"Compassion and respect, just not enough trained staff"

In the early hours this morning I was taken by ambulance to A&E after hurting myself badly.i arrived at the department at 2am and was triaged very quickly and put in a cubicle.

Every hour a nurse came to do my observations and ask me about my pain levels and for 9 hours I replied that my pain levels were moderate or 5 out of 10 and I asked for pain relief

At 7am the doctor prescribed me some painkillers but it took until 11am before I was finally given any after managing to ask a doctor why I hadn’t been given any

A&E was just so busy - it was chaotic and I can honestly say that everyone I encountered treated me with compassion and respect but there just weren’t enough trained staff to meet the needs of the patients and it felt scary

There were two patients who were mentally unwell and they were put in a cubicle next to each other as there was only one security guard to keep an eye on them. I felt so sorry and embarrassed for the patients as it was obvious that staff and other patients were finding their behaviour challenging but at times amusing and it just felt so wrong that there wasn’t any more support for them.

After struggling with mental health issues myself it just brought home that a busy A&E unit is not the place for someone experiencing mental distress. There needs to be a better place that they can be held whilst awaiting an assessment.

After speaking to a nurse who stitched me up after I had been in the department for 10 hours it seems to me like the new re-organisation is just not working and I have never seen staff so stretched and the department so busy. It is just not meeting the needs of patients or staff that work there. They do an amazing job to deal with the volume of patients and to juggle everything but it doesn’t feel like a safe environment anymore.