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Ironically, yes... just this past weekend. My husband had severe lower abdomen pains last Friday and his GP told him to go to the A&E because it might be appendicitis. After being examined, our local hospital said, yes, it was probably appendicits, but they don't operate in that facility, so he had to go two towns over to another hospital.

He got to the second hospital at 11am and laid on a gurney in the hallway with an IV for 24 hours until they found him a bed. While in A&E, blood work came back irregular and two doctors examined him, saying he would probably have to have his appendics removed, but nothing could progress because the bed still wasn't available. He finally got one Sat evening. After being wait-listed another 24 hours for surgery, the doctor in his ward decided on Sunday that he wasn't convinced it was appendicitis, cancelled the surgery and kept him another 24 hours for observation, during which they gave my husband antibiotics and pain killers. Monday came, blood work was normal again and the doctor said he didn't think it was appendicitis. He was discharged Monday evening. Maybe we should have gotten the cleaning lady's opinion???

Meanwhile, my husband's lower ab is still tender, although not as bad as it was originally.

As for the state of the hospital... 6 beds to a room, relatively clean, lots of unused furniture and equipment sitting about in the hallways. Let's just say it didn't feel state of the art. I definitely felt like I stepped back in time. It's a bit distressing, and I hope to god nothing major happens to me while we are living here. I could just be in that adjustment phase still, as we only settled here 6 months ago. Although I hate to think that I might become used to the kind of care my husband received.

On the flip side, my husband did have laproscopic knee surgery earlier in the summer through private healthcare and that experience was very efficient. At every stage we felt completely informed and everything happened in a timely manner.