FRIDAY IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM

Yesterday I had the privilege of watching doctors and nurses at Wakefield's Accident and Emergency Unit, our local City ER.

Missus Moonbase had been unwell with a high fever for a couple of days and after an early morning visit to our village doctor, who was concerned about possible sepsis and an unfortunate misunderstanding, which sent to us to the wrong Hospital, we eventually sat down in Wakefield Pinderfields large ER around 11am.

There were 93 patients in there, with about another 50 people in the waiting room.  The average time spent in this ER was 7 hours, which was on a large screen.

According to the running tally the 93 patients and 50 waiting never really changed much, fluctuating around a little all day. Though it didn't last, the waiting room did go from full to half full after a few hours as the amazing staff ran around sorting everyone out in about 8 busy triage rooms. These were hot-roomed, with some medics simply waiting outside with a patient for it to become free. The same happened to us.

After an hour my Missus was seen by a very patient doctor and nurse. Being feverish she was slow and lethargic. We had tested for COVID at home the day before, which was negative, so the team tested her for flu, after which we sat back down in the busy and large waiting room.

Nodding off frequently, as neither of us is sleeping well, we waited for the flu result. At 2pm another doctor called the Wife's name and we proceeded to find an empty consultation room so he could speak to us. There wasn't one so we sat back down and he spoke to us in the waiting room. The fly test was negative so a blood test was required. The doctor momentarily considered taking blood there but said that he would be told off if he did. We followed him knocking on all 8 consultation room doors, with a brief trip into the ER proper, an indescribable space made up of dozens and dozens of the sick and injured lead on trolleys, which spilled out into all the corridors, with ambulance workers waiting with their patients.

After blood was taken we sat back down in the waiting area around 2.30pm, which was now, after a successful push to clear some folks, was filling up again.

A very heated family argument broke out at the front of the room, with various members standing, shouting and then sitting back down. It came to a head when an 'Aunt' slapped her grown-up 'niece', before screaming out to the entire room, "Sarah's bedroom is a brothel everybody!" and then stormed out. Some smart-Alec quipped 'Where is it?', before the room settling down again. This domestic flared up and died down constantly throughout the afternoon, reaching another peak when two police officers turned up to ask about a reported 'slapping'! Earlier two prison guards had sat down with a prisoner chained and cuffed to them. They witnessed the domestic too and the guards were asked by the police what they'd seen.

The afternoon dragged on with more and more injured and sick people arriving; hand injuries, bleeding heads and quiet ones, many of whom were elderly, escorted by family members. In the corridor I could see more ambulance staff turning up with more patients on trolleys and as the time headed for 5pm the room began to swell and the ER tally started to hit 100 being treated with a full room waiting.

At 6pm I asked a nurse of we were still on the system, as there had been a shift change. We were and she kindly went to find our consultant, as we had now been there all day. Our clearly-tired doctor came to see us and explained that the blood tests were a negative for bacterial infection and therefore it must be a less-concerning viral bug. Plenty of bed rest, paracetamol and lots of fluid were the doctor's orders and we left the ER at 6.30pm, seven and a half hours after arriving.

There were well over 130 people being treated in the ER when we left and Friday night revelling hadn't even begun.

We came away with nothing but respect for the incredibly overstretched medical staff of our NHS.

All pre-Christmas family plans are off now, including our daughter's birthday meal, as we hunker down at Moonbase so the Missus can recover in peace and quiet.

I do hope that Moonbase readers are all in good health and enjoying the unique early December atmosphere.