"Rushed experience"

I recently went to the Albany ED. It took a lot for me to go up as I know there are pressures on the hospital at the moment. I feel generally I was treated well by the nurses and doctors who I interacted with, however the overall process I found was quite disturbing.

Even though I believe there was only one person in front of me in the line, it seemed to take over 30 minutes to be seen by a staff member. I recall they hand wrote on post-it notes a bunch of information, then proceeded to slowly type into the computer. I felt I spent at least 10 minutes at the desk while others queued behind me. Once I moved over to the other desk I believe there was quite a wait for the next person to be seen. When they did finally get to the staff member, I recall they were in because of chest pain. I feel they had likely waited around 30 minutes too to be seen. I would have thought someone with chest pain shouldn’t have to wait so long just to get to the desk!

I was then seen in an area with large chairs in a cubicle. Obs were taken then I was asked to return to the waiting room. Then I believe an hour later I was asked back into another cubicle and had bloods taken and given some pain relief then again sent back out into the waiting room. I then recall waiting another hour in absolute pain, with the tablets I was given not doing anything. During this hour, I believe not one nurse was checking in on anyone in the waiting room. I sat there in pain until I was finally seen and then I was sent off for a CT scan. After the scan, I felt I was again pushed out into the waiting room. Finally after breaking down in tears at the desk I was seen, given IV medication and treated.

This treatment made me feel like I was unimportant and was wasting everyone’s time. I feel like I was sent in and out of the waiting room/ED to make sure they had met some red tape KPI and didn’t really care about how the patient felt. Also not having anyone in to watch people in the waiting room after they had been given medications was absolutely terrible, in my opinion. I believe there were multiple people in the waiting room going through this too who I recall were complaining amongst themselves. To feel like I was a number and seemingly rushed through, I believe to make sure the waiting times looked good on paper, was degrading.