Negligent A & E grrrrr

I have been in and out of A&E just lately and have to say all of my treatment has been great. Horse bit me and i had to have stitches, they even arranged for a plastic surgeon as i was worried about it scarring and looking unsightly and the job he did was brilliant (think i was a bit of a novelty with a horse bite). Kicked in the chest and i had full xrays and was thoroughly examined. Numerous operations and the treatment before and after has been very good. I know we are lucky with our hospital and i am thankful like others have said this is not the American system!

Sorry for yourinjury OP i hope they get it sorted for you.
 
Lolo said:
:D It's a decent hospital I reckon they were brilliant with my sister despite her being totally mental (smushed collar bone, refused to be cut out of her XC colours...).
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They were very good with me when I refused to have my chaps cut off aswell. I'm sure they must think all horse people are totally barking :o

TBF it's the only hospital I've ever been to but they have always been amazing for me...
 
angel7 said:
In each one of these horrible tales, the 100 other people treated in that A and E will be alive and well due to the care they received that day.
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Unfortunately just speaking as a single individual, I have a mother who nearly died of a post op infection contracted in an NHS hospital, a father who did die in hospital of a stroke because he was not told he was at high risk of blood clots and should not have been allowed out of bed to wander round the ward (diagnosed with diverticulitis when in fact his artificial heart valve was knackered), a terminally ill relative who was left overnight with no bed clothes, and was allowed to die in the most undiginified manner, and a child who is lucky to be here because at 3 in the morning when I was in the delivery room, the midwives and the on call whatever he was had a stand up blazing row because he wouldn't let them call out the consultant to save my baby (and possibly me) - thank god one of them had the guts to call him anyway :confused::confused:

I am really sorry but i think the NHS has gone to the dogs :(
 
I've had good experiences with a&e, hairline fracture in my toe was found and treated, had more trouble last year with drs/wards!
I was ill from nov - dec with some terrible bug. My mum rang the drs loads of times but they refused to come out. Got to the point where I was hallucinating, unable to get out of bed, throwing up constantly and my mum lost it with the dr and managed to get them to come out. Dr took one look at me and called an ambulance. I had meningitis luckily caught just in time but I then had enchephalitis (swelling of the fluid around the brain) caused by the meningitis. This caused me to have short term memory loss and the drs didn't know if I would ever regain my memories as I lost about 2/3 years for a while. Luckily I remember almost everything but there is about a month which I still can't remember :(
First ward I was on was for cancer paitients, and scarily this was where most of the problems were! I fell out of the bed and was unable to sit up let alone stand luckily my mum was there but even with her I was stuck on the floor for hours as it was against healthy and safety to help my mum get me back into bed!
Plus they were very impatient with me when I was only 16, agorophobic and very anxious as I hadn't been out of my house for 6 months, couldn't remember why I was in hospital ect.
I was very lucky to have my mum around to get me the help I needed, she couldn't leave me because she didn't trust the nurses to help me when I asked because she saw how bad it was.
 
Actually Jesstickle that is NOT a big thumbs up at all! Rib fractures should not & should never be x-rayed!! They should be diagnosed with a clinical examination, only of there is suspicion of a pnueomothorax (again assessed clinically) should a patient be x-rayed. Whilst you think your mum had great care she actually received an justified & unnessecary radiation dose :(

I hate threads that turn into NHS bashing. Yes mistakes are made but it is often because the pressure that A&E staff are under. We estimated that 2/3rds of the patients we had through the A&E doors shouldn't have been there. Yet time & time again we hear the same thing : 'I didn't want to wait for a GP appointment', 'I wanted to be seen quicker', 'I'm going shopping & I thought I'd nip in on my way into town'
A&E is THE most abused resource. Because people see it as free they use it for the most ridiculous things....yes I've seen a woman come in with a verruca, someone who had had a stuff finger for 13 years...the list goes on & on.
The up shot of the time wasters is that the staff are over pressured & then that is when mistakes get made with genuine problems.
 
I got kicked in the guts by my horse and was stabbed by the rug clip - totally freak accident. My treatment was good. I was x-rayed and seen by various doctors (I was quite spaced out on gas and air at the time) and admitted over night. The ambulance driver came to see if I was okay whilst I was there. They let me go the next evening after being satisfied that I wasn't going to bleed to death.

I really feel for the people that have had bad experiences. Its shocking.
 
glamourpuss said:
Actually Jesstickle that is NOT a big thumbs up at all! Rib fractures should not & should never be x-rayed!! They should be diagnosed with a clinical examination, only of there is suspicion of a pnueomothorax (again assessed clinically) should a patient be x-rayed. Whilst you think your mum had great care she actually received an justified & unnessecary radiation dose :(
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I think she'll live! She's had more x rays than most people have hot dinners. They aren't exactly dangerous and I'm still very grateful to them for seeing her at all given that she is such a numpty she has no idea how she did it! I'm sure they only did it because they felt it was necessary

If you don't want people to bash the NHS I advise you not to do it when someone posts to say they're happy. You aren't exactly helping are you?! You sound like as much as a critic as everyone else on this thread frankly!

And, for the record, my mother is pretty good with pain and I doubt she asked for an xray. I'm sure it was offered rather than demanded.
 
glamourpuss on my trips to A&E and surveying the waiting room I have often wondered whether there should be a definition of

i) accident
ii) emergency

on the door.

equally I think some doctors surgeries are much better than others at seeing patients relatively quickly (ie them not waiting a week or two for something that is quite acute)
 
I'm afraid we will have to agree to disagree on your mothers care. I do not believe she had the best treatment.I can't believe you think X-rays aren't dangerous. They are radiation. They interact with cells in the body & can cause cancer ( & not just at high levels). The more X-rays you have the higher your chances of getting a radiation induced cancer.
 
I fractured my pelvis and there was no treatment just painkillers and was given crutches. If it happened in November it should have healed by now? But I guess it depends on where in the pelvis was the fracture. Don't know how you could have walked with it let alone ride I couldn't put one foot in front of the other!
 
A few years ago I went to check my boy over and when I was talking to my boy another horse in the field came up over the hill. I never noticed him and he swiftly ran me over sending me flying through the air. The yard sent for a ambulance as I couldnt walk and they said it was muscular issue and no point taking me to a&e. I went to physio the next week for my neck and she had a look at my plevis. She referred me to dr as she couldnt get near the sore bit without me trying to kill her. lol. Dr referred me for xray and they never saw nothing but still physio couldnt help the sore bit so I got a mri scan. It turned out the accident had damaged the 2 jointy bits at the back of my plevis next to the spine.

Its shocking to read how many people seem to have been bad experiences with the health service!
 
glamourpuss said:
I'm afraid we will have to agree to disagree on your mothers care. I do not believe she had the best treatment.I can't believe you think X-rays aren't dangerous. They are radiation. They interact with cells in the body & can cause cancer ( & not just at high levels). The more X-rays you have the higher your chances of getting a radiation induced cancer.
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Don't worry. I understand entirely what X-rays are :) She'd be at more risk from living in Cornwall!

However, I am no doctor, merely a lowly scientist with a grasp on what an x-ray is, so if you as a medic tell me different I suppose I have to believe you!
 
I think the point ( I'm rather clumsily) making is that x-rays + expensive tests does not = great hospital care.
Doctors should be giving full clinical examinations & from there deciding on the best course of action.
If doctors & nurses could spend less time dealing with time wasters more time could be spent on the examinations of people who need help & they would get a better course of care/treatment

Maybe a fine for those deemed to be wasting hospital time perhaps?
 
glamourpuss said:
I think the point ( I'm rather clumsily) making is that x-rays + expensive tests does not = great hospital care.


Maybe a fine for those deemed to be wasting hospital time perhaps?
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That I can agree with you on!

I don't know how you solve the problem of time wasting. So many people are complete wimps that they think they need to be at the hospital and I doubt you'd be able to convince them otherwise! Even though they've only broken the top of their finger and no one can do anything for it anyway!
 
Jesstickle I'm a trauma specialist radiographer so I do feel qualified to comment :)
I won't bore people with the legislation & policies that I'm governed by but the crux is I have to prevent unnecessary dose & keep other radiation doses as low as reasonably practicable ( IRMER regulations)

God, I'm boring myself now :D
I just take my job very seriously Lol.

In all seriousness I'm glad your mum was happy with her treatment & I hope she feels better soon :)
 
glamoupuss, I'm a molecular biologist so am reasonably qualified to comment on how likely your DNA is to be seriously damaged from radiation too, just from other other side of the coin. I even used to work in a radio licensed lab and I don't have cancer yet!

I'm pretty sure current thinking is something along the lines of a dental x-ray being equivalent to being Cornwall for two weeks. If you're freaked out by my mother having an unnecessary x-ray don't ever come to our lab. We have much nastier stuff than that to deal with! I UV myself on a regular basis for starters! :eek: And that's without bringing the intercalating dyes into the equation, lol!
 
jesstickle said:
I'm still very grateful to them for seeing her at all given that she is such a numpty she has no idea how she did it!
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I've said it before and I'll say it again. Your mother is a legend. Honestly. Breaking ribs without realising it :cool: :D

jesstickle said:
glamoupuss, I'm a molecular biologist so am reasonably qualified to comment on how likely your DNA is to be seriously damaged from radiation too, just from other other side of the coin. I even used to work in a radio licensed lab and I don't have cancer yet!

I'm pretty sure current thinking is something along the lines of a dental x-ray being equivalent to being Cornwall for two weeks. If you're freaked out by my mother having an unnecessary x-ray don't ever come to our lab. We have much nastier stuff than that to deal with! I UV myself on a regular basis for starters! :eek: And that's without bringing the intercalating dyes into the equation, lol!
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Agreed (also molecular biologist). Seriously - I play with chemical mutagens for fun and "real" radiation and it doesn't compare to x-rays! I also expose myself to UV (at the same level I use to nick DNA for mutagenesis / membrane fixation etc) on a regular basis and I don't seem to have died yet :D Ethidium bromide, teabags, anyone? JT? :D

It is more hazardous to live in Aberdeen, Cornwall, or indeed, head off into space :D
 
Rowreach I'm sorry you have had such bad experiences in hospital, but quite frankly your hospitals sound *****e!! Did you take each case further?

Having only ever had excellent care for myself and my family it seems postcode lottery care continues
 
The big problem we have is that we seem to have to go to A&E for "minor" things - not life threatening but not treatable elsewhere - minor injuries just refer you on to A&E and GP does nothing/refers you on to A&E. Truely ridiculous.

Recently went for cut finger on OH because there was fat prolapsing out of the cut and it was pretty deep. He's a vet so most often just superglues cuts and ignores, but paniced on that one because animals don't do that (while humans do!) That visit involved an unnecessary x-ray because the protocol said one was compulsory for cuts involving glass. He'd cut himself on the intact top of a glass phial, so no risk of bits in it. Given his hands are probably the most radiographed bit of him (holding things) he thought that was a bit silly. Local minor injuries unit doesn't do x-rays or stitches, so we had to go to A&E (and have been sent there in the past for x-rays, stitches and for getting something out of his eye.

Had to go to A&E after a visit to the local minor injuries unit where they'd stained my eye, diagnosed scratches to the retina but not flushed with any local anaesthetic. I couldn't see out of that eye, and was in major pain and was obeying instructions to go to A&E if ab drops didn't help. They didn't, so went back, waited several hours, eventually got seen, scratched retina rediagnosed, this time flushed with local and better almost instantly - if the minor injuries unit had done that I would never have been at A&E! Didn't get on particularly well with the goo, which was making my eye more sore, but replaced it at pharmacy with drops which were fine. OH had to go to A&E for something (tree/grass seed) stuck in his eye because the minor injuries unit didn't have a slit lamp. His practice has one, but they're not allowed to self treat!

One final one, not actually A&Es fault, but GP being hopeless nearly requiring a wasted A&E visit. 3 days after an arthroscopy I was in agony and the prescribed painkillers were doing nothing - which is a potential sign of an infection in the joint. Went to GP (as per advice) and they wouldn't even undo the bandages to look at it - guess they don't do dressings either!
 
horse bucked hurt my back went to docs and they said they thought i had chipped the base of my spine so went to hospital turned up at the so called 24 hour x-ray at 5 pm not a soul there waited for 1/2 an hour but saw no one went out to the main desk, no one went back the next morning had my x-ray came back clear put on some painkillers but still in agony should i go and demand an MRI?

omg poor you get better soon!!! :)
 
A and E is a scary place on a saturday night- my boyfriend collapsed in agonising chest pains and struggling to breathe so call an ambulance. They put him on lots of morphine and rush him to hopsital, but he reacts badly to the morphine and so is pretty dazed and struggles to talk. This means the staff when we got there decided he was just drunk and had been in a fight and nothing i said could alter their opinion that that was what had happened. They took him into x ray and got an abnormal x ray and so the on call consultant asked an immediate ct scan before being called off elsewhere- this was ignored by the doctors in A and E and subsequently on the ward, he finally got the scan 3 days later when the pain had subsided and it was normal (though different to the x ray)- he got 3 days of being told to drink less when it turns out it was a pneumathorax...

The poor middle aged woman who came into the next bed with a broken arm got greeted by the doctor with "had too much to drink then have we?" her response was a nice cutting "no but the guy who did this to me had" i understand A and E is stressful for doctors but they need to get the facts before accusing everyone in sight, many people are scared and in pain and need reassurance!

mind you my experience with the NHS in general has been appauling- lost the labrum to my shoulder (the bit that stops it dislocating) and when they looked at my shoulder over the course of 3 years i was told it was normal to not be able to write because of pain and to grow up. I was also asked "does this feel like its dislocating?" how am i meant to know that when i dont know its diclocated!! went private and the consultant was shocked and operated immediately

also had the same shoulder put back into position during an x ray as she said it couldnt be dislocated as there had been no trauma...

now i just avoid hospitals like the plague!
 
I had a nasty fall off of a 'new horse' to the yard (got given the nutters!) after trying to get it to jump a spread. She landed after the 2nd pole not 3rd and went right between the poles and freaked. I came off and managed to get a pole land on my foot,.....very very painful, couldnt put pressure on. But, not being beaten, got back on and did the jump until it was correct....an hour or so later I realised my foot had swollen so much I couldnt physically remove my boot! My mum laughing at me had one end and me pulling against her in agonny to try and get the boot off. My foot was like a ball! Anyway, let it calm and went to docs who said 'bad sprain', take some pain killers when home. Turns out I had crushed the bones in my big toe (lots of littel breaks) and the one next to it, to the point I have no movement in either now as they were so badly damaged.
 
JFTD said:
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Your mother is a legend. Honestly. Breaking ribs without realising it :cool: :D
Ethidium bromide, teabags, anyone? JT? :D
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Whilst I wouldn't call her cool she is incredibly bad ass when it comes to pain. It must be a bad one as I've known her break several ribs in her time and she's never taken herself to hospital for them. I don't know anyone like her for just mopping up agonising pain like it isn't there. She puts me to shame that's for sure!

And as to EtBr tea bags, don't mind if I do thank you very much. I actually think that modern studies show it isn't too bad unless you actually bathe in it but I can strongly advise you not to put your bare arm on the UV light box. It will burn you! :eek: Skin cancer here I come!
 
wonderhorse11 said:
OMG poor child :'( some docs are so irrisponsible its stupid!!!!
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My GP refused to come out when my newborn son wouldn't stop crying. He told me it was colic. I already had two other children - I knew what colic looked like.

We had to take him into hospital and he started fitting on the way there. Turned out to be full blown meningitis and septicaemia. :eek:

Luckily he survived. He's a bit "different" from other kids - he's a bit autistic and thinks differently from the rest of us but is in good health.
 
scrunchie said:
My GP refused to come out when my newborn son wouldn't stop crying. He told me it was colic. I already had two other children - I knew what colic looked like.

We had to take him into hospital and he started fitting on the way there. Turned out to be full blown meningitis and septicaemia. :eek:

Luckily he survived. He's a bit "different" from other kids - he's a bit autistic and thinks differently from the rest of us but is in good health.
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my mothers job is to look after people with learning disability's she has a woman who's 40 but got the brainage of an 8 year old and shes got a son they both live at home for 4 years so i know what you mean!!!!!

its hard to belive docs go through what 6/7 years training isn't it!!
 
scrunchie said:
My GP refused to come out when my newborn son wouldn't stop crying. He told me it was colic. I already had two other children - I knew what colic looked like.

We had to take him into hospital and he started fitting on the way there. Turned out to be full blown meningitis and septicaemia. :eek:

Luckily he survived. He's a bit "different" from other kids - he's a bit autistic and thinks differently from the rest of us but is in good health.
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How awful for you. It isn't always the case though, I sound like some dementedly pro NHS weirdo but.. my OH had meningitis when he was 8 and it was the family GP who spotted it and said to OH's mother, don't even call an ambulance, drive as fast as you can to A&E. And she'd dragged the poor child into the surgery, not even asked for a call out! :eek:

Doctors said it was caught just in time to stop and permanent damage, so some GPs out there are pretty amazing.
 
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