h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Cutting a long story short.
On the advice of a district nurse given in reply to call made on an emergency phone number I took my 81 year old wife to our hospital A&E. She had pain and abnormal swelling of her left knee following a full knee replacement operation carried out two weeks ago.
Booked her in at the A&E reception desk 5. 40 am. we are told to wait for attention.
Sitting in an empty waiting room time 5.55am who was the next person to see us ?

Hi AB. I'm sorry to hear about your wife's pain and discomfort.

I would have though that A&E would have assigned you a triage nurse within a relatively short space of time to assess the problem and decide on the appropriate action and priority (they may have been treating people even though there wasn't anyone in the waiting room).

I hope all was well in the end.

From what I know of A&E (and I've had substantial experience of it in Bradford in the past 2 years) the first person you'll see is a triage doctor or nurse for assessment. Then it'll be tests and x-rays as needed, treatment and finally admission or sent home.

People coming in ambulances are counted as waiting and may be booked in before they arrive and anyone in the police/vulnerable persons room would be at the head of a queue. A&E has lots of hidey-holes so the fact the main waiting room is empty doesn't mean they aren't busy.

Hope Mrs AB is well again soon

Thanks for you concern guys.
The triage nurse came just two minutes after the security officer who came and told me remove my car from the police slot that I had parked in. Both my wife and myself have blue card parking badges, my wife could barely walk with the situation she was in. I suppose that I should have called for an ambulance to get her there in the first place.
It was 6.OO am in the morning. Outside A&E there were 6 empty ambulance slots and two police slots with me parked in one of them.
After the triage nurse had seen my wife we were told to wait for an available doctor. We were the only people in the waiting room expecting to be taken through the swing doors into the true A&E area for attention. I went and moved my car into the nearest official parking area. Returned to my wife it was now 6.15 am. What happened next ?

Colonel Mustard came out of the drawing room with a suspicious looking length of rope?

Your wife got treated?

My wife's medication was scheduled for 6.30am. I went to the reception desk to ask if she should take her medication. The receptionist told me that my wife must wait for the doctor. I asked why she could not go and ask for advice , she told me there were a lot of ill people who required treatment and I must sit down and wait. Fortunately at that moment the nurse came to take us through the swing doors to the heart of A&E.
There my wife got understanding and sympathetic treatment. The doctor was worried about blood clotting and possible infection spreading to the wound caused by the operation. His words 'That would be catastrophic'.
There was much more to tell but I will cut the saga short because I fear there are those who want to make a joke of it and I am in no mood for joking.

Your wife got treated within an hour of arriving at A and E? Sounds like a record to me. I'm not making a joke, that sounds like a normal good time frame for a public health system.

I'm glad she is alright and you got a good doctor

A and E can be a soulless place sometimes. I have a lot of respect for people that work there - they have to deal with incredibly full on situations alot that require compassion and emotional care but that involve strangers. It's a strange scene. But you also always get people that are patronising or who are unable to empathise in the moment or just having a bad day.

Crack on kea, the good side is there, after the hour of waiting. The bad side is in the events in hour before you get to the good side. There was more to tell, but I'm out. I might develop it as an entry sometime if the end result turns out ok.

For attention SWL re post no.5 : F17194316?thread=8113264

This post has been removed.

I called SWL a pillock because of his thoughtless post 5. All he needs to to do is post an apology for his unconsidered, tasteless and ill timed joke. He needs to think and read before he posts.
World English Dictionary
pillock - slang ( Brit ) a stupid or annoying person

There, you've been told SWL (good one AB).

I was referring to the link posted for SWL

Nice to know that pillock makes it through the filter.

A&E can seem a joke when drunkards brought in by ambulance are seen before genuine 'walk in' people are attended to




GT

AB - Once again we have the spectacle of one of your long-winded whinges. This time you decided to spread it out in instalments. Instead of the "What happened next" balls, why not have your whinge and the accompanying appeal for sympathy in one post and get it over with instead of cluttering up Ask H2G2 with your "Eebagum, it wasn't like this when I were a lad, this used to be all fields, I'm 103 you know" bilge?

kea - I suspect that it is SWL who is doing the yikesing. He doesn't like the subject heading 'You are a Pillock' in his message centre.
I wonder what it is that he and the moderators think that Pillock means.
I was using the thread as an outlet, I have done this in the past in stressful situations. A virtual world is very helpful in this respect unless some pillock steps out of line. Even then a well intended bollocking has theraputic qualities.
PS I visited my wife in hospital tonight, things are now under control and she will be home tomorrow with full home nursing support.

Come on editors, you can't be serious. This is a simple direct confrontation. No obscenities or foul words. The p#llxxk in question should be the one who's post is moderated. I leave it to you to replace the posts when you take a look at the situation.

Moderators. Please leave SWL's posts intact. They show him up for the true waffernack that he is. Having said that at the stroke of midnight I must go to bed.

Sorry to hear about your wife, Ancient Brit, and I'm glad she got the treatment eventually. When my wife thought she was having a heart attack in the middle of the night, I rang 999 and asked them should I drive her straight to the hospital or wait for an ambulance. They said I should drive her straight there because I could get her there in 10 minutes. When we got there, she had to sit in a waiting room for about 40 minutes before anybody looked at her. Once they did, they treated her very well. So your experience is very similar to mine.