"War zone"

My husband was taken to A&E last night. For a 'refurbished' unit, the waiting area was extremely cold due to the double sliding doors on the unit and lobby, the chairs were very uncomfortable, not a problem if you're there for an hour or so but that is clearly not the case. It was dirty, drinks spilled on the floor. The men's loos were out of action, meaning there was only one toilet in the area. It's clearly used as the local youth club. We witnessed 6 security guards escorting one woman out of the department, there were at least 4 police officers present, and yet the youth club element remained uncontested.

People had been waiting for hours when we got there, we heard one elderly gentleman, in his pyjamas, being told it was a 40 hour wait for a bed. We then had to wait for hours to be seen. The staff, aside from the ladies who brought round tea at about 1.00am, were cold and disinterested, the admin staff were more interested in each other, their mobile phones and form filling than interacting with patients. We're given to understand this chaos is business as usual...it shouldn't be. At one point, we were in a consult room and three different members of staff came into the room to use the computer, borrow supplies or ask questions of the doctor. At no time was any reassurance given to the frightening experience my husband was going through. Finally we left at 2.00am, without blood tests or results, or prescribed medication, which we were told we could only collect from the hospital pharmacy which was closed.The whole experience was terrifying.