Old age and the current state of local NHS emergency waits.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Firstly thanks for the good wishes from members here as I languish on my third day in what is a effectively a partial rebranding of A&E emergency services at Derby Royal Hospital.

I contacted 111 as I was suffering with quite severe bouts of shortness of breath following little or no exertion. I wanted to avoid hospital admission as Wendy is effectively house bound following her stroke in April.

There were no face to face appointments available at my GPs surgery.

The 111 call handler understood my situation, they were concerned about my symptoms so arranged for me to visit a department that is next door to the  existing A&E entrance named Urgent Care Unit (UCU). 111 had contacted UCU I had to be there within an hour.

i was triaged on arrival where I joined a queue of about a hundred patients. After a 10 hour wait I had bloods taken plus an X-ray. The X-ray showed my breathing problems were linked to fluid retention affecting my lungs. There are few beds available most patients are sat in chairs in the long corridor.

I'm waiting for a bed to become available in the Medical Assesment Unit so I can have the fluid removed. I asked if I could go home and come back in the morning, yes I could but my place in the queue would be lost so I would have to wait for another 10 or so hours.

I was finally given.a bed yesterday morning at 7.00 am.At present Wendy is self funding the 24 hour care she needs until I am discharged.

I'm on day 3 of waiting in the Urgent Care Unit as there is no bed free in the Medical Assesment Unit.

The UCU is not a ward as such so no lockers or call buttons. Last time I looked at the patient information board there were 100 patients in the UCU down by around 20 from yesterday.

What I thought was a  same day fix or an overnight admission has turned into waiting for a hospital bed.

[Murf]

That sounds a terrible situation Ted, words fail me, absolutely no consideration for your health or for the fact that you are your wife’s carer. I just hope you can get some treatment and help soon.
I know it’s difficult but my advice would be to not just accept this and to start being demanding about your need to be treated and back home to take care of your wife.  Good luck and I will be thinking of you as I am sure everyone on the forum will be. Please keep us informed as and when you can. I am not that far away from Derby if you need anything brought to you in the hospital.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

An update I've moved to the Medical Assessment Unit so I'm hoping for some sort of treatment when the Clinicians have seen me.

[K2-K6]

What a sad state of affairs Ted, given your current family consideration.

Certainly appears lacking in compassion at least in recognition of your commitment to support Wendy.

I wish you well, but too remote to be of any practical use though.

Hopefully it'll help to share some of this out here (as you're doing) and to know we are thinking of you.

Keep us informed as to your progress through such a sclerotic and frustrating health system.

Nigel.

[Laverda Dave]

I have no words Ted to add to those already said. The NHS is absolutely on its knees although no politician will admit it or the reasons why. The NHS is being privatised by stealth.
Hang in there and I sincerely hope you get the treatment you need and you feel better and can get home to Wendy soon.

[Rozabikes Tim]

Crikey Ted, thats all you need. Hope you are sorted soon and back with Wendy.  Shout if you need anything.

I'm a massive fan of the NHS but recent experiences like yours make me despair.

Can relate a few but my father in law had been in hospital a couple of weeks until suddenly discharged on Tuesday this week. Despite numerous requests to fully reinstate his care package, he did have carers yesterday but no nurse visit to administer his insulin. Should have been one am and another pm. Zilch! Basic duty of care stuff...

[neat street]

Sad news Ted, unffortunatly this is country wide, wishing you get the treatment you need soon, well don for following up though on your breathing, who nkows what could have happend if you did not take that step. best wishes

[flatfour]

Ted, on Wednesday of this week I was called at around 8 p.m. by the Shift Supervisor at the nearby Care Home that Mother has moved into. The Supervisor said that mother had a raised temperature, vomiting and diarrhea and had briefly passed out - she had eaten a shellfish sandwich a few hours earlier that I had collected from a local supermarket and taken in to her, for a change from the usually supplied food at the Home.

An ambulance was called, with a response time of "up to four hours". As nothing had happened nearly four hours later, the Supervisor called back to be told that they were "under pressure" however the call out would be escalated to one level below a Blue Light Run. The new response time was "up to eight hours from now"!

The ambulance finally arrived at 3:25 a.m. and the crew decided that mother did not need hospital, as she was showing signs of recovery form a presumed episode of food poisoning. The crew remarked that it was probably fortunate, as they had been waiting for the past six hours to hand a patient over at A&E.

And it's not even winter yet, when things usually get worse.

As an aside, this same week my daughter became ill whilst on holiday in Malta, coincidentally with suspected food poisoning. She tells me that an emergency clinician was immediately dispatched to her hotel (from the local Pharmacy, apparently where they are medically trained) and administered some medication. She was able to fly home to Brussels the next day. No charge was made for this service, except for the cost of the prescription.

[Rozabikes Tim]

Really don't want to be NHS bashing. I have had absolutely  superb service on a number of occasions but something seriously lacking all too regularly...

I had a fall in France knocking myself out, nice cut,  loads of blood etc. Our cottage is in a small hamlet about 5 k from our local village. Within 15 minutes of raising the alarm 5 people were in attendance. Then took me to hospital about 20mins away. Straight away assessed and MRI done. Then onto a nice ward for 3 days of assessment for any bleeds internally.

The French have a great system where the "Pompiers" include both firemen, ambulance staff and paramedics operating as one unit.

Unfortunately not my only experience of the French health service and again there, excellent.

People bang on about an overloaded inefficient service here, which there is surely some truth in but I think we should all be prepared to pay a bit more as well whatever. Like alot of other critical areas in our society, some non partisan agreement with long term goals from all political parties. When you need it you need it.

[Spitfire]

Hi Ted this all sounds appalling, I hope things are improving for you.
I am British and proud of it and our history, when working abroad in the 1990's I used to get really annoyed at my European colleagues refering to the UK as a backward little island off the coast of Europe.
However sadly I am tending to the same opinion as the UK slowly slides into being a third world country.

Dennis

[Athame57]

This is madness Ted, perhaps you should have dialled 999? When I was taken in with pneumonia to the Royal London Hosptial a while back things happened rather quickly.

[Oddjob]

Yeah me too. Straight out of the ambulance and straight into a bed, seen to almost immediately and as you know they went above and beyond for me.

[Murf]

I have also had some excellent treatment and care from the NHS so I don’t want to knock it, however after what Ted has experienced I think best to give these urgent care units a miss and go straight to A&E.  A 3 day wait without any treatment sort of defeats the idea of urgent care.