Blood oxygen levels of 90 - is the NHS being crap here?

If you have a job that means you cannot hang on the phone for hours, what do you do? I’m fortunate that my job is flexible but some people (teachers and nurses, for example) may not be allowed their phones.

My GP surgery has gone online mainly and within half an hour, the portal may be full and not accepting new requests. Even if I log on dead on 8 am, everyone else is doing the same and it crashes and by the time you get it working, the portal cannot even accept your request!

PALS are for hospitals not GP surgeries. I was on a patient participation group for my surgery, you can complain to the practice manager all you like but they cannot magic up appointments. It’s not their fault. There aren’t enough GPs or nurses for the number of patients. People are living with increasingly complex health needs in the community. It’s an issue that needs to be addressed much higher up - more funding, better conditions and pay for GPs, better out of hours facilities etc. The system - not the people - is appalling. As a patient, I’m sick of being blamed and I’m sick of the medics being blamed. The system isn’t working for a lot of people and it’s not ok.

People are very quick to say I can't get an appointment without putting in a lot of effort in doing so...You have to be persistent and patient and you will get an appointment.

Do you realise how terrible this situation is?

People who are really ill have to be persistent and patient?

Seriously??

You should be able to pick up the phone, be connected to a receptionist, and make an appointment for a visit within a few days, or get a call back for a phone triage the same day - you know, the way it's done in parts of the world where healthcare systems are fit for purpose...

It may be harder right now to get a gp appointment but not impossible a letter will have been sent to the gp regarding the a&e visit which means they will potentially be following up anyway if they don't there are other ways to get appointments such as speaking to the practice manager or pals. People are very quick to say I can't get an appointment without putting in a lot of effort in doing so. Lots of my friends/family/ colleagues who go to the same gp as me will often say they can never get an appointment, yet iv always managed no problem. When iv questioned this further they often say things like I was 10th in que so gave up or I waited 20 minutes and gave up. I rang once on a Monday morning and they had no appointments left ect ect. You have to be persistent and patient and you will get an appointment

Ideally it should be above early 90s, I know that. Maybe if it's a child it's different.

You are not wrong, @BobbyBiscuits .

For a child or an adult, the threshold is at or above 95 where I live.

I suspect the decision to send someone home with a level of 90 is down to available medical resources and not actually medically sound.

95 is good. 96 or higher is better.
90 is a problem, not that much higher than 88, which is dangerous.

She knows that, the hospital knows that, but the problem is the impossibility of getting to see the GP.

@x2boys Sorry, it certainly isn't general 'advice' only my own experience. My DH had a collapsed lung, it was down to 79 I think when he tried to stand up. The EMTs had to give him the biggest oxygen cannister ever, turns out there was 2.5 litres of blood in the lung! He was in hospital for a week with a drain in there.
Ideally it should be above early 90s, I know that. Maybe if it's a child it's different. Sorry, I'm not a medic as someone else asked me before.

But if she's being cleared by a&e and its being found not to be an emergency she needs her gp to do a referral to respiratory.

This isn’t correct unless she has a diagnosis that explains having a lower than usual O2 sat and OP would know and understand that. She hasn’t explicitly said she has been given a diagnosis and clinical explanation for this.
If someone has been discharged with persistently 90% O2 and they’re not clear why and they remain unwell, they do need a second opinion.

@thinkingcapon god no, I'm a disabled benefits claimant who left school at 16.
I was going by what happened to my DH when he had a collapsed lung the other month. The rest of my post is just asking stuff and me mentioning the lung rehab thing?!

Its pretty simple.

You've posted about your situation before haven't you?

You are surrounded by alcoholics. Your husband also has cirrhosis.

And you were drinking very, very recently. Until and unless you start being honest about your situation, noone can help you.

If I were to take this thread as accurate... you had concerning medical symptoms, sought medical advice. They assessed you and discharged you. What more are you wanting?

@DogandMog Op has cirrhosis and it's likely haemochromatosis was tested at that time.

Op, it must be scary to have a serious long term condition as cirrhosis. You mention appointments twice a year, at previous appointment did you talk through progression of the disease?

It seems you need more support as there will be additional symptoms for cirrhosis and A&E would not be the best place for this...I also think your GP will be not specialist enough. The liver is an amazing organ and referred to as the energy store so if it's not able to function then you will be tired.

I recommend the Liver Trust, you can phone to talk through worries or new symptoms and they know the liver specialist centres.

If you have abstained from alcohol are you on the liver transplant waiting list?

Well OP it's hard to advise without knowing why they weren't concerned about the low sats level as usually that does need admission until in normal range. If you don't have a chronic lung condition or a diagnosis, and they didn't come up and it was accurate then no I don't really understand it and would be concerned.
I suggest reseeking medical advice over the weekend and on Monday an emergency appt with your GP to see what AE said and also recheck your sats. Sats should be 94-98% ideally >96%
If a jnr dr just sent you home without explanation and you didn't get cxr or see resp or a senior dr to send you home I'd go back to AE

Google hepatopulmonary syndrome.

OP, have you had your iron levels explored? Go to your GP and ask for an iron panel. also ask for a print out with actual numbers, not just accepting a verbal result like “fine”, when actually it’s one point above being in the gutter.

Do not start taking iron supplements without medical testing though, as it’s possible to have hemochromatosis/excess iron, which can put you into danger territory.

Do eat a nutrient rich diet like red meat, liver, beans, molasses, green leafy veg etc. Eat vitamin C foods with meals to enhance absorbtion (citrus fruit, kiwi, glass of fruit juice etc). Avoid eating dairy with meat, as the calcium blocks iron. Also avoid tea/coffee/herbal tea/cocoa etc two hours either side of meal times as the caffeine/tannins block iron uptake.

DH recently went to A&E as his oxygen level was 93. He wasn't let go until it was back up to 95+. He was given steroids and monitored for a few hours.

Are you sure it stayed at 90? It’s unlikely if they didn’t admit you and put you on oxygen. If sats came up and they couldn’t find a reason then not unreasonable but can understand you wouldn’t want to know why it happened. Although pulse ox machines can be unpredictable eg not on right, cold fingers etc so low readings not always concerning. Book in with your gp for the tiredness.

last admission I imagine you oxygen stayed low for a while if you stayed ok oxygen it then gets weaned according to the sats. What was the diagnosis last admission? What was the drip for ? Just fluids or iv antibiotics for chest infection ?

And she got urgent medical advice my hr is always above 131 iv now been told by my cardiologist that it has to be above 200 and sustained for more then 20 minutes before seeking emergency help. The numbers in the chart of for people who are experiencing this for the first time so anything life threatening can be ruled out. The op already spent time in hospital in January for the exact same thing so it's nothing new and anything urgent and life threatening has been ruled out

What was cause of recent low O2 levels on recent admission?

How can you make a mistake like saying you have cancer when you don’t? And I ask that as an autistic person too. You should go to your GP, it sounds like you need your oxygen levels monitoring. You may have briefly presented at 90 with that raising before you’re discharged. How many times did they put the wrap on your finger to test it?

Hyperventilation does NOT cause low O2