Hospital patients being treated in corridors

Lobby our MPs?

The more we accept this as the status quo, the worse it will get and it's not fair on either staff or patients.

I broke my hip 9 years ago. I waited 2 + hours for an Ambulance outside in the road, then another hour in the hospital while being handed over by the lovely Ambulance crew, then into a corridor to wait another lengthy time for an X-ray. Fortunately my daughter appeared at this point and asked roughly how long this would take, fortunately, because at this point, as an extra I had been forgotten!! After this, another lengthy wait for a bed. However, throughout all this saga, the staff couldn't have been kinder, and as helpful as possible. This was a reflection of my on going treatment which was excellent. Tbh the last thing on my mind was supermarket bread or cheap instant coffee!! I was just grateful to be put back together efficiently and able to walk properly!

My point, which posters are missing, is that yes, we can be grateful to the staff for their care, but they are being put in impossible situations, patients are not being treated as urgently as they should and is this acceptable to them or us?

I don't believe it is.

being treated on a trolley in a crowded hospital corridor with people to-ing and fro-ing and dying on a trolley is obviously degrading.

It wasn't a thread about dying and degradation I thought!

And yes, patients are not being treated as urgently as they should be!

Well, as that was on the news last night and I thought the thread was related, then I thought it was pertinent.

I feel sorry for the staff , too, working in impossible circumstances.

Obviously no-one else thinks the same, that the more this happens, the more it becomes the norm and people accept this.

I’ve just read news reports of 100s of people going to hospital with flu.

They can’t all be seriously ill, can they? To the point where they need intensive help.

Are we expecting to be nursed in hospital when we are ill rather than at home, do you think?

No Allira it is not acceptable but, for now at least, it's how it is. During our time in A&E, ambulance crews were bringing in people on beds, one after the other. They were being treated first, quite rightly. One thing I found completely unacceptable was a woman who was sleeping on the seats, lying down, spread across several chairs, covered in her own blanket with all her worldly goods in bags around her. She was obviously using the hospital as a hostel. As I was leaving, I saw her get out of a taxi and go into the A&E. We were there all night and the staff came around with free hot drinks. This woman was first in the queue.

Certainly - re people accepting it - and I recall a recent post on a local Facebook page. The person concerned was waiting in A & E and had been doing so for hours and could tell it was going to be hours more. They were being expected to sit on a chair (hard one at that) for all that time and just wait until the staff actually got to them to treat them. It looked like they were in for a stint of 24 hours or more before they even got treatment/a bed/whatever!!!

Lots of people sympathising with them. A relative living nearby as I recall and yet they were still planning to try and sleep on that hard chair whilst being forced to wait. I was gobsmacked. I was even more gobsmacked by the fact no-one (not friend/relative/neighbour) seemed to be taking them up on the "I'm being expected to sleep on a hard chair" thing. I googled and, as I recall, there was an Argos open nearby with some very cheap temporary mattress bed type set-ups (camping ones etc) and there was some on Amazon and all round it looked as if a cheapie (£20 or so???) camping bed/mattress type set-up could have been bought and personally delivered by someone who knew them/a helpful volunteer to them in that A & E.

If I'd been nearer and with a car I'd have headed into Argos, bought that temporary bed for them and set it up in the hospital and, if they'd allow it, phoned for a press photographer to come in and take photo of them for a newspaper article about the hospital being inadequate. I would "name and shame" for sure if someone tried to treat me or mine that way. The hospital could complain all they pleased about being publicly embarrassed. Unless and until people are prepared to kick off bigtime at inadequate treatment - it will continue.

Oh that makes more sense now Allira.
I didn't see the news last night and had no idea that this was what the thread was really about!

I'm sure it happens.

I've sat with DH in A&E for hours and was surprised at some of the reasons why some people were there.
I have also spent a day unexpectedly in a MDU and two patients had been there for three days and nights, sleeping on the seats, waiting for hospital beds. They were still there when I was allowed to go home after ten hours.

Kate - I very much doubt if that women was using A & E as a hostel. She probably was genuinely ill/in need of attention and knew how they would treat her (ie expected to just "sit up and shut up") and just publicising the way things were there and keeping herself as comfortable as she could manage whilst waiting for her treatment.

NotSpaghetti

Oh that makes more sense now Allira.
I didn't see the news last night and had no idea that this was what the thread was really about!

I'm not sure, I should not assume.

Allira - THREE days!!!!!! I rest my case....

CariadAgain

Kate - I very much doubt if that women was using A & E as a hostel. She probably was genuinely ill/in need of attention and knew how they would treat her (ie expected to just "sit up and shut up") and just publicising the way things were there and keeping herself as comfortable as she could manage whilst waiting for her treatment.

One young girl who was in A&E when we were waiting said she'd been there for days but no-one was bothering to see her. She said she had MH problems and was apparently a regular visitor from what she told us. She was waiting for the mental health team, said she went home to sleep at night and came back each day.

CariadAgain

Allira - THREE days!!!!!! I rest my case....

CariadAgain, it was eighteen months ago now, I hope they got beds that night!
(Wales, *CariadAgain 🤔)

So much money is wasted. I was booked in for 5 physio sessions-one per week for 5 weeks. I received five separate letters each also containing instructions on how to get to the hospital etc. That would not happen in a private company who would be counting costs.

Well CariadAgain I beg to differ. I'd say she was definitely using it as a hostel. Everyone who came in was registered at the desk then a short wait before being called in for an initial assessment then the long wait for a doctor. She just walked in and set up her bed. She was there all night. Two days later my DD took me back to the hospital to pick up some meds and we once again saw this lady getting out of a taxi with her baggage and heading into A&E.

My granddaughter is a blue light ambulance driver, she is 22 years old and in between shifts studying to qualify as a Paramedic. She tells us of a service under great pressure, not least because of getting through impossible traffic situations, patients who are obstinate, even violent, (she has been attacked twice) time schedules that are impossible to keep to, endless hold ups delivering patients into hospital care, hold ups collecting patients to take to their own homes, endless paper work, and so it goes on. She loves the job!! and I'm amazed at how committed she is. I don't know what the answers are, but going on strike is definitely not the answer when vulnerable people are on the receiving end. The resident doctors should be ashamed at even contemplating such cruel action.

Allira

It's not new, is it theworriedwell.

I remember being in a wheelchair in a corridor after an accident, with an ambulance man in attendance. I told him he could go as he'd delivered me safely to the hospital. He said he couldn't until I'd been triaged.
That took a very long time and, of course, meant his ambulance was outside and unable to attend to anyone else.

Patients have died waiting for hours outside hospitals in ambulances.

No definitely not new, as I said 54 years since I was parked in a linen cupboard, they had no idea what to do with me or other newly delivered women and their babies. What they did was open a condemned ward and put us in there.

NotSpaghetti

^being treated on a trolley in a crowded hospital corridor with people to-ing and fro-ing and dying on a trolley^ is obviously degrading.

It wasn't a thread about dying and degradation I thought!

But some people being treated in corridors are dying.

Lathyrus3

I’ve just read news reports of 100s of people going to hospital with flu.

They can’t all be seriously ill, can they? To the point where they need intensive help.

Are we expecting to be nursed in hospital when we are ill rather than at home, do you think?

They won't be getting admitted if they don't need to be.

Kate1949

Well CariadAgain I beg to differ. I'd say she was definitely using it as a hostel. Everyone who came in was registered at the desk then a short wait before being called in for an initial assessment then the long wait for a doctor. She just walked in and set up her bed. She was there all night. Two days later my DD took me back to the hospital to pick up some meds and we once again saw this lady getting out of a taxi with her baggage and heading into A&E.

Unfortunately people with MH problems get even worse waiting times and often very uncaring treatment. It is truly disgraceful.

Well maybe she had mental health problems and I am misjudging her. I certainly wouldn't dismiss anyone with such problems as I suffer myself.

his is survivorship bias. Your husband lucked out with attentive staff. Plenty of people have died waiting in those same corridors.