"Poor experience "

Our son went into A & E having collapsed, been sick, and being very confused, he didn’t even know his own name. The process in A & E is chaotic with people being left in the waiting room for many hours, sometimes days, because there are no beds. They were very slow putting him on antibiotics, which did sort out the infection he had. The reason they were slow was because there was nowhere for him to go. They eventually put him on a reclining seat in A & E and then into a cubicle after about 24 hours. Once he was treated he recovered quite well. The system would work much better if patients were treated quickly and either moved to beds or sent home.

The worst part of the experience was that they allowed him to escape in the night despite promising us that they would supervise him. He walked about 2 miles from hospital towards home, he was very confused so anything could have happened. The hospital didn’t even report him to the police as missing! It was down to his girlfriend to report it once she knew. Thankfully the police found him safely.

The other difficult part of the experience was the way the staff at the hospital spoke with him and his girlfriend. They practically accused them of drug abuse, domestic violence, mental health issues. It was clear that they were looking for a reason to send him home rather than treating him. I appreciate that they are under pressure but need to treat patients and family with respect. This was not just our experience, others in the waiting room had longer waits and were treated very badly. Overall our son was in the A & E waiting room for about 10 hours and in A & E department for about 36 hours.