"My daughter's experience"

My daughter needed an emergency ambulance due to a crushing chest pain. I obviously was concerned so rushed to the A&E in the Queen Elizabeth university hospital in Glasgow. 

The triage nurse was very dismissive and almost seemed annoyed at my daughter.  The ambulance advised the nurse to let them take her for more checks as heart issues don’t always show on ECGs.  The triage nurse she first seen gave her some Gaviscon and sent her back out into the waiting room. That was at 00:20 hours.  I left her there at 05:00 with her partner. Still waiting to be seen. 

I really hope this isn’t anything sinister. I found the service and wait time downright diabolical. I do think anyone presenting with chest pain of a crushing nature should maybe be triaged better. After all is that not what triage is for? To see the serious complaints first?  How does the triage know that there hasn’t been a heart episode? My daughter has a rapid heart rate which she has had a 24 hour tape that recorded 160 beats per minute at one point.

There must be a better system out there as clearly the current one is not working.

Maybe triage should be more encouraging to the people there with minor problems to go home and seek help from the appropriate channels.  

I feel that our experience wasn’t safe. There was no care for patients.  The waiting room was very dirty with spillages everywhere.  It pains me that this is the NHS we pay into. Extremely disappointing.