"Dreadful and saddening experience"

I had a problem with an aching in my shoulder down to corner of my chest. Having Angina my wife urged me as a precaution to visit the doctor. Got in to see same day (my practice is excellent) and doctor advised a visit to Chesterfield Hospital A&E to be safe for blood tests etc.

I begrudgingly agreed having heard dreadful reports regarding staff and waiting times there but needs must as you can't take chances.

Having got there the same day we were greeted with a scene of overcrowded chaos , people who were drunk or had taken drugs mingled with children (no creche or play area to keep them occupied).

To precis the rest of this story...i had to wait 2 hours 40 mins just to have bloods taken and E.C.G. (even though urgent letter from doctor), a further 2 hours to see the hospital doctor, and yet a further 2hrs 30 mins to wait for a second blood test result. Bloods were taken by a phlebotomist  who made a complete mess of my arm, of which i might add in all my years of having injections for one reason or another i have never, ever had a problem, and in the end on both blood tests i had to have 4 different places injected...an unnecessary and hugely unpleasant experience.

Not only that, a nurse then came to see us and asked us to go to x ray department (which we couldn't understand as the doctor in A&E never asked for) which took another half an hour. All this and every time we actually saw somebody for bloods, doctor etc they asked the same questions and seemed to have no idea whatsoever of why i was in there, not even seen the doctors note from our practice.

By now i was getting more and more angry and frustrated at our supposedly wonderful N.H.S. which i had contributed all my working days into and quite frankly looked like a scene out of a seriously poor third world country hospital. I feel that the system is now completely outdated, coping with millions more people than it was designed for but with a similar amount of hospital beds and staff; it feels just ridiculous and beyond a joke.

In the end having had all my results it was close on that my wife and i had been there for nearly nine hours.

Incredibly, my blood pressure has always been spot on over the past yrs even though i had a heart bypass some 12 yrs ago, and when i first had it taken when we first got to A&E it was also excellent. By the time i was ready for being discharged i had blood pressure taken again and it had gone sky high!! No coincidence this was to do purely with my experience in the hours i spent there. As having rested and finally got home it was back to normal!

Look.....I cannot say that i am blaming the staff at the hospital who are under immense pressure due to the ludicrous situation they are placed under (although i will say on the admin side they weren't terribly impressive and some of the nurses gave the impression they had gone past the stage of caring ) and generally were good , but the system has to change otherwise quite frankly people may not go into hospital until diagnosis is too late for them and tragedies could become widespread.

To finish off with, when i first got there i sat next to a patient who had been there for 3 hours and still not had tests done. By the time we left they were still there waiting for more blood tests (another 2hrs they said they were told) so in total they were probably still there waiting 14 hours!

I sincerely hope something very quickly can be looked at changing our health service to alleviate the weight off the shoulders of the N.H.S. and its staff and allow more money to be invested into overall pay and new hospitals .

If it stays the same, i'm afraid i will have to think twice about even thinking about doing this again even though i might experience problems with my heart, as i went into the hospital thinking, yes, i was there to have tests and be looked after, as it was i swear had i been there much longer my anger and frustration may well have brought something more sinister on when leaving!