Bedlam

Bedlam is 17 hours in A and E.
Not a wink of sleep had as the drug riddled of Edinburgh ran and screeched all night terrifying the genuine occupants scattered on trollies in the open area. Thankfully I was deemed serious enough to have a cubicle near the nurses station but gave me a glimpse of a dystopia that must happen nightly. Horrific
However one does wonder about the NHS efficiencies where it took five hours to work out what was needed, that could have been done in one. ( a blood test, a result, a solution) I effectively bed blocked from midnight til midday in a precious A and E bed waiting for the necessary blood transfusion and was eventually transferred to the Acute Medicine Unit, 6 wards worth of where you go after A and E. another eye opener. Calmer, quieter, mainly elderly lonely confused post falls looking for somewhere to go next. Less druggies.
My second transfusion was a relief as drop by drop I felt the life return to me and the excruciating 36 hour headache finally lifted. And I could stand without collapse. I received the news I could be discharged... which took another three hours.
The whole experience was surreal, but having worked in private health care, the biggest revelation was not the lack of resources nor the time wasters drunk and stoned, but the time wasting. The gaps and the inefficiency of care, the scattergun approach to processing. I wasn’t complicated yet it took 24 hours to get me out of the door which feasibly could have been done in 7. For the first time it made me scared of getting older and depending on this system where true care has been lost to bureaucracy and bluster. There was no smooth linear system but why not? I actually despair as surely it can only get worse?