On Saturday night my wife thought she was having another heart attack. Rang 999 but no ambulance available. One of the worst feelings of helplessness. Fortunately the chest pain went off after 30 minutes as I was unable to get her in the car. Doctor rang me back after 4 hours still advising A&E. There were about 100 people waiting at Grange, with only 40 very hard chairs. People standing or sitting or lying on floor. Waited 14 hours before being given all clear. 13 ambulances with patients at A&E all with engines running all night. What a nightmare. It really is disgraceful and there wasn't even an ambulance strike at the time.

Blackandamber wrote: December 20th, 2022, 3:31 pm On Saturday night my wife thought she was having another heart attack. Rang 999 but no ambulance available. One of the worst feelings of helplessness. Fortunately the chest pain went off after 30 minutes as I was unable to get her in the car. Doctor rang me back after 4 hours still advising A&E. There were about 100 people waiting at Grange, with only 40 very hard chairs. People standing or sitting or lying on floor. Waited 14 hours before being given all clear. 13 ambulances with patients at A&E all with engines running all night. What a nightmare. It really is disgraceful and there wasn't even an ambulance strike at the time.

Firstly,thank goodness your good lady is OK
The rest is a horror story
This is a third world scenario
Highly recommend you contact your MP and share this appalling tale to as many Daily Papers as possible.
Personally share your anger
Best wishes

mad norm wrote: December 20th, 2022, 7:57 pm

Blackandamber wrote: December 20th, 2022, 3:31 pm On Saturday night my wife thought she was having another heart attack. Rang 999 but no ambulance available. One of the worst feelings of helplessness. Fortunately the chest pain went off after 30 minutes as I was unable to get her in the car. Doctor rang me back after 4 hours still advising A&E. There were about 100 people waiting at Grange, with only 40 very hard chairs. People standing or sitting or lying on floor. Waited 14 hours before being given all clear. 13 ambulances with patients at A&E all with engines running all night. What a nightmare. It really is disgraceful and there wasn't even an ambulance strike at the time.

Firstly,thank goodness your good lady is OK
The rest is a horror story
This is a third world scenario
Highly recommend you contact your MP and share this appalling tale to as many Daily Papers as possible.
Personally share your anger
Best wishes

Yes it is a horror story Norm. The problems at the Grange University in Cwmbran are well known around here, with stories in the Argus and BBC Wales. About a week ago an old man fell and fractured his hip. His granddaughter rang for an ambulance but the same thing happened to her. She rang her partner and with the help of others tied her grand dad to a large plank of wood, put him in the back of a van and drove him to hospital. Like many hospitals around the country the ambulances can't unload their patients because there are no free beds in the hospitals. It's made worse in the Aneurin Bevan health board, because they closed the A&Es in all the other hospitals when the new hospital was opened a couple of years ago, so everyone in Gwent has to go to the Grange hospital for A&E.

Blimey B&A, that must have been awful and I hope your wife recovers fully.

Sadly an all too common story. My daughter needed urgent treatment at the Grange for a head injury 2wks ago, spent 10 hours there without even being triaged, then left as she was in so much pain. Returned the next day, another 4 hour wait and not seen. Absolutely no chance of getting an ambulance either despite this being recommended by her GP.

Meanwhile, a month ago I needed a quick X-ray for a suspected broken finger, went to a Devon hospital and was seen, triaged, X-ray-Ed and bandaged up in 3 hours.

Stark differences between the two trusts.

Blackandamber wrote: December 20th, 2022, 3:31 pm On Saturday night my wife thought she was having another heart attack. Rang 999 but no ambulance available. One of the worst feelings of helplessness. Fortunately the chest pain went off after 30 minutes as I was unable to get her in the car. Doctor rang me back after 4 hours still advising A&E. There were about 100 people waiting at Grange, with only 40 very hard chairs. People standing or sitting or lying on floor. Waited 14 hours before being given all clear. 13 ambulances with patients at A&E all with engines running all night. What a nightmare. It really is disgraceful and there wasn't even an ambulance strike at the time.

Even before the current crisis..................................I took my wife to Hospital ( The Gwent ) as she had had a Heart Attack.......We had to sit in Casualty for over 14 Hours before she was finally diagnosed as actually having one.
We saw the Triage Nurse about half an hour after we arrived and then absolutely nothing until about half an hour before they were about to change shift, then it was 100 MPH testing her blood pressure etc............Strange how when the Consultant arrived they diagnosed that she was in a critical condition and moved their arses.
All the time we were there waiting there was a young girl there absolutely out of her face through booze and drugs and they showed her more care.
If after they had finally diagnosed that she had had a bad heart attack and needed an operation they hadnt been so good with her I would have made an official complaint and it was so obvious that she was in a bad way at the time.
Even then i was quoted three hours wait for an Ambulance and that was pre Covid

That's really awful. Sorry to hear that. On Saturday there were a couple of guys who appeared drunk or drugged and they were seen by nurses or doctors very quickly. Meanwhile some very elderly people waited at least 14 hours when we left. One old lady was on her own in a wheelchair. At one point I thought she'd died. Her head was on her chest and only on close inspection could I see her breathing. I wonder how many people have died while in A&E waiting rooms.

Terrifying. Best wishes to your Wife. A&E and the Ambulance service is totally broken at the moment.

Best wishes and hope all is now well…what’s to be done? My feeling is the GP system needs massive reform so people aren’t clogging up A&E’s not saying this was true in your case but I’d bet 30%+ of those using urgent care services either are not truly dangerously unwell OR could be better treated by GPs.