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My husband's experience

Posted By Laird33

"My husband's experience"

About: Forth Valley Royal Hospital / Accident & emergency

(as a relative),

My husband had severe chest pain, tremors and nausea from 10am. At 1pm I rang the surgery who advised to go to A&E. I rang 111 for advice and they arranged at around 2.30ish for an ambulance to come. It came about 4 and the team advised hospital A&E was needed. My husband was triaged on arrival, with blood taken for troponin levels and returned to the waiting room. We are both in out 70s, he suffers from angina, dementia, brain damage, type 2 diabetes, essential tremors and has no spleen. 

By 9pm, he was cold, trembling again; light headed from lack of food, tight chested and weary.  No results given and not seen by a medic.

We were surrounded by patients, having picnics, playing video games.  No doubt some may have been suffering from an accident or emergency. (A bit hard to spot at times.) My husband was at risk, in my opinion of contracting some kind of virus/infection. We were close to patients holding sick bowls and I suffer from a vomiting phobia, receiving therapy from an NHS psychologist, so my own BP was through the roof.

We decided, as before, to go home and risk a heart attack in a safe environment as opposed to the chaotic surroundings in A&E. My husband is adamant we will never go to A&E, for any reason and he would prefer to stay home and die there!

I know it is overly busy and the staff are doing the best they can, but please can there be some other way to manage patients in a situation where we wait for blood results, for 5 hours, in a better environment.

I have one other story on here, very similar to this one, from 3 years ago and it appears, sadly, there is no improvement.   

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Responses

Response from Judith Rooney, Service Manager, Emergency & Inpatient Care, NHS Forth Valley last week
We are preparing to make a change
Judith Rooney
Service Manager, Emergency & Inpatient Care,
NHS Forth Valley

Submitted on 14/03/2026 at 08:56
Published on Care Opinion at 14:09

Thank you for sharing your husband’s experience. I was very sorry to read about the distress you both faced and the impact this had on your confidence in attending A&E.

Given your husband’s symptoms and complex medical history, I understand how worrying it must have been to wait several hours without an update, particularly while he was feeling unwell, cold and fatigued. I also recognise how challenging the busy emergency department environment can be for older people and those with additional health needs.

Forth Valley Royal Hospital, like many Emergency Departments, is experiencing sustained high demand, and patients often need to wait while essential tests are completed. However, we fully accept that prolonged waits in crowded areas are not appropriate for everyone. The Lead Nurse for the Emergency Department and the Consultant Nurse for Delirium are currently reviewing the Department environment including the waiting area from an older adult perspective to identify changes that may improve the experience for this group of patients.

I am really concerned to hear this experience has left your husband feeling that he would not attend A&E again and as such I would encourage you to reach out to me on 01324 567085 or via email at judith.rooney@nhs.scot so we could discuss this further. Your feedback has been shared with our teams to support ongoing improvement work.

Thank you again for your feedback.

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