"Felt abandoned"

I was taken to A&E by ambulance after a mental health crisis involving an incident of self-harm. Considering how busy the department was, I was seen fairly quickly. Several of the nursing staff were lovely and tried to make me feel at ease, but I would have appreciated more communication from the doctor about what was/would be happening.

The main problem started when I was told around 4.30am that I could go home. I live over 40 miles from the hospital and as it was a Sunday morning, the first public transport connection wasn't until three hours later. When I told the nurse (?) who'd informed me that I was good to leave that I didn't know how to get home at this time of night, they became quite rude and snapped that they needed the room and that I should call myself a taxi.

I totally understand that A&E was busy and the room was needed, but I was in a very vulnerable place mentally and I would really have appreciated some help or assistance, even just being told where I could wait. A taxi would have been unaffordable for me and I don't have relatives nearby who could have picked me up. I left A&E in tears.

In the end, I ended up walking around Paisley for an hour before finding a cafe that opened at 6am where I could wait for another two hours until the first bus. As a solo woman in an already vulnerable state of mind, I did not feel safe (and more than once considered ending my life in those hours).

In total, it took me over six hours to get home by buses and train. That journey took a lot out of me both mentally and physically and left me in a place that seemed almost worse than before coming to A&E.