A & E waiting times

It was about six hours wait when I took my son last year but he passed out on the waiting room floor and jumped the queue! They couldn't find him a bed so he had to sleep on a trolley in the corridor on A&E overnight.
 


7-8 hr waits are nothing extraordinary now and are almost par for the course at this time of year. The problem isn't so much closure of emergency departments its the lack of beds back of house to move the patients into. I used to get sick of having 30+ patients essentially boarding in my department overnight because there were no inpatient beds to move them into. That caused significant flow problems with the rest of the department.

Ijustsaidthat said:
The E bit is more important than the A part.... I think that's why they are no longer called an 'Infirmary'

Just call them ER's ... and if you can walk or make your own way into them, then it ain't an emergency and probably not an accident.... so the waiting part of the waiting room suits the name given.
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They have all been called emergency departments for a few years now which I believe was at the request of the royal college.
 
went with me mother who is 81, and had infection on top of copd, no beds so told us to wait in A&E waiting room until could admit..thst was 11am...she got a bed at 10pm...all the time sitting in waiting room.
One lad came in by ambulance with susspected appendicitis, be was also left in waiting room after triage saw him..poor git was in agony...that was Durham uni hosp.( old Dryburn).
 
42 said:
Whats just as mental is that since Hartlepool closed its A&E and Peterlee being part of North Tees health area. So if your in Peterlee & end up in A&E you'd end up in Stockton hospital despite Sunderland being nearer.
If it is really serious those extra 5 mins or so could be the difference between life & death.
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I'm not really sure that's accurate. If you were life threatening they would take you to the most appropriate hospital surely, regardless of trust. I've known ambulances take people from Sunderland to the RVI because of the specialism available at that hospital. Similarly eye emergencies go to Sunderland. Spine is middlesbrough if I remember rightly.
 
Hull_Mackem said:
I'm not really sure that's accurate. If you were life threatening they would take you to the most appropriate hospital surely, regardless of trust. I've known ambulances take people from Sunderland to the RVI because of the specialism available at that hospital. Similarly eye emergencies go to Sunderland. Spine is middlesbrough if I remember rightly.
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There is a major trauma bypass where anyone fitting the criteria will go to either RVI or JCUH. All cardiac arrests go to the nearest hospital with an ED for resus and stabilisation. Everything else depends on NEAS and which trusts are on divert. Sometimes we would ask NEAS to give us some breathing room if we were very busy and a patient was equal distances between hospitals.
 
Binternet said:
There is a major trauma bypass where anyone fitting the criteria will go to either RVI or JCUH. All cardiac arrests go to the nearest hospital with an ED for resus and stabilisation. Everything else depends on NEAS and which trusts are on divert. Sometimes we would ask NEAS to give us some breathing room if we were very busy and a patient was equal distances between hospitals.
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Ok, cool. You seem more knowledgeable than me. I have cause to be in SRH A&E occasionally but it's rare.

But as I thought if something is life threatening they go to the nearest appropriate facility.
 
I tend to avoid A&E cos of the waiting times and go to primary care instead. However, if you ring 111 they tell you to go to A&E. I was once sat I Bunny hill car park with a chest infection and they were trying to send an ambulance to take me to A&E. All I needed was a nebuliser and antibiotics, which I eventually got at Bunny Hill after about 1 hours wait.
 
Doesn't help when f***ing idiots rock up a5 AE with headaches or colds or sore backs etc.

Mates at work do it, they just treat it as out of hours doctors surgery. I ask them, could it really not wait until your GP opened again on Monday morning?
 
You see someone they ask you all your details, you see someone else they re ask you all of the first persons questions, when you finally get to a doctor they also ask you the same questions before they even deal with the problem.
 
ravydavygravy said:
Been to that new hospital in cramlington tonight and the waiting time at A & E was 7-8 hours. :eek:

Is that normal?
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It's to deter attention seeking wankers who've got nothing to do but waste hospital doctors times by sitting in the waiting rooms on Facebook posting "In the hospital waiting room" followed by "You ok hun" by Thier friends.
 
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They are trying to keep people out of A&E these days as they don't have the same amount of staff they used to ...... The money is being put into OOH treatment and appts elsewhere

A&E is supposedly life threatening emergencys only
 
Typhoonftm said:
Don't kid yourself, that it wouldn't be the same under whoever was in power.
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It wasn`t like this under Labour. Nowhere near as bad. Waiting times are far, far worse now and the NHS is missing so many of the targets it just wasn`t missing before. It`s chronic underfunding and under resourcing. Too few staff trying to do to much work. Can you imagine a politician sitting in A&E waiting for this long. They have private health care and do not care.

Mackem00 said:
But cost more. You'll hear people say that's a negative thing and something to be ridiculed. I mean who would want to pay more for better healthcare ffs?
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Labour spent all the money. Labour wasted all the money.....yadah, yadah, yadah. Labour actually invested in health and education after decades of Tory neglect. Tories blame the world financial crash on Labour and bring in austerity to reverse all of Labours investment so that they can give tax cuts to the rich. Absolutely woeful party.
 
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mickb2112 said:
It wasn`t like this under Labour. Nowhere near as bad. Waiting times are far, far worse now and the NHS is missing so many of the targets it just wasn`t missing before. It`s chronic underfunding and under resourcing. Too few staff trying to do to much work. Can you imagine a politician sitting in A&E waiting for this long. They have private health care and do not care.
.
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Wasn't yes. I believe it would be exactly the same now. They all have to make cuts.
 

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