"Don't expect your ECG to be read if you're elderly"

My 89 year old father ended up in A&E a few nights ago after we'd had to break his door down and found him laying on the living room floor. (can I say at this point the paramedics who attended were absolutely superb). It took minutes for an A&E nurse to take an ECG - it took hours for anyone to read it. The nurse who initially tried to take bloods didn't dare take from one arm because they didn't know if what they were aiming for was a vein or an artery, they totally botched the other arm, caused my dad a fair amount of pain, and then gave up, saying they'd better get a doctor to do it. So that wasn't done for hours either. We spent these hours in the very end cubicle on A&E, feeling totally ignored but because my dad showed no signs of anything other than confusion after having a fall, I felt there were probably patients in real distress with potential life threats happening - we'd just have to wait & be thankful there still is an NHS. Roughly 6 hours after the police officer who had to break my dad's door down requested an ambulance there was a flurry of activity! Bloods were taken at last! And a second ECG! Then a really rapid movement of my dad's gurney! Into the resuss area of A&E he went! So they could keep a closer eye on him. Because someone had finally read his first ECG - taken over 4 hours earlier - and realised he's had a heart attack. But in the words of the more senior doctor 'because of his age and his slight dementia it honestly wouldn't have made any difference'. I've issues with AAU as well - I'll be posting about that soon, no doubt. My dad is currently on a dedicated geriatric/dementia Gate. I'm sincerely hoping this gate does what it says on the tin.