurses and a doctor within minutes of arrival. They must have made their diagnosis fairly swiftly, as I was trundled out into the corridor near the waiting area, where I lay for 3 hours. I was pretty fed up when they came to take me to a ward and eventually explain what was wrong. I had a broken knee joint and it needed an operation to put bits of metal and self-tapping screws in!

The Casualty Department can only flow as fast as the admission system, even though individuals yet to be seen may not need to be admitted. Casualty can get really clogged with patients waiting for admission, no further treatment possible in Casualty. Mother was a medic in Casualty for while, and she used to call it "Triviatrics" for much the same reason as Golem has explained.

[GucciGal]

Hi everyone,  just wanted to say that my sister in law is a nurse practioner and has spent many years in A&E, some of that time has also been as a Sister. What she hasn't seen is no-ones business. I can assue you that there are days when (and this is not uncommon) she doesn't take a proper break (which she is entitled too)  eat, drink or go to the loo. I think we are all really lucky to have a such dedication. P.S. She has been slapped, punched, and spat on, so think about that on your way to work 2moro.

[acw]

Two years ago I took my then boyfriend to hospital with suspected meningitis.  He was triaged as orange (correct me if I'm wrong medical professionals!) - which is "one short of nearly dead" and seen immediately.  Once they established it wasn't meningitis he did have to wait a long time before they came to discover that it was dodgy kidneys.  However at that point we were just so relieved that he was low priority that we didn't care. 

 

On another occasion I personally got bumped down the list repeatedly because there was a multi-car pile up very near by and then another major incident.  Frankly I was happy to wait.  If my relative died because the doctor was too busy fixing broken fingers, treating a mozzie bite or treating some idiot with a cold I would be furious.  The triage system has always seemed brilliant to me - simple, yet effective, and totally necessary to good healthcare. 

Oh yeah - hands up who PROMISES they would not complain if taxes were increased to pay for better A&E.  Ok - now put your hand down if you're lying.  I reckon Gerry could count you/us all on the working fingers of his left hand!!! :-p

 

Gerry - get well soon! :-)

[flaming]

What I meant in my previous post is that it is a weak spot that needs a radical approach.  There has been a lot of money been put into the NHS but non of the government wallahs ever seem to follow up where it is going.  Beleagured staff ought not to be beleagured.  There seem to be no shortage of management people, all of whom earn much more than  nurses, and probably the young doctors, on the front line. I agree about the drunken, violent ones.  I suppose sedation isn't legal unless they have signed something? It is good to air the problem and Gerry raised a valid point.  The NHS money should be ring-fenced.