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A&E experience

Posted By Glenson

"A&E experience"

About: Antrim Area Hospital / Accidents & Emergency

(as the patient),

I attended Antrim Area Hospital A&E at 6pm on a Friday night recently with severe pain in my right side & vomiting.  I waited 45 minutes to see the triage nurse & get my bloods taken. Sent back to the packed A&E waiting area.

At 7.45pm a nurse called me, then they realised I had not come on their computer to see the doctor, it was because my bloods had never been collected & taken to the lab one hour after they had been taken!!! No apology given to me, just go back to waiting area & wait, told bloods be done in 11/2 - 2 hours from now!!!

An hour later got sent to ED minors waiting area, saw a junior doctor at 10 pm, then sent for chest x-ray & ECG. Saw same junior doctor at 11pm, told I had suspected gallbladder issue & would need an ultrasound to diagnose, but had to wait to see consultant to get this organised.

Sat for a further 3 hours til 2am, asked how long before seeing consultant, was told could not give timescale as they were in theatre. Asked did this mean I would sit there all night, told possibly, so at 2.15am I was offered painkillers & antibiotics & to go home, if symptoms got worse or remained to come back.

I asked if an ultrasound could be organised for me to come back the next day, told by junior doctor they couldn’t organise this, had to be the consultant & that ultrasounds could not be completed at night!!!

So basically after over 8 hours I was sent home undiagnosed & with zero follow up !!!

I have ended up paying privately to get an ultrasound completed, diagnosed my issue & seeing a consultant for a treatment plan.  

I really wonder why I pay tax & national insurance when this is the service offered by our NHS. In my experience, it’s a total disgrace.

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Responses

Response from Cathy McCoy, Clinical Service Manager, Emergency Medicine, NHSCT last month
Cathy McCoy
Clinical Service Manager, Emergency Medicine,
NHSCT

Submitted on 04/12/2025 at 14:05
Published on Care Opinion at 14:05

Dear Glenson

thank you for taking the time to provide feedback.

The normal process for patients in ED is that patients are seen and assessed by the Triage nurse and given a priority in which to be seen. The nurse will then organise for your bloods to be taken. The average time frame for bloods to be analysed at the lab is approx. 2 hrs. So blood tests we can do at department level but for some specific abdominal bloods they need to go to the lab.

I am unsure as to what happened on your attendance. The majority of patients are sent back to the waiting area to await the doctor as we need to keep cubicle space for those patients being assessed by the doctor.

Once a provisional diagnosis is then an onward referral is required. In the case of a gall bladder issue this would be to the surgical team.

ED doctors are no longer responsible for your care. It is unclear from your correspondence as to whether you left prior to being assessed by surgeons, who would then be responsible for ordering further diagnostics as required- which generally are not completed out of hours such as ultra sounds.

Please accept are apologises for the waiting times and I hope in some way my response has help to add clarity to the ED process

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