"My visit to A&E"

Thank you to York A&E department. Thank you to the consultant who put my worries to rest during my visit to A&E. My visit to A&E was an eye opener today. A Saturday, a busy waiting area, full of patients for out of hours GP appointments, urgent care appointments and people who had come through A&E. As I sat in the waiting area, I looked around. I saw frustrated patients walk up to the reception complaining about their wait time, complaining that people who had arrived after them, had been seen first, I heard raised voices at staff and saw people walk back out the door. To the mother carrying her 10 month old baby, to the women with a swollen ankle, waiting for an x-ray, to the warn out father with a young child waiting to be seen, to all the patients sat in that waiting area. Behind the doors we eagerly look at to see if our name is being called, there is someone in resus being resuscitated after a cardiac arrest, there is an elderly women who had fallen down a flight of stairs in her home and no one had found her for 2 hours, there is a toddler that has swallowed washing detergent, there is a family who have been involved in a car accident, there is a construction worker that has cut his thumb clean off after trapping it in his digger door. To all the patients sat in that waiting area, you are there because you are well enough to wait, you are breathing and conscious, you are not losing a life threatening amount of blood, you are not critically unwell, yes it is frustrating but we should feel lucky we are sat in those chairs and not on a bed in the other side of the department. So I would like to say a massive thank you to he nhs for offering free healthcare and to all the staff from the A&E department to get everyone seen and treated as fast as they can.