Mixed experience visiting after accident
I had an accident. Upon arrival at A&E there was a queue of ambulances, I was a trauma call so went to be assessed straight away. I was prioritised because of my blood pressure dropping. I went into a cubical after 50 min wait with paramedics, which I didn't notice as I was on strong meds. The doctor was waiting to see me, but she couldn't find the unit staff nurse for 30 minutes. I was examined and given pain relief. I then needed to be moved to gynaecology which is across a road. By this point there were 27 ambulances waiting to get through the door. To be escorted over I had to sit in a wheelchair but I was not able to sit. I was advised I would have to wait 3 hours for an ambulance to take me over as they couldn't only move me in a wheelchair. I had some more pain relief and went to a different assessment unit. I got examined and my pain was well managed. I saw 3 doctors and a few nurses. When arriving at the assessment ward, I was then laid across 2 chairs while my husband spoke to the staff. I was put on a bed, examined twice, given a few injections and different medications, then told I'd be seen in the morning. I was examined by a doctor and nurse in the morning and told I could be discharged. I told the doctor where I was still feeling pain and asked her to double check. She didn't want to but did any way and said nothing there. On discharge the consultant asked to check me over, she then said there was multiple injuries like I had pointed out to the doctor. The consultant then wrote a new prescription for 5 different medications to get me better with a check-up 3 days later. 3 days later the doctor says the same as the consultant and issued more pain relief. Would the treatment plan been different if the consultant didn't examine me? The nursing teams in the whole hospital are fantastic at least. The paramedics got frustrated at the nurses in A&E. The nurses in A&E were frustrated with wards or CT. The pressure of all the people waiting to be seen is clearly causing issues. It is concerning that 1 hospital out of 3 in Birmingham and Solihull has 29 ambulances waiting at midnight on a Monday. The waiting room full. Every bed full. All the corridor care. It's absolutely appalling the circumstances they have to work with. Like their job is not stressful enough.