"Discharge from A&E"

I take tramadol, a slow release tablet, in the mornings. By mistake I took another one at lunch time, as soon as I realized what I had done I phoned my GP for advice. I was advised to go to A&E, my GP said they would bring a letter for me to take with me, he came in his car to give me the letter. In A&E I gave them the letter from the GP and they asked me to wait on a seat in the waiting area. I told them I was not feeling well and that I could not wait there all the time, eventually they moved me to a bed.

I was told they would need to keep me under observation until mid evening but all they did was draw the curtain across the cubicle and then that was it.

There was someone from the crisis team in A&E who came and talked to me, and the safeguarding team was supposed to be called. These teams were told I would be kept in overnight for observations.

I saw one doctor while I was there, he went off to look for something and then I didn't see him again.

Mid evening I was discharged, I was not told what to do when I got home or anything. I was still feeling awful when I got home and late at night I ended up calling the crisis team to ask them whether I should take my tea-time pills or my night time pills. Finally after several calls I was told to take my tea-time pills but to leave the night times ones for this day.

When I called the crisis team they were surprised that I had been sent home and also that they had not been advised so that they could put something in place to call me regularly through the night to make sure I was OK. In the end I kept ringing them to ask for advice.