Forum Topic

A&E's a joke and they haven't been closed yet!!!!

Last Wednesday I suffered a nasty foot injury having stood on some broken glass. Not realising the extent of the injury I figured let's go into the walk in UCAD centre at central middx. Figured nurse would just patch me up and send me on my way. However nurse did see me and put dressings onto the wound. After an hour I was bleeding through the dressings and my fiancé had to patch me up. Had my x rays to make sure no glass was in the cut. Waited three hours for a doctor who took one look at my injury and said 'sorry cant help you, you will have to go to hammersmith, charring cross, northwick park, st Mary's or ealing. Hammersmith advised us on arrival that they had no one to help. We then went to ealing where we waited almost five hours to be treated. Despite the fact that I had just had stitches onto the arch of my foot I was never offered any crutches in order to help me get around and my fiancé had to carry me out of the hospital to the car. A&E departments are being closed down and  those remaining can not cope. This is a disgrace. As a conservative voter all my life my views are changing. Maybe I should run for government or local authority I would soon bring things into line.

Emma Isabel Daniels ● 4690d5 Comments

Sorry you had such a bad experience. This is all down to the cuts, or "efficiency savings" which this ConDem government is implementing.There are plenty more to come. And, as you say, this is with all 4 threatened A&Es still open. If Charing X and Ealing do close, or get scaled down things are going to get far worse. Can I suggest you contact Ealing Healthwatch and/or the Ealing CCG to let them know of your concerns?

Chris Hurley ● 4690d

Conservative voter you say?Welcome to the land you voted for. The destruction of the NHS as a tax-funded service free at the point of need has been a core Conservative aspiration since at least Margaret Thatcher's time. They've just been bright enough not to do it in one fell swoop but subject it to the death of a thousand cuts.

Roy Gillett ● 4690d

"Figured nurse would just patch me up and send me on my way."We're so timetabled nowadays in this rat race that it is a shock when we fall out of our routine.  Unfortunately unless you experience what is going on it is impossible to understand and comment on it. Please do this and also be very wary of "satisfaction surveys/questionnaires" which may be worded so that you cannot give a true picture of your experience.  They may get more responses but the results may be flawed.Unless you are working within the system or using it a lot it is incomprehensible - especially since it seems to differ in different parts of the country and changing and we tend to have relations all over the place. This is why your feedback as a user of the system is so important on here and to the organisations who work to try to make sure patients' interests are paramount.The political parties are like children in the playground with their games.  The staff -  particularly those at the sharp end become demoralised by criticism.  Many of them are working ridiculous hours.  They get too tired to fill in forms pointing out what dangers occurred on their shifts - after a shift of 14 hours it isn't really surprising is it? This is a classic management tactic as is telling someone who does speak out that they are the only one who thinks something is a problem.Targets can create a bullying culture and manipulation of data - all to the detriment of those staff who care and to the patients.  Whistleblowing can be difficult because of the consequences.

Philippa Bond ● 4688d

"Maybe I should run for government or local authority I would soon bring things into line."Or you could find yourself trying to steer a rudderless ship.Programmes about Sir Gerry Robinson trying to turn around a hospital were very interesting and are worth searching out.Good teamwork is needed. Efforts to attain targets have resulted in manipulation of data and a bullying culture in places (see Colchester GH in the very recent news)giving rise to job dissatisfaction and fear of job loss as well leading to bad patient management and late treatment.

Philippa Bond ● 4686d

I was also in A&E on the night described and recall your arrival Emma. I hope your foot is ok. I saw the triage nurse quickly then had a long wait to see the doctor.  Apparently there was only one doctor and one nurse on duty and the waiting room was full. Not great but not the fault of the staff. What struck me almost as much as the lack of resource was the level of abuse hurled at the receptionist throughout the night! On a couple of ocassions people arrived, asked the waiting time and not liking the response hurled abuse at her. One told her to "shove it up your a**e. I'm better off going to my doctors". He promptly exited and I was left wondering why he had come in the first place! Anyway, my point is the system is in a mess and badly resourced but let's not take that out on the staff.

Sandra Jordan ● 4686d