[Brighton] Woman spends nine days in A&E in stroke unit wait

[Midget]

Apols if posted elsewhere, couldn't see it. Just sharing this from the BBC.

This lady who had a stroke after the Man Utd game is still in A&E waiting for a bed in the stroke unit

Wishing her & her family well & hope she makes a good recovery.

​

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2994wk94lxo

 

[The Lemming Stomper]

If you think someone is having a stroke act FAST

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Apols if posted elsewhere, couldn't see it. Just sharing this from the BBC.

This lady who had a stroke after the Man Utd game is still in A&E waiting for a bed in the stroke unit

Wishing her & her family well & hope she makes a good recovery.

​

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2994wk94lxo

Sensationalist headline.

She is NOT in A&E. She's in the Acute Admissions Unit, and will be getting all the specialist attention she needs, albeit not on the ward she ought to be on.

My own Mum spent time in each of these units after her two strokes, until eventually moving to rehab at Hayward's Heath. I'll not have a single word said against a soul there - absolute f***ing angels.

 

[cjd]

Sensationalist headline.

She is NOT in A&E. She's in the Acute Admissions Unit, and will be getting all the specialist attention she needs, albeit not on the ward she ought to be on.

My own Mum spent time in each of these units after her two strokes, until eventually moving to rehab at Hayward's Heath. I'll not have a single word said against a soul there - absolute f***ing angels.

Thankyou so much for your response to the BBC article.

It's inaccuracies are quite shocking.

My daughter is a senior nurse in A & E Worthing and this type of sensationalist headline reporting is a thinly veiled slur on the hard work, skill and care the staff who work at A & E Departments.

'Sometimes' bed blocking occurs because 'some' close relatives ( very close relatives) are unwilling to help by either picking up elderly relatives after being ready for discharge and in 'some' cases don't wont to facilitate the discharge of their relatives at all.

 

[Commander]

Sensationalist headline.

She is NOT in A&E. She's in the Acute Admissions Unit, and will be getting all the specialist attention she needs, albeit not on the ward she ought to be on.

My own Mum spent time in each of these units after her two strokes, until eventually moving to rehab at Hayward's Heath. I'll not have a single word said against a soul there - absolute f***ing angels.

My Dad had a stroke last year and was taken there. Afraid to say his experience was much closer to this lady's than your Mother's.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Thankyou so much for your response to the BBC article.

It's inaccuracies are quite shocking.

My daughter is a senior nurse in A & E Worthing and this type of sensationalist headline reporting is a thinly veiled slur on the hard work, skill and care the staff who work at A & E Departments.

'Sometimes' bed blocking occurs because 'some' close relatives ( very close relatives) are unwilling to help by either picking up elderly relatives after being ready for discharge and in 'some' cases don't wont to facilitate the discharge of their relatives at all.

Bed blocking also occurs when patients have been in a care home, but taken a turn for the worse, so the care home then says they can't cope with their resident, as they now need additional care.
Social services then have to find a nursing home that will be willing to take the patient, for the price that the family can afford.
This happened to my Mum about five years ago. Three homes were on offer but her finance could only afford one, which was out in Hailsham. I wasn't the POA, my half-brother was, but he kept me informed.
Social services are not renowned for their organisational skills unfortunately. I'm sorry if any social worker is on this board, but I do accept their workloads are almost impossible.

 

[chip]

Thankyou so much for your response to the BBC article.

It's inaccuracies are quite shocking.

My daughter is a senior nurse in A & E Worthing and this type of sensationalist headline reporting is a thinly veiled slur on the hard work, skill and care the staff who work at A & E Departments.

'Sometimes' bed blocking occurs because 'some' close relatives ( very close relatives) are unwilling to help by either picking up elderly relatives after being ready for discharge and in 'some' cases don't wont to facilitate the discharge of their relatives at all.

Having recently been frustrated by the long wait at Worthing A&E, I understood why the wait seemd long when returning a few days later saw the major ward areas and how many people they had and even more so on the emmergency ward(s). All the ambulance, nursing and ancillary staff we came across were excellent with great professionalism, empathy and communication. They certainly deserve more reward and better working conditions in my opinion.

 

[Midget]

Please can I clarify, in sharing the article I was not intending to sensationalise or to criticise the staff. I've had experience of both A&E and the AAU a fair bit recently and they do absolutely everything they can in very difficult circumstances. I just find the situation sad.

Sorry if I caused any offence.

 

[dazzer6666]

Thankyou so much for your response to the BBC article.

It's inaccuracies are quite shocking.

My daughter is a senior nurse in A & E Worthing and this type of sensationalist headline reporting is a thinly veiled slur on the hard work, skill and care the staff who work at A & E Departments.

'Sometimes' bed blocking occurs because 'some' close relatives ( very close relatives) are unwilling to help by either picking up elderly relatives after being ready for discharge and in 'some' cases don't wont to facilitate the discharge of their relatives at all.

100% this. My daughter (also a nurse, and does occasional shifts on a stroke unit) has said exactly the same.

 

[Wardy's twin]

Sensationalist headline.

She is NOT in A&E. She's in the Acute Admissions Unit, and will be getting all the specialist attention she needs, albeit not on the ward she ought to be on.

My own Mum spent time in each of these units after her two strokes, until eventually moving to rehab at Hayward's Heath. I'll not have a single word said against a soul there - absolute f***ing angels.

Don't agree with the sensationalism but the RSCH is in a mess.

My sister went in to RSCH late March last year, there were delays in getting her any treatment and then she was moved into AAU after 36 hours but still no specialist treatment and not helped by other things such as leaving her a dinner even though she couldn't hold a knife and fork. No monitoring of fluid intake which is absolutely essential.

Very disorganised IMO, though I won't blame individuals working there who work under terrible conditions , lots of people doing things but very few who seemed to know what they should be doing.

Unfortunately she got worse, caught COVID and died there.

 

[Zeberdi]

I’m afraid I have had more than my fair share of enforced (ie 111 paramedics insisting on taking me or GP calling ambulances) A&E visits in the past 14 months (at two different hospitals ) - 13 with 10 leading to hospitalisation. I myself only called 999 once in that time which led to an emergency op - each time I was triaged immediately in a rapid assessment unit and given emergency care and then eventually given a bed on an UAU (Urgent Assessment Unit) - at both hospitals. However, waiting for a bed on an appropriate ward, on average took 24-48 hours such is the demand for beds. Even then, I was admitted frequently to a ward that wasn’t the right specialty.

My last hospital admission (for medication induced liver damage) I was on a hard transport trolley in a busy brightly lit, and very noisy public hospital corridor for 48 hrs (you can imagine what a trigger that is for someone who’s autistic ) ) - during that time, although I was stressed, very uncomfortable and very fatigued and with no privacy whatsoever, I saw several doctors, my surgeon who had operated on me previously came down to see me, I had xrays, bloods and hourly obs and 2 nurses pulled up a chair in the corner to write their notes and chatted to me most of the time so I didn’t feel ‘abandoned’. I had a drip inserted, medication prescribed and blankets and pillows bought to me.

The nursing staff and doctors were incredible in very difficult circumstances - it wasn’t their fault that beds were desperately short but they were getting moaned at, verbally abused and put upon by angry relatives, patients constantly complaining and shouting from their beds. I spent the time chatting to my friendly nurses and generally making the best of it but I wouldn’t be an A&E nurse or doctor if it were the last job on earth.

2 days lying on a rock hard trolly in a corridor bombarded by the noise of patients and families brushing past me, people shouting out, lights blazing just a few feet above my head was I think the best version of hell I could think of but the nursing staff and doctors were some the best and kindest I have ever met which made it bearable.

TL;DR

It is very rare imo that people who are critically ill or at least been bought in by ambulance and obviously very sick don’t get the immediate help they need while in A&E. That’s what triage is for. It does mean very long waits in a chair in the waiting room for others who are not in need of life-saving emergency treatment and to be honest, the reason you go to A&E, isn’t to get a nice bed with a view and bedside table, it is to get emergency treatment which you can receive on a trolly in a corridor, unpleasant though that is.

(The staffing shortage and lack of communication on the wards though is a different matter.)

 

[dsr-burnley]

What I don't understand about how the NHS works is how my nearest hospitals to the east (Burnley and Blackburn) are pretty much a shambles and have been for 20 years, and my nearest to the west (Airedale) has been vastly better. Why is nothing ever done about the useless and incompetent people running certain parts of the service?

For example, when I needed an operation a few years back, I researched how many times operations were cancelled. Over the previous 5 years, it was Blackburn more than 5,000 and Airedale 15. (Of particular macabre interest was the man with a gall bladder problem - same as me - whose operation was cancelled 7 times before being done at the 8th time of action on an emergency basis. He died.)

Why don't the clearly incompetent highly paid bosses get sacked and replaced by someone better?

I have no gripe at all about the men and women at the sharp end.

 

[Weststander]

Thankyou so much for your response to the BBC article.

It's inaccuracies are quite shocking.

My daughter is a senior nurse in A & E Worthing and this type of sensationalist headline reporting is a thinly veiled slur on the hard work, skill and care the staff who work at A & E Departments.

'Sometimes' bed blocking occurs because 'some' close relatives ( very close relatives) are unwilling to help by either picking up elderly relatives after being ready for discharge and in 'some' cases don't wont to facilitate the discharge of their relatives at all.

In addition, some nursing homes refuse to have back from hospitals residents whose best place is back with them. The $$$$ owner and manager wanting ‘simple cases’ only.

 

[Hamilton]

I had a little health issue and ended up in A&E in Princess Royal and the RSCH.

The conditions that the staff are working under are incredibly hard. It felt like the A&E was operating way over capacity with patients (mainly elderly) piled up in corridors and most paramedic crews unable to hand over their patients due to waits.

The system is creaking due to the number of people now requiring care and under investment.

But, at no time did I feel unsafe or uncared for. The staff - despite the continuous pressure - were brilliant. I stayed in an A&E corridor for a total of about 5 hours before being admitted to a bay (not a bed).

What we need is more capacity and more people in the NHS. We also need people to look after themselves more so that we are not putting pressure on the NHS and we start to look at it as a valuable resource rather then something we just use freely with little regard for the costs involved. Some people need care and do something about their lifestyle post-care to ensure they do not use the NHS unnecessarily. Some don’t.

Sadly, people do not see the link between encouraging people to come here to work and pay taxes so that we can pay for these things; clamping down on tax avoidance so we can pay for these things; redistributing wealth through fair remuneration to a wider number of people to increase taxes so that we can pay for these things etc etc.

But, as others have said, the people working in the NHS are doing everything they can and the care I experienced over a number of days in hospital was amazing - and was amazing afterwards.

 

[Brian Fantana]

My Dad had a stroke last year and was taken there. Afraid to say his experience was much closer to this lady's than your Mother's.

The same with my aunt. Her experience was about 10 months ago and I have to say it wasn’t great at all.

 

[Henfield One]

Sensationalist headline.

She is NOT in A&E. She's in the Acute Admissions Unit, and will be getting all the specialist attention she needs, albeit not on the ward she ought to be on.

My own Mum spent time in each of these units after her two strokes, until eventually moving to rehab at Hayward's Heath. I'll not have a single word said against a soul there - absolute f***ing angels.

Sadly, you are totally wrong about this case - I won't go into details here, but you can PM me. I do though agree that the nursing staff are angels.

 

[chickens]

It’s broken at both ends (by design I hasten to add)

Bed shortages are largely caused by social care being broken, and A&E gets unnecessary visitors because families can’t reach their GP in a timely manner and don’t feel they can take risks with their families, especially when the very young or the very elderly are involved.

The absolute failure to plan and budget for increasing the number of GPs falls upon our current government.

The reason so many beds are blocked, is that social care is funded by local authorities, and their settlement from central government has been slashed brutally by this Conservative government.

The Conservatives have tried to sell this as “efficiency”, arguing that local authorities don’t do anything very important except mow the grass and fill the occasional pothole. Actually local authorities are responsible for social care and social services, and when you starve the authorities of cash, you decimate local services. This inevitably causes logjams in the provision of social care, with local authorities forced to rely on private care homes, who (as already mentioned) only want to take straightforward cases.

With nowhere to discharge patients to, beds in hospitals get blocked, instead of freed up for new patients. This completely avoidable situation is entirely caused by the Conservative Party’s decision to prioritise “tax cuts” over funding local authorities.

This in turn causes avoidable human misery and degradation. I’d personally rather maintain the NHS and social care, and by proxy human dignity.

The endgame here for the Conservatives is to pronounce the NHS fundamentally broken, and replace it with a US style model, as their donors would wish. They probably only need one more term to achieve it too.

Hopefully another party can get the NHS and social care up and running again, but I’ll be watching with interest what happens to local authority settlements under our next government. This incarnation of the Conservative Party is a party of barbarians.

The alternative would be to take social care out of local authority budgets and instead fund it centrally (a National Care Service)

TLDR - utter callousness from the modern Conservative Party has brought us here. Deliberately.

 

[drew]

What I don't understand about how the NHS works is how my nearest hospitals to the east (Burnley and Blackburn) are pretty much a shambles and have been for 20 years, and my nearest to the west (Airedale) has been vastly better. Why is nothing ever done about the useless and incompetent people running certain parts of the service?

For example, when I needed an operation a few years back, I researched how many times operations were cancelled. Over the previous 5 years, it was Blackburn more than 5,000 and Airedale 15. (Of particular macabre interest was the man with a gall bladder problem - same as me - whose operation was cancelled 7 times before being done at the 8th time of action on an emergency basis. He died.)

Why don't the clearly incompetent highly paid bosses get sacked and replaced by someone better?

I have no gripe at all about the men and women at the sharp end.

Can you explain why it is the bosses fault those operations were cancelled.

 

[drew]

It’s broken at both ends (by design I hasten to add)

Bed shortages are largely caused by social care being broken, and A&E gets unnecessary visitors because families can’t reach their GP in a timely manner and don’t feel they can take risks with their families, especially when the very young or the very elderly are involved.

The absolute failure to plan and budget for increasing the number of GPs falls upon our current government.

The reason so many beds are blocked, is that social care is funded by local authorities, and their settlement from central government has been slashed brutally by this Conservative government.

The Conservatives have tried to sell this as “efficiency”, arguing that local authorities don’t do anything very important except mow the grass and fill the occasional pothole. Actually local authorities are responsible for social care and social services, and when you starve the authorities of cash, you decimate local services. This inevitably causes logjams in the provision of social care, with local authorities forced to rely on private care homes, who (as already mentioned) only want to take straightforward cases.

With nowhere to discharge patients to, beds in hospitals get blocked, instead of freed up for new patients. This completely avoidable situation is entirely caused by the Conservative Party’s decision to prioritise “tax cuts” over funding local authorities.

This in turn causes avoidable human misery and degradation. I’d personally rather maintain the NHS and social care, and by proxy human dignity.

The endgame here for the Conservatives is to pronounce the NHS fundamentally broken, and replace it with a US style model, as their donors would wish. They probably only need one more term to achieve it too.

Hopefully another party can get the NHS and social care up and running again, but I’ll be watching with interest what happens to local authority settlements under our next government. This incarnation of the Conservative Party is a party of barbarians.

The alternative would be to take social care out of local authority budgets and instead fund it centrally (a National Care Service)

TLDR - utter callousness from the modern Conservative Party has brought us here. Deliberately.

Agree with all that. In addition, the hospitals always used to operate with some spare capacity so that, for example the winter flu season, they could cope. Now they are operating pretty much at full capacity for the full 12 months. Tories saw that spare capacity as waste rather than as proper contingency planning.

 

[amexer]

It is so easy for media to highlight something that has gone weong. In last few months 2 relatives have attended A&E at Sussex County and a friend at Haywards Heath.. All recieved very good care and attention.