If anyone knows of any uk #Journalists with a #Health / #MentalHealth interest, please let me know.
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V. Short version: my mental health care plan, agreed with various doctors and psychiatrists, is that, if I am in crisis, I go to A&E (the emergency room, for non-uk people). They should have an on-call mental health professional 24/7/365. Tonight, I went to #Addenbrookes in #Cambridge, and was told they would call the psychiatry department. All as expected, ready for a long wait but that’s fine.
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4 hours later at 22:20 I was told to go home because no-one in the psychiatry department was working nights.
I said, “I’ve come here because I’m suicidal, and you’re just sending me home? You’re fucking kidding me!”
The reply was “Yeah, I’m sorry, try 111 option 2” (which is the NHS mental health general helpline).
They just sent me home to die.
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@likesohushhush Just remembered that 4hrs is significant. If you have not been admitted or discharged at that point, A&E has officially "failed to meet its target". So you should be pleased that A&E performed well on that occasion 🙄.
In some hospitals they have a special wards managed by A&E, but ABSOLUTELY NOT (oh, no) A&E, to which you are admitted - it happened to me a couple of times. Again, target met!
Where would we be without government targets to monitor performance?
