12 hours over night in A&E can anyone beat it ?

I had a positive experience in A&E last year.
Sent by 111 on a bank holiday Monday, seen immediately and within ten minutes bloods and ecg done. Down for chest xray within an hour, further specialised bloods done, which take a couple of hours to come back.
Was offered a something to drink and eat, while waiting.
I could not fault my care.
I was fortunate that a new fast track system was being trialled for people like myself.
Eventually I was given the choice of being admitted or going home. I chose to go home, because I was on all the correct treatment.
Five hours in A&E

When my DD works nights there is no food available, she's often covered A&E and says as you don't get a break in your 12 hour shift that doesn't matter as you struggle to find time to go to the loo, let alone eat!

The sandwiches for patients in A&E seemed fresh and in the MAU hot meals were brought for those who'd been there for over 12 hours. I don't know if the staff had anything.

A&E depts don’t usually have any kitchens and they don’t have people to staff them anyway. Where my dd works, both the staff fridge and microwave are broken and so staff can’t even eat anything decent on their 13hrs shifts, unless they’re prepared to risk a packed lunch that has been sitting in hospital temperatures for hours and hours.

DH and I have both been in hospital via A&E in the last few months. I was there 5 hours with a broken bone. No offer of food or drink but vending machine in waiting room.
DH was there for 26 hours trolley came and offered hot drinks for us both and a sandwich. Yes we waited and sat for a long time but had excellent care. Everyone who dealt with us was kind, gentle. Explained what was going on and in my opinion gave us good care.
In the last 8 months my DH has been in hospital almost every week. He has had multiple tests and procedures but despite a lot of waiting around we have no complaints. I am amazed at the treatment he has been given. We consider ourselves lucky.
Problems spotted and acted upon in speedy manner.
I realise not everyone is so lucky but do feel it important to show the other side of things.

The staff and treatment were exemplary - I felt very angry at what the staff were enduring
Yes, the overworked young Consultant in A&E was lovely and even managed a joke with DH, as were the nurses an other staff.

12 hours over night in A&E can anyone beat it ?

Oh yes!! 13+ hours and that was being prioritised.
No food for those who were accompanying patients (and nowhere to buy anything other than coffee, soft drinks, chocolate bars). The second food trolley arrived hours later and the kind person relented and let me have a sandwich and a drink.

Don't get sent to a Medical Assessment Unit - some patients had been there for three days and nights 😲 sleeping on the seats.

I hope your foot isn't too painful and mends well Bella23

I hope you’re on the mend soon Bella. Long waits at A and E are nothing new. I’ve had experience of this many times over the years. A complete overhaul of the NHS is long overdue.

I think Tenko if you read my second post you will see I am full of praise for the overstretched overworked nurses and Dr's, I am not blaming them for my long wait. Our surgery closes promptly at 6pm is staffed by a large number of part-time women Dr's and I man.The small local hospital has no Dr or Xray services after 6 pm. I could not use local services they were not open.
When DH phoned 111 he was advised to take me himself even though I could not walk hence the crawl on all fours to the car. The wait we were told for a foot injury is 8 to 12 hours for an ambulance in our area.
The area has never been able to recruit has only two main hospitals for a very large county with lots of rural patients and thousands of visitors.
You could say we still have an N.H.S but it certainly needs a lot more government funding and incentives for Dr's to stay where they are trained and to pay nurses who stay pleasant whatever the circumstances. Who can blame them for going abroad for better conditions and better pay?
As others posts have shown it is not just my area it is everywhere.Something needs to be done.

My friend's wife went to A&E in an ambulance, with Pneumonia. She was on a trolley for 13 hours, before being admitted. In all that time, she was given 2 yogurts. The poor woman can't swallow because of having had throat and stomach cancer (she's only got a small amount of bowel, and has got a stoma)

Of course the nhs exists. It’s understaffed and overstretched. It can’t cope with the huge volume of patients.
I’ve been to my local A&E several times in the last 6 months with my DM, the staff have been amazing, 12 hour shifts and on the go constantly. And still have the patience of a saint, and upmost sympathy and understanding with their patients.

The system is broken. My daughter was the anaesthetist for an op on a young child with a broken femur. He had waited for 13 hours for an ambulance to take him to hospital. He was from a rural location and it was over 40 minutes to hospital and his parents didn't feel they could move him into a car. Just not good enough is it? Child's fine, op went well but we are supposed to be a civilised developed country. All our public services have been under funded and are in a mess.

Yes I’ve visited A&E 3 times over. Period of 2 weeks in May/June

I had no choice - gallbladder needing morphine.

Shortest wait was 7 hours - longest wait 12 hours. That is from entering the building to leaving it.

I lay the blame entirely on the cuts and staff shortages.
During one of my waits the A&E consultant came into the waiting room and asked that those who felt that they could wait until they could get to see their GP, please consider going home as the A&E staff were so stretched due to a severe staff shortage.

The staff and treatment were exemplary - I felt very angry at what the staff were enduring.

I had 10 hours this spring, from 7 pm to 5 am. This was also for an injured foot. It was too late to go to the GP. I was treated very well when the doctor saw me at 2 am but I waited till 5 am for the results of the blood tes, couldn't be helped. Most of the people who were seen before me seemed to be genuinely ill or injured, not fussers or time-wasters, and there were a couple of very poorly-looking children.

After my trip to Southend hospital I told my OH I’d have to be unconscious before I ever go in there again.

That’s awful H. Hope you recover soon. A nasty shock. Well done for still going out for lunch! 💐

This is exactly why I did not go to A&E last evening. I took a terrible tumble, hit my face on the door frame, and got up looking like I had 10 rounds with Mike Tyson. I thought I had broken my nose. My eyes (I wear glasses) and teeth appeared to be ok. I got on to Dr Google and it said that not a lot can be done for a broken nose. And I didn’t want to be one of those clogging the system. So I stayed put. I am fine today, although I look terrible. Despite that, I went for a pre-arranged lunch with my friend.
P.S. My decision not to go to A&E was totally wrong - it could have been so much worse.

I have a friend who along with her sister look after their widowed 94 year old father at home, they do a fortnight each.

He needs a lot of care, he can’t be left really.

Last week he seemed very unwell, and was violently sick late one afternoon. She phoned the GP surgery which is about a five minute walk from his home. Eventually a nurse rang back, and said if she was worried, to take him to A&E, or if unable to get him in the car, to ring for an ambulance.

My friend did neither, she thought he wouldn’t last the night but knew he didn’t want to go to hospital.

He did pick up slightly and is still here.

But a few years ago, the GP would have come out to check him at home, bearing in mind the surgery was so close.

No wonder people wait for hours for ambulances and in A&E.

A couple of weeks ago my doctor sent me to A and E. We got there at 7.15 p.m. and they sent me home after various tests at 1.00 p.m. the next day. 17 hours sitting on a hard plastic chair. It nearly killed me.

I think we are both coming to terms with living in an area that cannot recruit or retain staff. I should have phoned for an ambulance anyone brought in that way certainly jumped the queue. There were people rolling around on the floor in pain others vomiting and running to the loos and of course the usual ones high on drugs
Most calmly waiting like we were.
I couldn't fault the staff when I saw them but they gave no indication of how long the wait would be. The message board on the wall said two and a half hours. The consultant was very apologetic for the long wait for results he was actually a surgeon helping out in A&E.
At least it was only my foot, I am just so glad it was not one of my GC who had been with us the week before.
If this is why Dr,s are striking and the conditions they face every day I am with them all the way.

Forgot to add, one of my small GC injured his hand earlier this week. They went to A&E at 7pm, he was trained immediately and given a room. He was x-rayed and then steristripped and bandaged up and they left at 11pm.

My dd is an A&E FY doctor. I was astonished when she told me that night shifts are their busiest time of day. I had assumed most people would go in the day, but seemingly not. At least two factors seem to be involved. One is that there is nowhere much else to turn if you’re taken ill out of GP surgery hours. The second is that people delay going until the evening because they assume that it’s busy in the day and it will be quiet at night.

Then there are all the cases that don’t need to be there, like the person with a stye on their eye who came in by ambulance at 4am. That’s preposterous, to my mind, and part of the cause of these long waits.

Grandson had a head injury and arrived at A & late afternoon and seen by triage. Then the evening shift came on and everything went to pieces and got delayed. Finally he saw a doctor at midnight, 7 hours later. I think that is wrong for a small child.

DH went to A&E around 4.00pm a couple of months ago, sent by the GP and sent straight to an assessment unit. We spoke to a member of staff who checked his referral, nboted that he was on the list and sent us to the waiting room.

After 3 hours when nothing happened, I spoke to a member of staff who looked at me blankly, we went back to the desk we had reported to and handed papers. They had checked DH's name was on the list, but failed to check him in!!!!!!!!

They did then scurry around a bit, he was sent down for xrays and had various tests. By this time it was around 11.00pm and I was beginning to fail a bit. Further tests were needed but could not be done until morning. They said he would be admitted over night, but saying is not doing and he spent the night in the cubicle, and on its uncomfortable trolley/table/couch.

Next morning I turned uparound 8.00am. He had his extra tests around 11.00am and at midday, he was discharged with an inhaler to use if needed..

He was in A&E for 20 hours. He did get a sandwich and a couple of drinks.

Same with DD2 (full time wheelchair user) last year, although they did rush her to the front of the queue in A&E as soon as they saw her! Drips in both arms, so she was then stuck in a chair (looked comfortable but wasn’t) overnight awaiting admission. DD1 and I stayed as long as we could and we supplied hot drinks and food for her at midnight. We left later, assured she’d soon be found a bed.
The next morning she was sent for discharge, until a horrified Doctor appeared and said she had to be admitted to ICU immediately - that was a day on a trolley, but eventually found a private room, en suite for a week - sepsis.
Couldn’t fault the care after her proper admission though and they allowed her to use her wheelchair to meet up with her DH and baby son in the hospital restaurant.

It’s more than a worry, isn’t it?