"No hope for the breathless"

I have recently recovered from covid but was still feeling breathless and felt I needed a course of steroids. I have asthma so I called the out of hours who told me I needed to go to the A&E right away as I was short of breath. I had said multiple times I would prefer if I didn't have to wait in A&E for 12hrs+ when all I needed was steroids. He assured me it was a medical emergency and that I would also need a nebuliser so I would be seen to straight away. 

I headed to A&E, the triage nurse seen me and whilst very nice didn't seem to be listening to my concerns,  just took my vitals and told me to wait outside. About 4hrs went by and I had become more breathless, hospitals make me anxious and usually bring on an asthma attack. Another 2 hrs went by and I could barely breath, my inhaler wasn't doing anything and I went to the receptionist to ask if I was close in the queue, she told me she had no way of checking and that I should sit down. After another 20mins of gasping for a breath I informed the receptionist that I was feeling worse, the nurse took my vitals again and told me it could be another few hours wait. I found this especially distressing considering I was really struggling to breath at this point. 

Another 2hrs go by, I stumbled up to the receptionist choking for air, she rushed out to check with a doctors and finally I was taken round to a bed and seen to by a doctor. They managed to get my breathing under control and the doctor prescribed me steroids and sent me on my way.

I don't understand why it took so long for me to be seen when I was categorised as priority 2. I also don't understand why I was sent to wait a further 2hrs when I was clearly in respiratory distress.

The worst part is it could have all been avoided if the out of hours gp had been willing to see me and send me home with steroids. Instead I was pawned of to a department that just doesn't have the resources to deal with a high volume of cases at the moment. 

In the future I would suggest that a doctor review a case if the patients symptoms are getting worse. If a patient is struggling to breath treat them with a nebuliser first and then send them to the waiting room for 9hrs at least then the experience will be less stressful for them. If another service has already assessed a patient and referred to the emergency department then take that into account when triaging them.