Have You Been to A & E Recently ? if so What Was Your Experience

Was in a&e back in September with my little one and honestly can't fault them was seen within a hour

I was on A&E 2 weeks ago, the wait was 9 hours!!! Absolutely ridiculous....

I was in A&E a year or so back, I think I waited about an hour and a half. There was a lot of people there but the staff were friendly and efficient. You could tell the staff there had a defensive attitude to patients and they probably had to deal with some truly awful people though. There was someone in the queue who smelt of drink and was constantly cursing despite children being present. I do walk past the A&E on occasion as close to my home and it looks the same as when I was there with regard number of people waiting.

Having played rugby for over 25 years, I've spent many hours in different A&E's getting put back together, and I have to say I've had some awful experiences due to poor staff, but equally met some great medical staff

Last time was May 2023 when Mother in Law broke fell at 7.30am. Care Call lifted her 8am, local GP sent a practice nurse 11am who called an ambulance because she'd bumped her head and her leg was fine. 1st ambulance 4.30pm wouldn't take her as she wasn't weight bearing, 2nd arrived at 6.30 A&E by 7.15pm Xray of leg at 2am and at 7am leg was put in full cast as broken in three places. She never did have her head looked at. The whole episode was like a comedy show.

Just before Christmas my OH grandparent had a nasty fall, Admitted around 10am, Xray late afternoon revealed broken hip, operation the following day & 3 week stay in hospital. Should have been sent to rehab but due to no spaces was sent home with care nurse coming once a day. Thank god he has plenty family!

Separately My OH had to go urgent care as he cut off a good chunk of tip of finger whilst working & it wouldn't stop bleeding. Seen triage within 20 mins, bandaged & given an appointment to come back 2 hours later.

I was at a&e back in October. I was waiting bout 4 hrs but then got a bed. It was a proper hospital bed but was in back corridor beside the ambulance bay. I was there for 3 days before finally getting bed on a ward at 2am on the Sunday morning and then being discharged at 9am. Waste of time actually moving me to ward when someone who needed bed for longer time could have had it. That meant getting cleaner in to make sure side room I was in was disinfected from top to bottom, bedding stripped and bed disinfected and changed etc when I could have stayed where I was and just been discharged from there. Couldn’t fault the staff, they were amazing looking after all the patients who were out in this corridor and doing everything to keep our spirits up. Even though I waited bout 4hrs to get a bed I was told on same night that people were waiting up to 8hrs in ambulances which can’t have been a great experience for those patients

No , but a family member did a few weeks back they faced a 12 hour backlog , with people queuing and sitting in the corridors, and this is in a new hospital that only opened 3 years ago. There are now plans to extend it but at an original cost of £400 million ,why didn't they allow for such events, no forward planning or foresight, but that's down to the Welsh Government.

I’ve been a few times through work and sometimes it’s been very quick and then other times hours of waiting. Goes to show it’s luck of the draw at times

Tea spilt on my stomach during pregnancy and was seen within 2 hours.

My 3 year old's elbow popped out (which can be fixed within 30 seconds at home if you know how might I add!), yet she was seen after 8 hours!!!

Wow my local hospital must be the exception. Other half went, was seen, x rayed and left with treatment within 90 minutes couldn't fault it.

The sheer volume of patients coming through ED is part of the problem partly due to how difficult it still is to get GP appointments. Even the lack of NHS dentists is causing issues as we get people through ED for dental problems. We have some of the longest waits in the country and are in the process of building a whole new extension to massively increase our capacity but that is still a couple of years away. ED is full of patients who are waiting for beds on wards that are also still full of patients waiting to go home - but there is a chronic lack of suitable care available in the community. On a good day our hospital is running at 105% capacity, when ideally it should be around 90%