188,594 kept waiting more than four hours in A&E

[MARTIN3030]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nhs-in-crisis-more-patients-kept-1353066

[Nystagmite]

Not shocked. Within 2 days, my dad had to wait more than 4 hours twice.

[uneverdid]

There is the other side to this too my daughter was admitted with life threatening encephalitis earlier this year, yes she spent more than 4 hours in A & E but during this time she was ventilated, ct scanned, had a lumbar puncture and several other procedures. I was horrified to be told that the hospital would still be fined for keeping her there despite the fact that she was too ill to move and was monitored by 2 anaethisists, 2 nurses and 2 doctors during this time. Do the figures quoted take patients like my daughter into consideration. I for one would wait as long as necessary if it meant the seriously ill patients got treated as needed. Yes it is a pain to wait a length of time but sometimes a necessary one and i have also been on the receiving end of that when the same daughter broke her wrist a few years ago and only now do i appreciate why i may have had to wait, and no i do not work for any government or hospital department i am just a regular parent.

[Sali]

I'm not surprised either. Attending with various relatives over the years we have never waited less than 4 hours for treatment after triage. I think the hospital's are also working ways around these targets. Quickly moving patients to Medical Assessment Units, where they are likely to wait a whole lot longer than 4 hours for treatment, side-steps the problem of becoming a negative statistic for the A&E department.

[Nystagmite]

There is the other side to this too my daughter was admitted with life threatening encephalitis earlier this year, yes she spent more than 4 hours in A & E but during this time she was ventilated, ct scanned, had a lumbar puncture and several other procedures. I was horrified to be told that the hospital would still be fined for keeping her there despite the fact that she was too ill to move and was monitored by 2 anaethisists, 2 nurses and 2 doctors during this time. Do the figures quoted take patients like my daughter into consideration. I for one would wait as long as necessary if it meant the seriously ill patients got treated as needed. Yes it is a pain to wait a length of time but sometimes a necessary one and i have also been on the receiving end of that when the same daughter broke her wrist a few years ago and only now do i appreciate why i may have had to wait, and no i do not work for any government or hospital department i am just a regular parent.

 

But she wasn't left waiting for tests was she? Whereas with my dad, whilst his GP was able to diagnose him and tell him to go to A&E, he had to wait a very long time for someone to even come and check on him.

[Marianne7]

Doesn't it depend on what the GP sent your dad to A&E for? My OH was taken to A&E last weekend via ambulance. Was immediately attended to, blood taken, obs done,ECG, given morphine, loads of other things. Then we waited in a curtained bay, nursing staff coming in occasionally to check pain, etc. When the doc arrived, after a couple of hours, she already had the blood results from which she was able to make a more informed diagnosis.

[Nystagmite]

He was diagnosed with appendicitis.

[assisted blonde]

My OH has been admitted to A&E a couple of times, really cant fault the service, last time he was in theatre within an hour of arriving, if your condition is urgent you will be seen sooner rather than later. One problem is people treting A&E as a minor drop in centre if they cannot get a Drs appointment, or turning up with things that are not either an accident or an emergency, an awful lot of patients would get better without a trip to A&E, they may be uncomfortable for a while but that in itself is not an emergency.

[Nystagmite]

That is so true. There have been reports of people phoning an ambulance for minor medical problems which don't warrant a trip to A&E.

[Sali]

I think the increase in people calling ambulances, or attending A&E for minor conditions that perhaps do not warrant immediate attention, is because they have been unable to get an appointment with their GP.

An average GP's salary is 110K. They of course can make much more by offering services not included in their contracts - swine flu vaccinations were probably a nice little earner. They (GPs) always seem to be moaning about their long hours. Why not half their salaries (after all 50K is more than a living wage for most people) and double the staff. It's a win, win. Or is money, not altruism, that is their reason for being?

[Nystagmite]

Where I am, the MUI isn't open on Sundays and I'm sure it's not open on Bank Holidays. Earlier this year, my sister burnt herself. There are guidelines for burns and when you should get it seen to. It was BH; so they had no choice but to go to A&E. Else it would have been MIU.

[assisted blonde]

A GP is doing a job, same as any other job so not sure that altruism would come into it money/wages are the thing that motivates most people.

[Sali]

The medical profession subscribes to the ideal of altruism, yet do not seem so keen on it in practise. Consider the GPs strike earlier this year. They were willing to sacrifice their patients health and safety to protect their ever so generous pensions (48K per annum from age 60) - paid for by the public. Compare that to around 5K for a private sector pension. Screwing every penny out of the public purse (which will be at the expense of others) is selfish and greedy.

Yes, of course we work for money, but we have created a society where certain people are grossly over-rewarded and we have an extremely unequal society as a result. It is quite plain that salaries/pensions rarely equate to a person's demonstrated ability.

[nolegion]

I think that the final rot set it when the 'new' (2004) GP contract was introduced.

 

Catastrophically misconceived, it enabled smoke- and-mirrors accounting and check- box 'achievements' and 'outcomes' such that a partner GP could go part-time and still earn 6 figures.

 

Most 'unbookable appointments' regimes, and the arrival of practice 'business managers' (as opposed to the practice secretary), seem to date from then and, yes, I think the inaccessibility – and inadequacy – of primary care directly affects A &E admissions, and, indeed, tragic 'outcomes'.

 

Or you can always hang on to your problem – you may have noway of getting to A & E – and be seen by the stand-in Dr Ubani's of thisworld 'out of hours'. Best of luck to you.

 

Hospital consultants are little different in terms of theircommitment to patient care. You will find the reason hospital mortality rates (for those already on wards, and those in A & E) go up at weekends on the golf course (and\or in Mauritius).

 

Simpler to ring the undertakers directly. They actually want your business.