A & E Delays killing up to 500 per week

It all underlines the fact that the Tories don't care what happens to ordinary people. To them we are just workers to be scrapped when incapacitated.

I'm not a fly on the wall in cabinet meetings, but it looks suspiciously as though they really don't care.

Unfortunately, there will still be those who blame the "time-wasters" in A&E and shrug off the whole thing.

Why dont the government do something? Reports constantly, senior figures echoing individual's dreadful stories

Why just keep parroting "we have out £x in" its clearly having no effect NOW.

They should be ashamed. They will never be re elected now.

Sorry to had to go through all that.

My experience is that knowledge of diabetes by most medical staff is poor. I'm Type 2, so the situation is different, but nursing staff didn't know about additional infection risks, they were unsure about stopping my medication and the food choice available was non-existent.

Initially, they didn't seem to know the difference between T1 and T2 and wanted to stop my normal medication and put me on an intravenous insulin infusion.

Callistemon21

choughdancer

Fleurpepper that article by the A&E registrar is so good. It probably won't help much, but would it be okay to share it on Facebook?

It's being shared widely on social media already, I think.

It's good that it is being shared. After I posted it There were lots of comments and lots of further shares.

Apologies for the length of the following personal account!

Although I now realise that I was quite lucky, my experience of A&E in April seemed horrendous at the time.
I fell on a loose paving stone and broke my hip. I was with my daughters, and the eldest instinctively put her foot out and saved me from injuring my head too. They rang for an ambulance and were told it would be a 5 hour wait, and to get to A&E via Uber. None of us knew that it was a break at this point. They tried getting a taxi, but none were available. I suggested that I tried getting up, supported by both girls, to see if I could manage in a car. The moment I tried, it was agony, and it was clearly impossible for me to walk, and I really didn't want to be heaved unto a taxi by an Uber driver! I decided to wait however long it took for a paramedic.

Passers-by were SO kind, bringing me things to cover me and a cushion to take over from DD's foot! Fortunately I had some painkillers on me, so took those, and I think I must have been in shock as I don't remember being in much pain lying there.

One of the passers-by said he was going to get an ambulance to come by force of will (probably shouting at them! I feel guilty about this now) I'm not sure how long it took to come but it was probably only about 2 hours. When it arrived, the kindest nicest paramedics jumped out, but they couldn't lift me into the ambulance because there was a lamppost in the way! They tried everything, manoeuvring the ambulance to get closer, but the bloody lamppost was still in the way. Fortunately three firemen came along by chance, and heavily sedated with morphine and laughing gas I was lifted into the ambulance.

These two paramedics had had a HORRIBLE day, having been abused by a patient earlier, but they were so lovely to me and kept me topped up with laughing gas all the way to the A&E. There was a wait of several hours in the corridor before I could be examined, but eventually I was x-rayed and told it was a break and that I would need an operation the next day. BUT there were no beds, so I had to stay in A&E for over 24 hours. I wasn't given enough pain relief often enough and kept having pain spasms, which I was told might damage the break further, but they were involuntary, so I couldn’t help it! The bell was put out of my reach (my younger daughter stayed with me until 2am and made sure it was in reach up until then). I did get cross and kept begging for pain killers. Afterwards I was told that on A&E they had to get every dose of painkillers signed off by a doctor, so had to wait for a doctor to be free enough to prescribe them. I can just imagine how difficult for the nurses to get these when the doctors must have been up to their eyes with patients and saving lives! But at the time I was in agony.

I had a sleepless, painful night, still having pain spasms. I am a Type 1 diabetic, and fortunately I had testing equipment and insulin with me so could test and adjust my insulin as needed.

The anaesthetist came the next day; I told her that my blood sugars were a bit high, but she said to be on the safe side I should keep it at that level for the operation. I was told my op would be at 10am, then at 12 noon, then 3pm. In the end it was at 2pm.

Meanwhile to my surprise the nurses had put me on an insulin drip! I explained what had been said by the anaesthetist about keeping the level up, but they assured me they knew what they were doing. My blood sugar levels kept dropping, but whenever I asked for it to be taken out, they said 'don't worry, it'll be fine!'. Once again the bell was put out of reach, and I started to go down below the safe level into hypoglycaemia. I tried to attract attention as I knew I could go unconscious quickly. I was in a closed room on my own and had gone through all my sweets. I screamed and shouted, but for a long time no-one came. Eventually someone came and rescued me with shot of glucose.

I was then able to have my operation, but again there were no beds available so I had to spend most of the next day in the recovery department. Again I was in a lot of pain, as (as I found out afterwards) they, like A&E aren’t set up to deal with pain relief. Eventually I was given a bed in a ward and felt as if I was in heaven, as it was set up to deal with ongoing pain, with getting the right post-op exercise etc.

From what I am reading things are MUCH worse now. No wonder people are dying waiting in corridors and in A&E.

Grantanow

An article in today's Guardian by a palliative care doctor explains that the Tories have taken a political decision to let people die in the NHS. It's appalling. What has this country come to? Please

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/06/patients-dying-nhs-hospital-corridors-avoidable-deaths?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Exactly. Emergency Action Plan needs to be implemented now. How are we as a county, standing by without doing SOMETHING??

An article in today's Guardian by a palliative care doctor explains that the Tories have taken a political decision to let people die in the NHS. It's appalling. What has this country come to? Please

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/06/patients-dying-nhs-hospital-corridors-avoidable-deaths?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Sunak's speech today about cutting waiting lists was a diversion from the immediate problems of acute care and A&E. For God's sake, people are dying and enduring pain and disgusting experiences while waiting on trolleys, in chairs and on the floor while the Tories claim there is no crisis. What has this nation come to?

choughdancer

Fleurpepper that article by the A&E registrar is so good. It probably won't help much, but would it be okay to share it on Facebook?

It's being shared widely on social media already, I think.

choughdancer

Fleurpepper that article by the A&E registrar is so good. It probably won't help much, but would it be okay to share it on Facebook?

Of course, a freind sent it to me but it is public.

Fleur pepper - thank you for sharing the A&E Registrar's experience. It should be required reading for all Tory MPs.

Fleurpepper that article by the A&E registrar is so good. It probably won't help much, but would it be okay to share it on Facebook?

I've just read our local news and they are looking into 8 deaths in 20 days because the patients weren't categorised properly. Patients are sitting in there own urine for hours as there is no one to take them to the toilet and a man sat for four and a half days in A&E waiting on a bed.
When is this government going to realise how bad it is, these poor people deserve better care than this.

It's the same for us, Casdon, and Minor Injuries are about the same distance too.

It's quite frightening.
Before anyone thinks we should live somewhere near such important facilities - yes, we did once. The facilities closed down.

We mustn't forget that, as well as A&E there are Surgical and Medical Assessment Units where some patients can sit for days, having been assessed but are still waiting for an 'urgent' bed.

Callistemon21

*Casdon*, sadly many of these Minor Injuuries Units have been closed now in our area.
There is still one across the border in England but we're not really supposed to attend there.

There is a Minor Injuries Unit at a central hospital, staffed with nurses, doctors and a consultant, but the waits there are just as bad as in A&E which is in a different hospital.

It’s rural where I am Callistemon21, a minimum of 20 miles to Accident and Emergency in any direction, and they are a godsend, as they are throughout Powys. I also took my very elderly mum, who had cut her leg getting into the car to one in the midlands ( it was Tamworth). - we drove 30 miles to get there, and the service she had was so good, and quick.
I think even if an MIU is not that close from peoples homes it’s worth considering going there instead of an A&E Department if you have one of the conditions listed.

My post was to Casdon

It seems to differ so much from area to area.

Sent by a friend who works in A&E (he did not write the article btw)

Posted anonymously by an A&E doctor:
"I'm writing this because I’m angry. Actually more than that, I’m fu*king livid.
I’m an A&E reg with 9+ years experience in A&E both here and overseas. This morning was the first time EVER that I cried in my car after a shift.
I was on nights over this New Years period, but New Year was not the issue, every shift is like this now.
Where 5 years ago we had 50 patients in the department on handover at night, we now have 180. It used to be around 20 patients to see with a 1-2 hour wait for clinician, it’s now 60-70 with a 10 hour wait.
People used to lose their minds if patients were coming up to 4 hour breaches. Last night 60% of the patients in A&E had been there for more than 12 hours, some for more than 40. Many I saw the night before, still in the same place when I came on.
No triage or obs after 2 hours of arrival, no bloods or ECGs or gas for 4 hours. Regularly finding people in the waiting room after 4 hours with initial gases showing hyperkalamia or severe acidosis or hypoglycaemia.
87 year olds coming in after falls sitting on chairs for 18 hours. Other elderly patients lying in their own urine for hours because there’s no staff, or even room to change them into something dry. As the reg in charge of the shift, Ive had (on multiple occasions) to help the sole nurse in the area change patients by holding a sheet around the bed because we have to do it in the middle of a corridor. People lying on the floor because there’s no chairs left, trolleys parked literally wherever we can put them.
Things have been getting even worse for the last 3 months. 5 weeks I came home raging to my wife that people are sitting in their own piss for hours and it’s so inhumane. Now we’ve got to the point where people are actually dying. People who’ve been in A&E for 2-3 days,
The media and public might blame the A&E nurses and doctors for this, but honestly what the fu*k are we meant to do with 180 people in a department built for 50. With 8 nurses rather than the MINIMUM staffing of 12. 1 or 2 nurses per area, giving meds, doing obs, trying to provide basic cares to 25-30 people, an absolute impossibility. And there’s less nurses every week, because honestly why would you put yourself through this day after day?
Resus patients are quickly assessed and stepped down to make room for the next pre-alert, going to the area with those same poor nurses, already overstretched, now inheriting an severely unwell patient.
We need to accept the truth, the NHS isn’t breaking, it’s broken. And the same bastards who broke it are doing reality TV shows and writing books about how they saved the NHS whilst refusing to increase nursing pay. We try and shovel shit with spoons whilst they pour it in with dump trucks
The NHS as we knew it is dead, and it breaks my heart, because it’s a beautiful system. It shouldn’t be like this, and those of us who have been around for longer than 5 years know it wasn’t always like this.
The public have no idea, they don’t really know how dangerous this all is. When they come in they’re horrified, but most of the population don’t know how bad it is. This could be their mum on a trolley for 17 hours, or their wife or son or daughter.
I genuinely feel it’s now our responsibility to speak out. We don’t for fear that it will make our hospital look bad or harm our careers. But it’s not a hospital problem, it’s a national problem, and it’s a problem brought about by the politics of the people in power.
We need to shine a light on what they’ve done, make the public so angry that they demand a change. Massive recruitment of nurses through a proper wage/paid uni/free parking/free Nando’s if that’s what it takes would be a start.
If anyone has any idea how we could coordinate some kind of campaign to show the state of emergency departments in the UK right now please write a response, because I can’t work in this much longer, and more importantly I’m not sure the patients can survive it."

Casdon, sadly many of these Minor Injuuries Units have been closed now in our area.
There is still one across the border in England but we're not really supposed to attend there.

There is a Minor Injuries Unit at a central hospital, staffed with nurses, doctors and a consultant, but the waits there are just as bad as in A&E which is in a different hospital.

SueDonim

Thank you, Growstuff and Janejudge for the sympathy for my dd.

I think all this is a symptom that the entire system is broken. Dd says they get a lot of ‘social’ cases, as others have mentioned, with people who need pastoral care, not operations or drugs etc. They need to be looked after in the community, not in hospitals, but A&E is the only place where anyone will listen to them.

As well as the ‘strip of paracetamol’ patients, a not infrequent occurrence is people who have seen their GP but aren’t happy with the outcome, either because they disagree with the diagnosis (eg, they want antibiotics for an infection the GP says is viral) or they think they can queue-jump investigations the GP has organised by going to A&E, such as maybe getting a scan to look for gall stones. A&E doctors can’t do anything like that, it’s not within their powers. They have to refer on to the specialist department.

On the other hand, I can see how people end up at A&E. It seems to me there’s such a mishmash of services that it’s hard to know where one should turn in an emergency or when the usual places such as GP are closed. For instance, the other day I went to a part of our town that I’ve never visited before and there, in the middle of a residential area, was a stand-alone Minor Injuries unit! I’ve never heard of it, I have no idea how you access it or why you’d go to it when there’s an A&E maybe half a mile away.

On the subject of minor injuries units, they are an unsung hero of the NHS, and treats:
Broken bones
Dislocations, sprains and strains
Assaults
Wounds and minor burns
Insect stings
Rib injuries (if there is no coughing up blood or chest infection)
Insect, animal and human bites
Foreign bodies to eyes, ears and nose
Head or face injuries (if there is no loss or change in level of consciousness)
Non-penetrating eye and ear injuries
Minor neck injuries
Minor back injuries

It’s nurse led, with access to X Ray, and is co-located with the GP out of hours service. They refer complex cases on to Accident and Emergency, but reduce the A&E load very considerably - and the waiting times are much shorter.

I have 2 friends currently in hospital due to long term staph infection resistant to anti-biotics. They will probably not come out alive.

How do you know which antibiotic is suitable for your condition?

And viruses do not respond to antibiotics anyway.

This is seriously worrying. People will be sicker for longer, people will have fewer options to get better, and the cost of care will increase. In the future, more people may also die from secondary bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics.

It's not to be recommended biglouis!