"Enough was Enough! -We left the department"

My Husband suffers from a lung disease and had been advised by his GP to attend A&E should any of the following occur - Coughing Blood, Chest Pain or worsening SOB - One evening all three happened and we promptly presented to A&E.

We gave his details and were invited to take a seat in the extremely cold waiting area - 1 hour later we were called through for Triage where his observations were taken and a "brief" history - actually it was a very brief history - No History was taken I doubt if the Nurse even noted the lung disease- no medication history,  did not even look at the sample of blood stained fluid I brought with us. 

He was asked if he had taken any painkillers and he explained that he was on regular pain medication and was due to take some, he asked should he still take his regular medication and was advised not to until he had seen a Doctor so he didn't.  We were then asked to return to the extremely cold waiting area where we would be called through to see a Doctor - we waited another 45 minutes before being called through to cubicles - when called we were marched to a cubicle and on the way we passed a cubicle which was open and on the bed lay a poor soul who had passed away, dressed only in a Hospital gown and lying there for all the world to see!

Nobody needed to see this! Once in the cubicle my husband was asked to remove his upper clothing and put a Hospital gown on - The nurse asked who I was and noted my name on the paperwork, they then left and closed the door.  This is the last we saw of anyone for a further hour in which my husband coughed and struggled to breath continuously, not once did anyone check on him - eventually a nurse came into the cubicle and I commented at last but they were only in to take some equipment away - Heaven forbid they would be there to see a patient.  Bear in mind he still hadn't taken his evening medications and was now approaching the time to take his bedtime doses. 

We decided then to leave the department as we felt at least at home my husband would be warmer and could use his nebuliser. - We advised the Nurse that we intended leaving and they told us we couldn't as we had to wait at least 4 hours! Then they said if we wanted to leave my Husband had to sign some paperwork but strangely enough they couldn't find his file - Enough was Enough! - needless to say we left the department without signing anything.