"Emergency assessment unit like a cattle market"

I was sent to the hospital with a letter from my gp.

I was put in a big room with 25 other people who were also waiting to see a doctor. Some of these people looked really ill. There were other people waiting to go home as this was also the discharge lounge.

There was a elderly man on his own who appeared to have dementia. He was being helped by other patients as the staff were really busy and kept leaving the area to sort out other problems.

I could hear personal details about other patients as staff asked confidential information and took blood pressures as they squeezed between chairs to reach the patients. After waiting 6 hours and watching the lack of staff struggling to cope with a really ill patient which in their words "we have nowhere to put him - he's got to stay here" I left and went to a/e at another hospital where I was admitted straight away.