"5 hour wait with life threatening illness"

I had a pacemaker fitted at the Medway Hospital, which caused bleeding into the pericardium around my heart. I arrived at the hospital about 1900 hours the day after the pacemaker insertion, in severe pain. I was, after about two hours, sent to see a nurse in the MEDOCC department, who felt she could not help me. I returned to the seats in the A and E waiting area where I sat for another 3 hours. The pain was intensifying all this time, and I was on the point of collapse when I was finally called to be examined. Ultimately, I was transferred to St. Thomas's where the effusion was found to be bad enough to cause a partial collapse of one of the chambers of my heart. The staff did their level best, once I got onto a bed, but in my view, 5 hours without any real assessment or examination of what was the cause of this problem was far too long. I don't think this is a staff problem. It is difficult for them to work together effectively as I believe the systems you have are inappropriate to filter serious from minor matters.