"Poor cardiac care whilst waiting 8 hours to be seen by a doctor"

Attended PAH A&E Department as a walk-in patient following a heart attack at home.  Given an ECG by a nurse after about an hour and then had blood sample taken. Then left for over 4 hours in the A&E Department waiting area with no monitoring of my condition. 

After becoming unable to cope in the very chaotic and stressful environment of the waiting area I spoke with the triage nurse and was advised that I probably wouldn't be seen by a doctor until at least 6am.

At this point I decided that I had no alternative but to take the risk and  go home and get some much needed rest in bed at home.

I was then phoned by the A&E Department at approximately 6.30am to ask me to return immediately to the hospital as my blood test results confirmed that I had had a heart attack.

I returned to the A&E Department and was then seen by a doctor and eventually admitted to the Cardiology Ward at approximately 11am, over twelve hours after presenting at the A&E Department. 

As it was a Saturday morning that I was admitted and over the weekend nothing further was done apart from my BP, Sat's and temperature being monitored by ward staff and I was briefly seen by a doctor (who was not a cardiologist) for a cursory chat about how I was feeling. 

It was not until the Monday morning - ie 48 hours after being admitted -  that I was seen by the cardiology Consultant on their ward round that proper investigations into what had caused my heart attack were arranged. 

Prior to my heart attack I was already under the care of the PAH Cardiology Team as an outpatient and had been seen in September 2023 with a follow up appointment due in either December 2023 or January 2024. No appointment was offered to me and I heard nothing further from the Cardiology Team.  I then had my  heart attack in May, having essentially been over looked/forgotten about by the Cardiology Team. 

The PAH urgently needs to improve its Cardiology Department/Team and its procedures for dealing appropriately with patients presenting at A&E with suspected heart attacks.  At the moment, I feel the PAH is utterly failing to care effectively for far too many cardiac patients. Overall,  the cardiac care I received at the PAH was a shambles and urgently needs to be addressed.