Your A & E experiences, good and bad

meditraitor

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

Do you think you were the only person they had to see when you went in?

Of course not but there was a maximum of 20 people ahead of me, 12 hours for 20 people,,,, lazy nurses and doctors are the real problem.

Deleted User wrote:

Riiiight. I'm sure they spent all that time have a cup of tea and an extended chat, not seeing to the many patients before you with serious medical problems.

Thats about right, you have experience of this I bet...... what type of biscuts do you like?

punkindrublic

Haven't been in the hospital a&e in a while. When I was 15 I went there a few times over a 3 week period (I think it was about 4 visits) every time I went it took 3+ hrs to be seen. Doctors insisting I was drinking alcohol and that was making me sick even though I never had any. Not to mention the lack of communication, blood samples getting lost, getting over 15 different needles in one day. The language barrier also made it very hard to explain everything to said doctors, their English wasn't too good. Took almost 3 weeks of visits (and getting jaundice - sp?) for them to just admit me to the hospital then a further 2-3 weeks for them to diagnose me. I was told I definitely had a ruptured ovary one day, which was really scary to me as a 15 year old, then a few days later I was told It was something totally different.
I try to avoid doctors now unless i feel really really really ill. Seen a doctor last week for the first time in ages, and it's amazing how differently you are treated when you are paying for the visit rather than using a medical card.

Dozen Wicked Words

meditraitor wrote: »

Of course not but there was a maximum of 20 people ahead of me, 12 hours for 20 people,,,, lazy nurses and doctors are the real problem.

Was your condition serious Meditraitor? Were you admitted for it?

punkindrublic

Oh and the 3 hours was the time my skin had turned yellow, other visits usually took between 5 to 7 hrs to be seen

Glenster

I went into Loughlinstown about ten weeks ago with a broken arm. Arrived at 4pm, I was seen by a doctor within an hour, x-rays within two, cast and gone a little after three. Brilliant service, doctors were great, my main doctor was a central-asian looking chap, about thirty five, had terrible english but didn't let that get in the way of fast efficient service. While I was there waiting in the waiting room two or three drunks came in with minor injuries, another five women with babies and at least ten doddery old men and women who walked in under their own power, what was wrong with them?

The problem with our emergency services is that it's clogged up with drunks, hysterical mothers, and the walking dead, each of them complaining about the wait at the top of their voice. One young mother was having a kniption because she had (apparently) been waiting for a long time and the doctor found that there was nothing wrong with her kid, here's a tip, if there's nothing wrong with your kid and you've been wasting the doctors time all day learn a lesson from it, dont go nuts in a crowded waiting room!

meditraitor

meditraitor wrote: »

Of course not but there was a maximum of 20 people ahead of me, 12 hours for 20 people,,,, lazy nurses and doctors are the real problem.



Thats about right, you have experience of this I bet...... what type of biscuts do you like?

Oreos. You can't possibly know how many people were ahead of you. Major traumas are brought in through a seperate entrance. While you were sitting there feeling pissed off that you weren't being seen to qucikly there may well have been someone bleeding to death in the room next to you after a RTA, or someone after having a heart attack etc etc.

Now I'm not defending the HSE here, but to say it's the fault of the frontline staff, and furthermore to call people who work 48 hours or more non stop lazy is quite simply wrong. Doctor's and nurses make up only 30% of the HSE. There's entire wings of hospitals filled with pen pushing beaueaucrats. Too many chiefs not enough Indians.

CptMackey

2 years ago I went to A+E after collapsing at the girl friends house.
The nurse at the desk who took my details called the triage nurse the second they saw me.

Brought in and they started doing the usual tests blood pressure, heart rate.
Next thing I knew there was a doctor standing in a pair of shorts( turned out it was his day off) talking to a surgery team. Next thing I'm getting a camera down my throat.

Long story short I was bleeding internally from a perforated ulcer. So my last experience was very good, couldn't fault them.

Compared to when I broke my arm and spent 4 hours waiting so now I know that If you have to wait it means somebody way worse is getting the help they need

meditraitor

dooferoaks wrote: »

Was your condition serious Meditraitor? Were you admitted for it?

Collapsed lung(simple).... not so serious but scary....

meditraitor

Deleted User wrote: »

Now I'm not defending the HSE here, but to say it's the fault of the frontline staff, and furthermore to call people who work 48 hours or more non stop lazy is quite simply wrong. Doctor's and nurses make up only 30% of the HSE. There's entire wings of hospitals filled with pen pushing beaueaucrats. Too many chiefs not enough Indians.

Thats the problem, for some reason people seem to think that Mary Harney is to blame for all this and the little old nursey or doctor can never be at fault..... bull

The administrators are an easy target also!!!

I have been unlucky enough to be in A&E on a few occasions over the last year(my little one and the misses) and my observations were not really ones that filled me with confidence of the work ethic of these front line staff..... Just my observations but there you are.

Dozen Wicked Words

meditraitor wrote: »

Collapsed lung(simple).... not so serious but scary....

If I was waiting 20 hours to see someone with a collapsed lung I wouldn't be happy either. Spontaneously resolved or not, a very scary thing.

Dunno if I would call Drs and Nurses Mutts though. There are good, bad and indifferent workers in all forms of work.

knipex

Alessandra wrote: »

That's a good point. I think 20eu would be a reasonable amount. I have often paid 60euro I didn't have. Many times I couldn't go because I couldn't afford it and once ended up in hospital as a result.
The times I have been to the doctor here I have found they are less willing to prescribe antibiotics etc than at home(because of cost I would imagine). I think the French system works really well as well.

Cost has nothing to do with it.

The rampant over use and incorrect use of antibiotics has resulted in a vast range of pathogens with antibiotic resistance. Indeed for some infections there are now NO antibiotics that work. NONE. Fortunately this is still very rare but we looking at the very real possibility of more and more of these infections occurring and basically returning to an era of no antibiotics.

There are strict guidelines on antibiotic prescribing and to be honest doctors are still not strict enough.

One of the areas the HSE has actually has success is in health Care Acquired Infections which have seen dramatic reductions in the last 2 to 3 years. This is in no small way due to more stringent control of antibiotics.

amacachi

Few times I was in Dundalk, broken finger when I was about 8, home within 2 hours.
In with a badass asthma attack thing when I was about 14/15, kept in for a few days. No complaints about the A+E really, was waiting a few hours but I was given near enough what I got while I was in anyway.
Had to laugh at one orange woman going mental about other people being seen before her, there was a lad came in after an accident with an angle grinder I think it was, good couple of inches of his shin bone showing through. She seemed to think it was unfair that he just waltzed straight in (held up by crutches and his mother) and got seen to straightaway.
Oh yeah, there was my debs about 4 years ago, a Wednesday night so the hospital was quiet. No idea how long I was in because I was completely off my head but I'd guess no more than an hour or so. Wasn't at all happy with the nurses, my face was smashed up really badly, half my lips were ripped off and didn't reappear for a coupla weeks, broken nose, gashes on my chin, forehead and between my nose and mouth. Next day found a huge pebble in my chin that the nurses missed and generally had to clean it all up again. Still, was quick enough and got some painkillers and it cost nothing other than the thousands I've paid in tax over the years. :pac:

positron

Couple of trips to A&E and it was some of the most agonizing experiences ever!

My wife was recovering from a brain surgery (for epilepsy) and one day we noticed what looks like infection on the surgery site. We spoke to our GP, and it was a Friday, and GP asked to go back to Beaumont hospital straight away. We got there around 8pm Friday evening, and had to wait 6 hours to get seen to. Imagine waiting among the drunk and various other infections with a surgical wound that hasn't healed properly. When we were finally seen to, they didn't have a clue on what to do with her. Someone tried to take a blood sample and punctured her arm in five different places and finally gave up - and a more experienced person came along and got in the first time. The doctor on duty had some sort of hatred for everyone there, and dismissed it as nothing, and prescribed some meds.

A week later the infection hadn't got any better, and we found ourselves back at the A&E the next Friday night. This time, after another 6 hour wait among what looked like a scene from a horror film, we were seen to - and this time by a surgeon, who again dismissed the issue as external, followed by much pocking and prodding by inexperienced and lost looking people in uniforms. I have never seen such incompetency in my life!

Four days later, we got thru to her surgeon (who was on holidays all along), and he asked her to come in, she went in, he had a look, he got a shock of his life, she was admitted straight away, surgery next day to remove the infected brain flap, and she was on a cocktail of anti-biotics for next 5 days as the infection was pretty bad, and she was very close to a full blown meningitis - a real life threatening situation!

Luckily for us, the infection went away, and after many months, she had to get a titanium plate put in place of the skull flat they removed. And the brain surgery itself was successful (seizure free!). But the experience we had at the A&E was that of absolute horror.

opinion guy

meditraitor wrote: »

Thats the problem, for some reason people seem to think that Mary Harney is to blame for all this and the little old nursey or doctor can never be at fault..... bull

The administrators are an easy target also!!!

I have been unlucky enough to be in A&E on a few occasions over the last year(my little one and the misses) and my observations were not really ones that filled me with confidence of the work ethic of these front line staff..... Just my observations but there you are.

Do you realise the hours these people work ? Its standard practice for SHO's and Reg's to work entire weekends - I mean arriving at 9am on saturday morning and leaving at 6/7/8/9pm on MONDAY!!!!! Possibly with no sleep. I'll say it again - this is standard practice, not exceptional. Do you honestly think:
a) people who work these hours are lazy ?
b) people who work like that are capable of working at their best for all of that time?
c) that the system isn't to blame for forcing them to work these hour's because there simply aren't enough doctors ?

You need to wake up to the real problems. Still, its the IMO's fault that people don't know about these things.

knipex wrote: »

Cost has nothing to do with it.

The rampant over use and incorrect use of antibiotics has resulted in a vast range of pathogens with antibiotic resistance. Indeed for some infections there are now NO antibiotics that work. NONE. Fortunately this is still very rare but we looking at the very real possibility of more and more of these infections occurring and basically returning to an era of no antibiotics.

There are strict guidelines on antibiotic prescribing and to be honest doctors are still not strict enough.

One of the areas the HSE has actually has success is in health Care Acquired Infections which have seen dramatic reductions in the last 2 to 3 years. This is in no small way due to more stringent control of antibiotics.

Hahahah cost has everything to do with it. NOT prescribing antibiotics is much cheaper than prescribing them:D

SV

Went in to St Lukes(Kilkenny) A+E and was seen within 15 minutes of arriving with broken metatarsals..

might be something to do with the bloody pain I was in though
(was absolutely packed too)

opinion guy

opinion guy wrote: »

Hahahah cost has everything to do with it. NOT prescribing antibiotics is much cheaper than prescribing them:D

Ehhh ya, because prescription notepaper is so very expensive. It costs the hospital nothing to prescribe because the patient normally goes to a pharmacy and gets their meds there.

Resistance is not futile.

Edit: Hang on you were being sarcastic weren't you. Oops.

opinion guy

Deleted User wrote: »

Ehhh ya, because prescription notepaper is so very expensive. It costs the hospital nothing to prescribe because the patient normally goes to a pharmacy and gets their meds there.

Resistance is not futile.

Edit: Hang on you were being sarcastic weren't you. Oops.

Hmm I was both being sarcastic and serious at the same time. Its not cheaper for the hospital, but it is cheaper for the HSE if the person is on medical card or DPS. But I do think its a good thing too - abx are way over prescribed. My sarcasm was aimed at the fact that the one thing they've achieved progress in is because doing the right thing actually happens to be the cheaper option :P

knipex

opinion guy wrote: »

Hmm I was both being sarcastic and serious at the same time. Its not cheaper for the hospital, but it is cheaper for the HSE if the person is on medical card or DPS. But I do think its a good thing too - abx are way over prescribed. My sarcasm was aimed at the fact that the one thing they've achieved progress in is because doing the right thing actually happens to be the cheaper option :P

Your not far wrong.

The cost of treating a HCAI is frightening often far more than treating the original reason for admitting the patient. Any reduction in HCAIs is a net saving for the HSE.

InReality

Alessandra wrote: »

Sorry the UK does not have a codified (written) constitution so the Irish constitution cannot be a "carbon copy". They get their law from court judgements, statutes and treaties.

I think the poster might be referring to whats in our constitution , i.e institutions such as dail , courts , etc which are heavily modelled on the uk.

madrabui

Glenster wrote: »

.....

The problem with our emergency services is that it's clogged up with drunks, hysterical mothers, and the walking dead, each of them complaining about the wait at the top of their voice.....QUOTE]

Also when you go to A&E don't bring the whole family with you. I can almost understand parents unable to get someone to mind the children, but you don't need a gaggle of adults with you.
I got the luxury of a trolley in a hallway. I don't remember much of my experience in A&E, but a person died next to me. The family were shouting a screaming (understandably) and looking for answers When the family started screaming, they sealed off a (some sort of) waiting room for me. It was my husband that I now feel sorry for as he remembers everything. What bugs me is that when I became conscious, it was only then that VHI came up in conversation. Once they realised I had it, I was sent to a private hospital ASAP. They said I should have been transferred there as soon as the fact that I had VHI was registered. Therefore I clogged up the system, on a trolley, for two nights. I’m terrified of ever going into a hospital again. I think I would have a heart attack with the panic.

KittyeeTrix

My mum was the subject of a front page write up in the local Galway tribune and I myself wrote a huge letter about the situation to the paper which was published. (I wrote a post on how she had to wait 60+ hours for a bed after suffering a major stroke in Galway). The post is a few post back.
I basically said that the nurses and all the other staff were on the frontline of a desparate service and that I applaud them for the tough job that they do day in and day out!!!!! I have nothing but the utmost respect for them.......
At the time I had been just ready to fill out my CAO as a mature student and was really liking the idea of doing midwifery but decided that I couldn't work in the shambles that is the Irish health sector and instead went with science!!!

Warrior011

problemchimp wrote: »

I arrived at Beaumont hosp. at 5.30 pm on a M onday and seen the doctor at 5.00 am. Eleven and a half hours in the waiting room before I got to see a doctor or trolley.

You were lucky to be honest, I know of one case where an individual was waiting for 36 hours in Beaumount before being seen by a doctor.

My last experience of A&E was in the Mercy Hospital in Cork, it wasn't too bad, I was only waiting for three hours with an injured thumb. It wasn't too bad overall but it could have been worse, the display in the waiting room was quoting a five hour wait before seeing a doctor (at 6:30pm on a saturday evening).

KittyeeTrix

On a side note, my daughter was kicked by a horse 3 years ago during the summer and fractured her femur quite badly (Supra-condylar fracture). She was seen immediately and was transferred to Merlin Park within an hour of arriving at UCHG emergency dept.

The following year I took her to A and E when I noticed some swelling in the tibular area of the same leg. She was sent to Merlin Park again for an appointment the next day. The consultant told me they thought she may have a tumour in her bone:eek:
She was admitted to the hospital and had to wait for 2 full weeks to get an MRI as an in-patient........2 WEEKS!!!!!
I still can't get over the fact that she was 8 years old and had to endure a nerve wracking wait like that, obviously she didn't know, when I say her, I mean me and her Dad!!!
As an outpatient she would've had to wait for almost 5 weeks.

As it turned out thank god she didn't have a tumour but had a nasty case of osteomyelitis (bone infection) which was thankfully cleared up with a long course of IV and oral antibiotics:).

Duggy747

Keep this nice and short:

Good Friday about 4 years ago I hopped an 8ft fence and basically tore my hand in 2.

Went to Roscommon hospital where I was told I'd lose 2 fingers but then a guy stitched up my hand and said halfway: "Normally, we get a hand surgeon to do this" :eek: Who the fùck are you then, the janitor!?!

Went to Galway hospital a week later for a simple check up where they told me my hand was stitched wrong and it needed to be operated on immediately.........cue me waiting in A&E for 6 hours and then waiting for a bed for 9 hours (15 hours in total waiting to be looked at) I was on a drip too so I couldn't even leave for a fùcking smoke!! They split my hand open again but at least they did a solid job of putting it back together.

My hand is ok now but lesson learned................stay away from Roscommon hospital.

Another time I waited 7 hours in A&E for a friend to have a check-up (He had bad chest pains) I was losing my mind watching the same news feeds on Sky News though I did see the reporter freak out at one point. The teleprompter broke or something. :pac:

Mars Bar

I'm lucky enough that I've never had a serious problem to have ended up in the A & E.

However, we have an empty, derelict hospital building in our town that would have taken a lot of Galway's A + E patients as well as south and west Mayo emergencies. It's going to be turned into a courthouse now. How mad is that?!

EDIT: We could have taken Duggy747 and he wouldn't have had to travel and wait so long!

dylano_k

A few years ago at a party a mate of mine slashed his knee after jumpin on my back cos i had a knife in my pocket, i was takin down balloons, and i was already pissed drunk. When the ambulance arrived i filled my laptop bags with cans of bulmers and whilst i was sitting in the waiting room i was slippin into the toilets downing the cans. After that the next thing i know its 9am the next morning and im late for work.

KittyeeTrix

dylano_k wrote: »

A few years ago at a party a mate of mine slashed his knee after jumpin on my back cos i had a knife in my pocket, i was takin down balloons, and i was already pissed drunk. When the ambulance arrived i filled my laptop bags with cans of bulmers and whilst i was sitting in the waiting room i was slippin into the toilets downing the cans. After that the next thing i know its 9am the next morning and im late for work.

LOVELY!!!!

That story there is an example of why I tell my kids I'd rather pull my eyes out of my head than make a night time trip to A and E with them....

There is absolutely nothing fcuking worse to be stuck in a small cramped hallway with a sick relative (especially a young child) and an a**hole of a drunk person is wandering about the place!!!!

It gets me sooooo on edge when I've found myself in that situation:mad:

I mean me being the person with the sick relative and not the drunken fool wandering about the place!!!!!!!!!!!!!

dylano_k

fluffyorganic1 wrote: »

LOVELY!!!!

That story there is an example of why I tell my kids I'd rather pull my eyes out of my head than make a night time trip to A and E with them....

There is absolutely nothing fcuking worse to be stuck in a small cramped hallway with a sick relative (especially a young child) and an a**hole of a drunk person is wandering about the place!!!!

It gets me sooooo on edge when I've found myself in that situation:mad:

I mean me being the person with the sick relative and not the drunken fool wandering about the place!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Im told i wasn't any trouble and i left on my own terms. Im a perfect gent when im drunk...and its my only story, iv never been in there for anything else.....except when my mate got brought in and i had my remote in my pocket somehow....it was for the same make of telly and worked on the one in the waiting room....we could watch whatever we wanted...good film on that night

KittyeeTrix

dylano_k wrote: »

Im told i wasn't any trouble and i left on my own terms. Im a perfect gent when im drunk...and its my only story, iv never been in there for anything else.....except when my mate got brought in and i had my remote in my pocket somehow....it was for the same make of telly and worked on the one in the waiting room....we could watch whatever we wanted...good film on that night

Okay then, as long as you weren't wandering around wasted !!!!!
You probably had the right idea going into the A and E drunk and chilling out watching the tv........:D
I could've done with a few drinks the times I've been in there!!!

Pdfile

Best: Smashed my elbow completely when i was a kid, got rushed straight through and was seen to immediatly, Luckly i didnt need get the metal Corrective pins installed or my childhood woulda been worse....

Worst: Queuing for 5 hours to get my hand seen to, i had a screw driver stuck in it.... Ended up just ripping it out and going to the gp.... owch.


Its the luck of the draw... or how badly you are injured, basically, if you broke a toe, break you foot and you'll get seen to quicker.