If you work in A and E, when is the quietest time for a patient to come in?

I'd only go to AE if it were an emergency and that means i have to go or risk serious illness or death.

The idea of picking a time to go is crazy, thats what minor injuries are for.

My DD has a done a placement in AE, she was shocked at what people turn up for.

@InAMess2023 it is when you say anyone who can wait 12hrs doesn't need to be in A&E. I mean, I'm not dead, but I'd rather have known a week before to possibly save some lung function. Or is the bar set so low now you need to be literally dying within 12hrs to be accepted into your magical world of A&E?

More like 40 years ago.

@InAMess2023 no,a doctor discharged me despite evidence there was a clot and a specialist saying I should have a CT. I then had to call 999 as I deteriorated a week later as he had MISSED a PE.

Yup - I've done the Saturday evening broken bone shift (on the side of the break, not the diagnosing!) - perfectly sober I might add.

Waiting room wasn't too horrendous and I got taken through to X-ray within an hour, then sat in a second waiting room in what appeared to be a deserted A&E department for the next 7 hours. There was only a maximum of 4 of us in this waiting room at a time, and we'd occasionally see someone walking past the door, or someone would pop in and give me more painkillers, but it was weirdly really, really quiet!

I ended up assuming that they were massively understaffed so weren't just dealing with as many patients as they had the capacity to.

Got there around 6pm, eventually left at about 2am.

Thankfully no drunks to be seen in my quiet little waiting area!

I went in Christmas morning as I was having an asthma attack, thought I'd need a nebuliser and home before the teenager woke up. Actually came out on
January 6th.
Anyway, A&E was completely empty. Just me and my mum who drove me in. Remember commenting to one of the nurses that it made me wonder how many A&E visits were absolutely necessary.

If you can wait till a quiet time, it is neither an accident or an emergency ffs 😂

@Aaaalrightythen what on earth are you talking about? I'm genuinely baffled. In that case the hospital decided for you to wait at home for that week. Still absolutely nothing to do with my comment

Again I disagree, the clot I have is large and has reduced my lung function. It is unclear how long I have had it but I can guarantee you that even if it started at 5pm an hour before I went in at 6pm, being sent home for a whole week before I had to call an ambulance on the following Monday was longer than waiting 12hrs at home. And yes I needed to be in A&E. Some of the people in A&E making the most noise likely had the least serious issues.

@Aaaalrightythen another one who has misinterpreted my comment so I'll clarify yet again. I meant if you can wait 12 hours to GO to A&E you don't need it, not if you can wait 12 hours once you get there 🤦🏼‍♀️

I took DD a couple of weeks ago after she fell off a horse. We arrived at 9pm on a Friday night and I was expecting a very long wait but the place was fairly empty. We were triaged before we had even had chance to sit down in the waiting room.

The receptionist said it was always fairly quiet then as it was a bit of a lull - people avoided the place unless absolutely necessary as they think Friday nights would be extremely busy, but pubs, etc hadn’t started kicking out yet.

By the time we left just before midnight, it was a very different story!

unfortunately my elderly mum was admitted on New Years Day. We didnt have to wait long for an ambulance and when we got there it was practically empty. The nurses said it's quiet Xmas Day and New Years day normally. The next day when i went to visit her i walked through A&E and it was full to capacity.

Agree with the posters saying that people who can't wait 12hrs don't need A&E are living in another world! As I said up thread, I was there for over 18hrs both times I went with a pulminory embolism! One doctor even sent me home because he clearly didn't believe me or my D dimer result because I didn't have leg pain (despite me saying I thought it was my lungs) DESPITE me waiting in the hospital since 6pm the previous day! I personally think these doctors cause a lot of the longer term injury and patients with multiple needs because they don't do a simple scan in the first place, meaning I wasted 2 rotas of staff's day as well as my own with repeat ECT, bloods, D-dimers, X ray and eventually a CT scan.

@baldpenguine 🤦🏼‍♀️ you were already in hospital waiting, not waiting to go to hospital. Bit of a pointless comment really

That's absolutely appalling, how depressing that it's come to this.

That's absolutely not true.

I wanted 18 hours before. I have a heart condition that puts me into arrhythmias. My heart was in and out of SVT for 18 hours.
I was triaged, given a room and hooked up on a monitor the whole time, but didn't get seen by a doctor or given any medication for 18 hours.

What an absolutely fucking ridiculous post.

@ShatParp

I have 2 heart conditions which cause arrhythmias and I waited in A&E for 18 ours last year. I arrived at 10pm and was seen 4pm the next day.

It was hell.

There is such a chronic lack of GPs that even trying to train more up reduces apointment slots, for supervision

All GPs have to perform their own CPD, participate in training events and attend trust meetings so that reduces their availability to patients even further

Admin, for typing up clinic notes, reading hospital test results and creating appointments and typing letters for the patients, referring patients to hospital and general practice admin all take the doctors away from the patients

Many GP only see patients for half a day before going to Admin/Meetings/CPD/Supervision

Receptionists are under instructions to refer patients to walk in clinics, urgent treatment centres or A&E

That is true. DD works in A&E for some of her shifts as a HCP and doesn't mind working public holidays but hates the day after. People won't spoil their day off and will drink through the pain, first working day after, there they are.

Christmas Day is traditionally quiet in her city centre hospital.

DS's friend, a trainee Doctor advised, 6.00am. This was in East London in October. The result was a transfer to a London teaching hospital by ambulance and brain surgery the next morning!

DS's friend, a trainee Doctor advised, 6.00am. This was in East London in October. The result was a transfer to a London teaching hospital by ambulance and brain surgery the next morning!

A few years back I was told to go to A and E for removal of a cotton bud for my ear. I went 9am Friday morning and it was quiet.

Who in many parts of the country will simply say there are no appointments for the next 3 weeks and tell you to go to A+E.