"Bad experience in A&E department."

My husband has complex health problems including angina and mixed dementia. Following 3 days of frequent angina attacks, he had such pain late at night that NHS 24 ordered an ambulance to take him to A&E. It arrived after 1 hour and came from Coatbridge with a lovely team who were very caring and took him to A&E Larbert. He was seen by triage nurse quite soon at around 2am .

After that, he was assigned to the waiting room, in his pyjamas still, until 6am in the morning. When we enquired when he might be seen, we were advised it would be another 3 hours minimum, as there were 7 patients ahead of us and all the cubicles were full.

My poor husband had sat all night in a porter’s chair, sleepy and in pain. I had sat there with him. Another 3 hours was unimaginable. So, I took him home. He has continued to have the painful attacks and we have been able to book a telephone consultation with his GP in a week’s time.

Surely this is not how to care for a person with angina and dementia, among other things?

We have had a good service in the past, but this was a dreadful, anxiety provoking experience and a waste of time.