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.

[gerry]

Once again thanxs to everyone that took the time to reply to my question.I am aware that broken fingers are not life threating & not as serious as someone that has had a heart attack,stroke,been involved in a car accident etc.....I was just raising the point that i personaly thought it was a joke having to wait that long.I thought the whole point of having an A&E Dept was getting treated as soon as possible.I raised this point with someone in my work.The Girl i was speaking to said about 3 months ago she broke her arm in 2 places she waited 4 hrs until she even got to see someone let alone get an x-ray.No one should have to wait that long .What exactly are we paying our money for?.

[Otrere]

I was recently sent to the hospital by the doctor with a suspected clot on the lung. We got there about 7pm and I didn't actually get seen by a doctor till 11pm. I'd been there 2 hours before a triage nurse saw me. Fortunately it wasn't a clot but I still had pneumonia and I was sat in a corridor in extreme pain in the most uncomfortable chair known to man.

[evenstar]

I've had to go to a&e a few times over the years with my children. They were always assesed on arrival, and the 2 times of head injuries they were treated almost immediately, the broken fingers and minor cuts had to wait a bit, but were reassured and made comfortable. I think they do a fantastic job, but I don't live in a big city where maybe they are busier

[bruce5755]

gerry, sorry to hear of you accident.  I feel that the one thing that hasn't been mentioned is, although no-one likes waiting so long, its the not being told anything that makes any wait tedious and annoying!  The one thing that keeps me from going to A&E is knowing that I will lose up to six hours to be seen, perhaps that is what is intended!  I recall my last visit to A&E where the message board said the wait was approx 3hrs, when I was eventually seen, on my way to the cubicle I noticed at the nurses station there were about 4 nurses standing around looking at baby photo's of one of their colleagues, at the time there was a waitng room full of injured people!  And X-Ray, well thats just another joke altogether, why do they book you in for a certain time and then have to wait hours and hours!  I appreciate that there will be emergencies but that has never changed has it?  They should make allowances for it!

Changing the subject matter slightly, I once had an outpatients appointment at a hospital in London for 9am.  At 10:30 I asked the receptionist what was happening, she said everything was being taken care of?  Finally at 1:30pm I approached a different receptionist who said that my doctor couldn't get in that morning, why couldn't we have been told that earlier?  Living 40 miles from the hospital it was a day totally wasted!

[Steve_Luts]

Gerry, sorry to hear about that.  Last night I dislocated a finger playing football. I went to A&E at the my local hospital in Berkshire and was seen by a triage nurse within 5 minutes, who took me through to see a doctor straightaway, despite there being a 3 hr wait!! In general chat it came out that because I was polite, smiled, made some conversation and generally treated them like humans, them bumped me up the queue! I had massive sympathy for them - I thought a Tuesday night would be quiet, but they were rushed off their feet, and I seemed to be the only person in there not ****** or off my face on drugs!

The only minor blip was they got confused about whether I'd had an anaesthetic, and tried to set my finger without one...they soon found out!! Jees - the pain! Can just about type now....! My general point being that I went, taking a book, expecting a 3 hr wait, but got seen pronto!! Praise should be given where due, they were excellent.

[topbird]

[edited by AB Editor] As someone who has been punched, spat at, bitten and threatened with death, for not dealing with a splinter in a foot quick enough, I just have to say how gutted I am that nurses are still not getting the support that we deserve, and I challenge anyone who slates the NHS as much as some of you have, to spend just half a shift in our shoes. It can be a demeaning, demoralising experience, when you are faced with matters that are actually life and death problems and it pains me to say that after many a shift in A&E, I have gone home and cried myself to sleep, because we have had to deal with a mother who has lost her baby, or a husband who has lost his wife, of over 50 years. Just stop and think that maybe you aren't the only person in that department with a problem, and open your eyes to the bigger picture. Its not pretty, but then again, sometimes life isn't.

[gerry]

[edited by AB Editor] .If you take the time to read my posts on this subject.I don't once take a cheap shot at the nurses in the A&E Dept.& i don't know how many times that i mention that my accident wasn't life threating.My point to this was having to wait that long to be seen, that was all.At the end of the day everyone on this board is entitled to their opinion about the NHS just like you are entitled to your opinion.