"Terrible "care" at A&E"

It is the 3rd time in 47 years that I have gone to A&E. I have been poorly for 3-4weeks with numbness and tingling in my head/face and through the left side of my body. I have visited my GP surgery twice in this time concerning this tingling and discomfort. My blood tests had come back showing a little anaemia and I had been taking iron tablets for a week. I had rested at home for 10 days completely sleeping, sitting and carefully managing daily necessities such as cooking and eating healthy food.

After a meal and 1 medium glass of wine my symptoms seemed to worsen and became more pronounced. I felt more pressure in my head and more tingling in my body. I slept fitfully but awoke in a state of panic feeling sick and desperate. My partner took me to the GP made an appointment for 11am and then drove me to A&E. big mistake.

The service was fast but disparaging. The nurse in triage immediately realised I was in a state of panic and had no hesitation in telling me so. Fair enough. It was true. I explained what had been happening and how I was feeling. I explained that my symptoms could be due to meningitis or under active thyroid or brain tumour. The nurse took notes took my blood pressure, temperature and something else and said all the signs were fine. the previous blood tests showed the thyroid function was fine. Great I thought, now please can you tell me what you can do for me? I waited in the waiting room for only a couple of minutes and was called to see the Doctor. Excellent timeliness, I certainly cannot fault that.

I was feeling extremely poorly and was struggling to walk. The Doctor immediately said I was panicking what had brought me to A&E? Why was I there? I replied because I felt so ill. And that my symptoms could be those of meningitis or a brain tumour or other things. The Doctor implied that my only problem was that I was panicking and that I had gone to A&E when I should have been at the GP. I explained that I had asked for a referral to a Neurologist. They said that the referral had been made on the 18 October and implied that I had gone to A&E to speed up the process. The tone of voice they used made me feel that I was wasting their time and was trying to work the system. I felt very angry at this as I had no intention of the sort. I asked if they were going to do anything? The Doctor said they could do some preliminary tests and proceeded with basic physical movement tests all of which I was able to do, if somewhat weakly or impaired by my state of anxiety and illness. I was asked to walk about 3 metres and "shuffled" due to the stress I felt in my body. They said, " why are you walking like that. What is making you walk like that?" I replied," my body, it's giving up". They went to consult with the duty consultant who concurred and they sent me back to the GP.

I felt betrayed, angry and disgusted to have been spoken to like that. I appreciate that these Doctors have a difficult job but I had gone in faith and felt very let down.