"Bad management of great staff?"

I had severe chest pains that would not subside despite painkillers. I have angina and was concerned that it may be a heart problem. I called 111. They sent an ambulance. I was assessed in the ambulance then asked if I still wanted to go to a&e. The pain was still severe. So I thought better safe than sorry so went to a&e. Then treated as a time-waster. The atmosphere was bunker-like and very macho - ambulance staff stood in groups laughing and sharing war-stories around the water-cooler - medical staff checked out facebook on their mobiles - one doctor sat making important phone-calls - it was a front-line elite force of medics waiting on a proper accident and emergency not people there to waste their highly-skilled time with their "severe chest-pains" (like that was important). I got the impression that unless both my legs had been blown off and I was bleeding to death, they just "were-not-interested". What was required 1. Reassurance (in the ambulance before going to a&e) that it was not a heart problem 2. That I should take pain-killers until 3. I could see a gp and get some antibiotics for what is probably a chest or lung infection. A&e is a front-line highly-skilled under-resourced badly managed nhs resource of which we can be proud - no other country does it so well but a patient in pain and "worried-well" should not be labelled and then left to sit in pain in a cold cubicle ("that'll teach him for wasting our time..."). That is not a grown-up protocol. The other thing I noticed was there seemed to be no "matron" or "manager" who had a grip on what was happening there. There did seem to be a lot of staff sat "waiting on a real accident". Sorry my worry and pain did not qualify.