I spent about 8 hours in A&E yesterday.
Suddenly, on Sunday evening, I was unable to put any weight on my left leg. By the time I went to bed I could barely walk with a stick & holding onto things. I spent a sleepless night. I couldn't dress myself in the morning so I phoned 111. They arranged a phone triage with my GP who sent a paramedic round. She called for an ambulance, which arrived in a bit over an hour with 2 more paramedics. So far very helpful, sympathetic, reassuring & efficient.
On arrival at the hospital ambulances were stacked up & there were no wheelchairs available. Eventually, having scoured different parts of the hospital the paramedic found one & wheeled me into a corridor filled with people - Patients, other ambulance crews & relatives. We waited in a queue for my crew to be able to hand me over to a nurse & go into A&E. Only then could they move on and answer more emergency calls.
One of my crew had spent virtually the whole time with me writing notes & filling in forms on a computer. The amount of paperwork is overwhelming. From a patients perspective I had to answer almost exactly the same questions & give exactly the same answers to every single medic I came into contact with during the day.
Thus far everyone had been really wonderful. Reassuring & informative. It was a possible hip fracture from a fall days ago & I needed an x ray. Just what the doctor ordered!
Then the long wait in a waiting area began, from sometime just after 1.45. Various standard tests were done by nurses. A very kind nurse offered me a sandwich & small carton of orange. All I had had up to that point was a mug of tea first thing. The only meds I had taken were my own painkillers before setting off in the ambulance. One of the paramedics said that it would be a bumpy, painful ride.
The staff were very busy. Medics don't walk slowly. The majority move about really quickly. I really don't know how they maintain the energy levels. Patients were coming & going all the time, some in hospital beds, some in wheelchairs, some walking wounded.
Hours went by. Sitting in a hospital wheelchair, unable to move when you have a possible fractured hip is not comfortable. I had raised blood pressure because of the pain. I didn't have a temperature, but kept getting hot sweats. I couldn't believe the length of the wait with no information, no meds & no one asking if I was OK or needed anything. Fortunately I hadn't drunk enough to need to go to the loo!
Eventually, after hours, I asked someone scurrying by what I was waiting for. I needed to be seen by a consultant before they could do the x ray. He wanted me to be xrayed in a hospital bed so I had to wait for one to be found. One wasn't available, so just after 7pm they took me to xray. I had to get out of the wheelchair & onto the x ray table. It wasn't easy.
Then a wait to see the consultant for the results. I was finally seen around 7.15. It wasn't a fracture. It was probably a particularly bad flare up of Fibromyalgia / Osteoarthritis / GTPS.
I have absolute confidence that NHS staff do their damndest in very difficult conditions. I have nothing but admiration that they do this very difficult job day in & day out. I am not surprised that many move on to other jobs.
Having arrived by ambulance in my pyjamas & slippers, fortunately my daughter could collect me & take me home, utterly exhausted. A mug of tea & finally some painkillers & a bit of TV before being able to blissfully lie down in my bed.
The patient experience in the NHS is critical to improving it for the staff & patients alike. I don't understand why I was given no pain relief on Friday when I had oral surgery to remove a lesion for biopsy or yesterday. Only prescription meds relieve the sort of pain I have experienced over the last 5 days. Paracetamol is about as useful as Smarties. I would have given anything to be able to lie down for the hours of waiting in A&E. The wheelchair just added to the pain & discomfort. I certainly would have liked a cup of tea & more information. We waiting patients were in full view of all the staff for hours. Some of us for a lot longer than others.
A&E has to prioritise - I completely get that. The most serious have to be seen first. Although there seemed to be a lot of different staff doing different jobs, there are obviously not enough critical staff - senior nurses, doctors & consultants, to move patients through quickly. But worse than that, there aren't enough beds, facilities & equipment for patient numbers.
It seems to me that it is a perfect storm. Add to that Brexit's impact on staffing, Covid, financial meltdown since 2007 /8 & we are in a perilous situation. Patients will suffer & possibly die. Staff will be demoralised & exhausted trying to make a very imperfect system work. They will leave & our training places at UK medical schools are capped - in England this year there are 7,500 places.
Until the politicians get to grips with fully resourcing the NHS patients will suffer & staff will give up.
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