A pensioner was forced to wait 15 hours in a "packed" A&E department before seeing a doctor after injuring herself in a car crash. Linda Webb, 74, said she couldn't believe how many people were crowded into the emergency department when she had hurt herself, and said NHS staff just "cannot handle it" amid huge pressures on the service.
Linda had to wait hours at the University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) A&E on July 20 after a car smashed into the back of her vehicle in Coventry, leaving her fearing a metal plate in her neck may have moved out of place, CoventryLive reports. Even though she arrived at the hospital at around 2.30pm, Linda was shocked to see the A&E was "chock-a-block" with people and there were no seats available.
After waiting for three hours while sat in a wheelchair, Linda was finally seen by a trauma nurse who said she would have to see a doctor - meaning a further wait of 10 hours in the crowded department overnight with her husband. She had to wait even longer after the seeing the doctor because she needed to have scans to check for any serious damage.
Fortunately, the plate in her neck had not moved and she was diagnosed with whiplash - but Linda could not believe she had to wait in A&E for 13 hours without a neck brace, even though staff knew she was worried there could have been a very serious problem. “Bear in mind I had sat for thirteen hours with no brace or anything on my neck and they knew what was wrong with me when I came in which we thought was not quite right,” said Linda.
Speaking about how she felt at the time, Linda said: “I was frustrated because I was sitting there not even knowing whether I should be moving my neck, they should have put my neck into a brace. I would have thought that would have been picked up there to say have a neck brace, but it was not.” Doctors eventually said she did not need a brace.
Linda, who has lived in the city for 60 years, said she has 'never' faced such severe delays and was left shocked when a young man whose head was 'pouring with blood' was left sitting there for hours. She said: “His head was pouring with blood.
“He had a bandage around him and he sat that long with this really bad head injury and blood all down his face. He had a fit while he was sitting waiting so they had to shove him on a stretcher and send him through then.”
She was so fed up of waiting, Linda told her husband she wanted to leave multiple times before she had seen anyone. She said: “I had to sit and wait. I kept saying to my husband 'I am going home. I have had enough. I am not putting up with this anymore. I am going home' and he said: 'You are not, you have got to get checked out.' He was worried that the plate might have moved in my neck.”
Linda went on to say that the NHS employees are not to blame for the delays. “It is not their fault, there are just not enough staff on there and they cannot handle it,” she said. Linda added that she hopes a newly opened Minor Injuries Unit will 'relieve pressure' on the 'packed' A&E department.
A spokesman for University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust said: “The Emergency Department at University Hospital, Coventry is a Level One Major Trauma Centre and currently sees in excess of 160,000 patients every year. A&E provides emergency treatment for those who are critically ill or injured and an experienced clinician assesses the severity of symptoms of every person who attends to ensure we see the sickest patients first.
“We know waiting is frustrating and our staff work extremely hard to treat every patient as quickly and efficiently as they can. We apologise to anyone who has to wait longer than they would like. Patient care and safety are always our priorities and our teams are working closely with our partners across Coventry and Warwickshire to provide the best experience possible to everyone using our services.”
