Hi all , yes another newbie here with less than 5 postings ..... but felt I had to tell my experience on Tuesday at my local A&E ... Firstly I have two stents already so I do monitor myself if things dont feel good so ...
Didn't feel well on Tuesday afternoon with heavy palpation's and a little breathlessness ... I took my blood pressure which was 107/46 and felt unsteady . I went home and decided to call 101 just to chat through events, they in turn called an ambulance and paramedic who wired me up and took me to hospital ... They were really good and assured me I had done the right thing but next time just ring 999 as all pointers indicate a problem . To me this was where things went a bit wrong .... I had another ECG and that was clear followed my a blood test to check for the enzime to indicate a possible heart attack ... this was at 6.20pm . I was advised in the interim to wait for the blood test results .
At 8-30 am I asked a doctor if the results had come back and he kindly checked the computer to advise they had and they were clear , but I would need to speak with the doctor ... at 10pm I asked where I was in the system and was told I was still awaiting to see the doctor .. and it looked like I was going to stay in hospital . at 11-15 I asked again, and was told the same thing , so I politely said I had been sitting on a plastic chair for over 5 hours with no indication as to when I was going to be seen . I was reminded that I could wait between 8 and 12 .5 hours to be seen which at that point I requested that I would be discharging myself as I didn't have the will to sit there for that period of time without food or drink . I was handed a form for me to sign, but was advised although I was discharging myself they would see me again if an issues arose...... there was no mention of the xray or indeed the request to stay in hospital
Whilst I really appreciate the HUGE risk I took in discharging myself , I did think it unreasonable to have to endure this especially at the age of 67 ... as I found the situation stressful, which didn't help me at all whilst feeling so great !! I am a patient person, and wish to cause minimum inconvenience to everyone including hospitals doctors nurses alike as they all work damn hard to do the work at all hours of the day and night , but I did feel I was either forgotten, or in the way , or shouldn't ask questions as to my progress in the system to the point in having done so was pushed further into the back ground , I did only ask three times in a 5 1/2 period .. Was I being unreasonable ?? I am am unstable angina sufferer so despite the many tests I have they all seem to be clear , yet already I have had two stents fitted and the recent angiogram suggest further narrowing of my arteries just after the fitted stents again ... so although raised eyebrows that nothing is found when tests are taken, there does seem a valid reason why I do turn up at A&E every few months . I feel quite put out by what happened.... has anyone else experienced similar ??
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On Monday I took my friend to A&E as he had had a week of pain around his midriff especially around his left kidney he was seen by a triage nurse who just took his blood pressure and told him to sit in the waiting room again. After one and a half hours a doctor called him through and took all his details and said he needed a scan and his bloods doing . Whilst we had been sat outside waiting to see the doctor loads of people had had their bloods done which had been ordered by the triage nurse so I asked the doctor on mikes behalf why had the triage nurse not ordered bloods one and a half hours ago and the doctor just said she must have forgot. So she requested them on the computer but what we didn’t realise was that he went back to the bottom of the queue. Another hour past and he eventually got called in for his bloods. Then 30 minutes later a wonderful young lady shouted him and explained she’d come from radiology as no one was prepared to take him across from A&E and they said they were prepared to just keep him in overnight and he can have it done in the morning so to stop him having to stay in overnight this great lady walked from the other end of the hospital to collect him so the scan was performed and we were then taken to SAU Surgical Assesment Unit where there was 4 people all waiting to be seen by a Doctor but there was only one Doctor covering that unit and 4 other wards one person had been waiting 5 hours like you on plastic chairs . We waited another 3 hours and it is now 11.15 pm so I could not stop myself I asked where the Doctor was the nurses told me so I went to get him and asked him if he was aware how long people had been waiting one had been waiting now 7 hours we had done about 7 across the various departments we had had no food and no one offered us a drink . Mike was eventually seen at 12.30am and after dropping him home I got to bed at 2 am not one of my best days and for once I wasn’t the patient ................. it was absolutely shit from start to finish I’m sorry to be so blunt but it was appalling . The only shining light was the outside of the box thinking Radiologist who had customer service at the top of her agenda but she was let down badly by the rest of her colleagues.
Hi Ticktock61 Both your post and that off quovadisuk whilst they don't exactly surprise me never fail to shock me because of the stress they cause. I have had a couple of episodes recently where I should really have gone to A&E and put off fearing the sort of scenario you describe. I know that's foolish of me while I have 'bounced back' and nothing actually progressed that may not always be the case. Oversights happen like your friend not having his blood taken but once the oversight is evident why can someone not show foresight and use initiative to immediately do the bloods and not just add to the bottom of a list. I sometimes wonder if staff become so demoralised that common sense and care go out of the window. Like myself I know you would never complain at being left for hrs if emergencies were coming in but that wasn't the case. It's the last thing you needed after your 'journey' and to be left sitting on a hard plastic chair for hours with no easy access to good food or drink isn't exactly encouraging good health. Good on you both for challenging
Gosh, it is worrying how often these sort of experiences are being reported. Four years ago on a Sunday evening I had a sudden, excruciating pain in my back and groin. I could hardly walk and was in a pretty terrible state. My husband drove me to A & E where the person at reception was completely unsympathetic and implied I was exaggerating the pain. After waiting for about four hours I could bear it no longer and asked my husband to take me home. The next morning I saw my GP who arranged an MRI scan. He couldn’t believe I hadn’t been seen straight away. I had slipped three discs in my back. I had no reflexes in my right leg and had lost feeling in my leg. I am now much better but I still have numbness in my leg and have trouble climbing stairs. The consultant told me that slipped discs often occur without warning because the damage occurs over time and they suddenly go, like a burst tyre. The ‘treatment’ I received in A & E has haunted me ever since.
You've had a really poor experience and I would send an exact copy of your post to your M.P. and ask her/him to ask questions of the health secretary. We need to pester our elected politicians-they're dependent on us for their jobs!
Hi, Thank you for your reply , If I felt it would make a difference and the issue taken seriously then without question I would, but based on the the recent escapades of Government with brexit I think this action is a lost cause unfortunately.
Hi I’m sorry about your experience which was poor care. I had similar last weekend when I went to a&e with increasing lightheadedness and feeling pretty dreadful. I was triaged quickly then put in a corridor on my own to wait for an ecg, then back to a virtually deserted waiting room, which given I have complete heart block, a pacemaker, AF and angina, I felt was unsafe. I then waited around half an hour before going to a cubicle, at which point I was so dizzy the consultant held me up to get there. She was quite concerned, mentioning unstable angina but was going off duty so handed over my care. I had a chest X-ray, was supposed to have blood tests but waited hours. Eventually I asked about why the tests hadnt been done yet and they were done. When they came back I was told I might have had HA and could be moved to hospital in Leeds, then they decided my troponin level was always high and repeated ECG. That and pacemaker check were clear so I thought I’d be going home. After 5 hrs from getting there doc came to speak to me and said my bed would be ready soon but noone had told me they were keeping me in and it was first time he’d spoken to me in hours. I then waited another 3 hrs for a bed, as he had forgotten to request it, so 8 hrs on a trolley with minimal contact, poor care and not much information. The next morning they said they had no idea why it had happened and I’d have to wait to see my cardiologist, although I haven’t got an appointment, and discharged me. At no point did I see anyone from cardiology. I didn’t exactly feel looked after and will be reluctant to go to a&e again.
I know it’s frustrating waiting for so long. But I had the thought that I am probably one of the people who pushed you back in the queue. Over the last 6 years I have been to A and E uncountable times, sometimes with serious heart issues, sometimes false alarms. Sometimes blue lighted sometimes not. I’ve never had to wait for immediate attention, though I certainly have had to wait around once I was seen as ‘safe’. Then someone else took priority over me. Quite rightly.
Ive heard the word ‘safety’ mentioned more and more, as A and E departments get busier. How else are they meant to deal with us?
If we think more taxes should pay for better Hospitals with more staff, and higher pay for some under rewarded groups... then get onto your MP!
Hi I suffer from Paroxymal AF. But am now in it seems permanent arrhythmia and AF because of my A&E. It took 4 hours for ambulance to arrive then they took their time by making cups of tea. Eventually took me to hospital. They said they would put me on a monitor which is what they usually do. But didn’t. The doctor who was about 60 yrs. old. Said would ask medics what to do. This was early hours of a Sunday. Had an ECG. Done but didn’t take much notice of it. Never saw a medic but doctor(?) sent me home. Went to my Doctor next morning who put me on blood thinner and extra Bisopralol. I’m out of breath whenever I start to walk around with dreadful weakness in arms. Takes me ages to get upstairs. One step at a time. Don’t know what to do next. Any suggestions please?
I am sorry you have had an awful experience and are no further forward. I suggest you speak with BHF Nurse on 0300 330 3311 to talk over how you are and discuss options for best way forward. Thinking of you and wishing you the best
I'm not in any way condoning your treatment, but what I hear from my doctor neighbour is that more and more people are using A&E as a drop in medical centre, often for the kind of trivial issues that they could sort out at home or with a pharmacist.
And that's a real problem.
If more resources were put into A&E then it would simply reward and encourage this behaviour, meaning more and more people would just pop down to A&E at the first sign of a sniffle. The policy therefore is triage, see the serious cases quickly and make the not serious ones wait hours to discourage them returning. The problem is when, in cases like the ones reported here, the triage isn't performed accurately, and genuine cases get pushed to the back of the queue.
I don't know what the solution is, but I doubt it's just chucking more money at it. The demand for health care is virtually infinite (let's be honest, we'd all spend hours with our cardiologists if we could!) so there's always going to have to be some rationing mechanism in the process somewhere.
You raise excellent points here. Although I think the NHS is still underfunded money will not solve many of the issues these posts are raising. Triaging needs to be accurate, purposeful and meaningful. Back in April I was sent straight to A&E by my GP (by taxi as she felt I would wait a long time for an ambulance) with a letter stating she suspected cardiac distress query heart attack. I handed the letter in and my partner checked it was given to triage nurse. One HR later and after making numerous enquiries people all around me who had been waiting before were called in for minor injury problems. Triage didn't work effectively. Anyone could go to any A&E Dept now and see numerous examples of this sort of happening and waiting rooms with people presenting with minor ptoblems. Triage is the key with follow up e.g if blood tests are required have something built into system to alert oversights etc. These issues would not only give a safer experience for the client but also prevent people waiting around uneccessarily which can only benefit staff as well.
When I had a heart a ttack in august I was taken in at 3am, parked on a corridor behind locked swing doors and left here until 8.30. N oone came near. When teh day staff came on a lady asked if I was ok; clearly not- and she got my trolley pushed to near the toilets. ANotehr hour later I was finally moved behind a curtain and hooked to a monitor and bloods taken. It was 10.30 before I was told it was a heart attack and 2pm when a bed was found. 3 or 4 weeks ago I was blue lighted in with suspected cauda equina 4am . It was 6 hours before I saw a doctor who decided I needed an urgent MRI scan. After another 2 hours I was moved to another dept where I was expected to sit on hard plastic chairs. With spinal nerve damage you do NOT do that. EVentually given a bed in a cubicle to lie on until early evening with not even a cup of tea all day. I eventually begged for a sandwich. Admitted to a surgical ward late evening . Spent 3 days there until I discharged myself asthey couldn't even give me my painkilller on time. It has to be every 3 hours andthey simply fdidn't have eh staff but I did object to being shouted at by an auxiliary nurse for crying during the night as the pain was so bad. Yes I did get he MRI second day and the doc came the next morning to say it was clear but he wanted to speak to neurology before I went home in the afternoon. When he hadn't come back at 6pm I discharged myself. IT's staffing staffing, staffing. They just can't cope yet they keep closing more and more hospitals sending people to the one big one that just can't cope.
Why not name the Hospital concerned ?? Poor service should be identified, and then if you find yourself being left in distress you can complain. Sorry but posting on here won't move the system forward. It now looks like A & E stands for Anything & Everything.
It's so difficult to manage our expectations when going to A & E Emergencies are graded by triage not by the Patient sorry but that's the way it works !!!
When my wife fell and had an open fracture to her wrist she saw a Highly skilled Nurse who ordered an X Ray and organised a bed in the ward. This appears to be the way forward for A & E and for quite a few of our Medical Issues.
I have a Heart Failure Nurse I trust her to look after me, and should I mention any concerns she speaks with my GP or even my Cardiologist if she thinks it is warranted. She requests Blood Tests and she will change and write my Prescription, this seems to be the way forward for the NHS
Absolutely the same experience when my Wife had a bad angina attack and was taken to hospital by the paramedics, it is almost uncannily the same situationas yours. We feel the whole A&E system is so grossly overloaded here in SE Kent that the poor staff simply cannot cope and yet they want to merge the two remaining A&E departments in Thanet and here in Ashford to a central point in Canterbury which has poor road connections to both of these areas. Canterbury had an A&E but that was closed relatively recently as part of a cost saving exercise. With increased housing in all these areas how the NHS is expected to operate effectively is beyond me! My Wife has had this experience not once but twice of late, the other time she was actually given a bed ( but in a geriatric ward) and the follow up by the cardiac doctors was a non event after two days! Given that my Wife quite rightly discharged herself because she was actually getting no rest in this ward, let alone diagnosis or treatment, with poor people suffering dementia and certainly no resolution to her immediate issues. We don't blame the staff who do their best but we do blame the poor management of the health trust and the lamentable lack of long term planning and financing by government versus the incredible population growth in the SE of England.
there is no harm is naming hospitals where these issues are happening. it is alarming that people with suspected heart issues including poss heart attacks are been made to wait so long just to be seen, in heart attack cases this needs to be dealt asap including been sent in to a cardiac lab to see if there are any blockages which need to be cleared.
i must of been one of the very lucky ones, first time in a+e in many years and was booked in at reception within 10 minutes was in a cubicle had blood work done and within minutes was on I.V and sent straight to a ASU bed ready.
second time went again and the same happened and within around 30 minutes on I.V and again on the asu.
3rd time went with same situation the a+e was fairly busy the Friday night saga of too many drunks wanting someone to deal with their over drinking and looking for the quick fix.
i waited around 30 mins in the a+e waiting room was then taken straight through where a blood test was taken, must of waited a while and was then taken to a cubicle taken to the asu but this time something was missed which resulted in complications and a 2 week stint as an inpatient.
basically they missed that i was getting cardiac issues along with weird dizziness it was a surgeon who became very worried saw ent and diagnoses made and bloods showed my potassium levels has dropped out, l was very lucky as they were going to send me home which could of been fatal.
touch wood i have managed to keep out and feel a lot better the support after discharge though has been a problem and is only now been sorted out.
i do really feel for you people above and clearly where you are attending things need to be addressed.
i was seen at Lancaster Royal Infirmary am now facing a barrage of treatment and long term blood tests for the potassium thing including the dizziness issues which has made my mobility very unstable.
people do not be afraid of naming the hospitals including reporting poor standards, if they are not reported then they will not be addressed.
But to whom? and would such incidents be taken seriously ? Having read responses to my initial posting I read much more serious incidents than my own, and it would seem this has become the norm . It makes one wonder how many patients have passed away because of the insufficient care given on arrival at A&E and been swept under the carpet as just “ another incident “ ? I would imagine it could be quite high !
I will raise my experience to the specialist when I see him next, not so much to complain but to gauge the response and to see if the issue is awareness or it’s accepted as being a case of short of funds and staff shortages and skills ??
I once sat on a chair in a busy A&E department where I had my history taken in public and did not receive the morphine I needed and is recommended in my Admission Plan for many many hours.
Nurses have refused to give me pain relief on several occasions because they have told me they were too busy and were not my named nurse.
I raised my concerns and the Trust's response was that those nurses were being unhelpful. No apology for the distress of leaving me in severe pain.
The Trust's letter of response was a defensive denial which was written with litigation in mind rather than an open honest and candid reply.
No one appears to have read the NHS Constitution which states that all patients should be treated with respect and dignity.
There is no dignity being in pain.
I had to marvel at the Trust's ability to distort the facts even those written in my notes to ensure they did not appear liable.
The NHS is clearly underfunded and needs better management of the limited resourses.
The staff are over worked they are stretched to their limits. Truth is the first casualty of war and stress kills compassion.
After usually a wait of 10 or more hours I am admitted to the Cardiology ward where I receive very good care. I then have the pleasure of writing a Thank you letter to the Matron
years ago when i did file a complaint all i got was the very same defensive denial, if they are a complaints department then surely acting like this is bias.
as for funding it is the same the gov want us as people to blame the NHS for failures when it is those in power who are holding the purse strings and are slashing services.
Over here i was amazed to find out that a lot of money was invested in Kendal hospital and yet gov went and shut the a+e department this is now resulting in people from the lakes having to turn up in Lancaster. worrying what if a person is having a heart attack, cardiac arrest or stroke or serious injuries and so on the odds do not seem very good.
like you how many people have died because of the penny slashing!
I am with you all the way.I had some differcult experences on my spells in hospitol.
Some really good treatment to some dire experiences.I know I am gratefull for what
ever treatment, but there was times when it dropped to a low standard.Its good that
you high lite the negative side and dont feel guilty it needs putting out there.
As an exzample I went for a blood test, stayed in hospitol what seem ages, all nite
and most of the next day.I pretended I was useing my phone while someone from the
office was on the ward.I said so they could hear that I had been hear all night and all day
waiting for a blood test.Anyway shortly after that things moved on, quick blood test and home.I know this is only a small thing, but just shows you what can happen.I had some
good experiences aswell, but some real howlers aswell, much more serious.Just too stressfull to think of.
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