Stop telling people to go to A&E!

OP, your advice to others is not reasonable. The only time I went to A&E with severe pain, I was admitted immediately to women's surgical with a necrotic ovary and a raging abdo infection, and spent a week there.

If you are genuinely in that much pain, even after alternating paracetamol and ibuprofen, you need to call 111 now, and explain what is happening. Explain that the pain is stopping you sleeping and that you have already been seen by a nurse who has ruled out a UTI.

Ask for their advice and help. They should organise access to a doctor in some way, either OOO or on Tuesday.

Once that is done, contact PALS at the hospital you visited and put in a complaint about the A&E doctor.

It depends on what it is. My DP found out that he'd had a heart attack (Nstemi) because he went to A&E. In cardiac rehab going to A&E got a diagnosis to a range of symptoms (all with a heart/artery condition as the source). You can get a diagnosis for pneumonia etc, as well as other conditions. You should be emailing your practice manager and going down the complaints procedure. For many conditions pain management Is done via A&E.

I disagree OP. I can't get through to my GP - you ring and it says "there is a high volume of calls. If this is an emergency, call 999" then hangs up. Doesn't matter if you call at 8am/9am/10am. My surgery merged with 3 others, which unknown to me had 3 separate numbers. Lo and behold, 2 of those numbers ACTUALLY RING but not the other 2. So you still have a postcode lottery.

In the meantime, before I knew this and while I was daily trying to get through, I had sharp pains in my chest. Thinking I was over reacting (as your post might convince me I was doing) I asked on here. Told to go to the walk in or A&E. Luckily have a walk in so went. Seen in 2 hrs, high D dimer and was told probably an embolism and to drive to A&E, give them paperwork with high D dimer scores. Waited there for 18 hrs, told it was anxiety and costochondria and sent home. 2 days later blue lighted back in and finally diagnosed as having a pulmonary embolism.

I now find that I have hyperthyroidism which results it a high likelyhood of pulmonary embolism. This is as a result of me badgering the GP, once I finally figured out only 2 areas numbers work, that I am still not well, despite being taken off Apixaban. Heamatology hadn't noticed or checked for it, just took me off thinners after 3 months because I had only had 2 miscarriages, not 3 (which is the point when they test for other blood disorders apparently). All of this despite me having had all of the symptoms for over 2 years.

If your GP isn't doing their job or you can't get through to them, you should still see a healthcare professional. Walk in centre over A&E (for time reasons should be a no brainer) so I'd say to everyone, drive to your nearest walk in instead.

Op. If you can afford to see a private go please go. It is actually more affordable than you think.

My parents are using private GPs often to get the treatment she needs.

Yes I know she shouldn’t have to so back off vipers but if you are in pain and have the resources please make an appointment

OP, I get what the a&e doc said. but sometimes, we have to self advocate. I understand your Gp is shit too but you still have 111 as an option, there are walk in centres, a different a&e department. I would focus right now on the avenues where you could get help

Pain in itself is not an emergency. But the cause of the pain could be.

Sorry OP, but this is not good advice. If you are in chronic pain and the GP refuses to see you, A&E is a logical step.

However. First call 111 and stress the urgency of your symptoms and they should offer you an ooh appointment (I don't personally use 111 anymore as the service is appalling, but might work for you as it seems to vary by area)

Next, a strongly worded letter to the practice manager - I've had to do this before and demanded I was contacted ASAP with an appointment - which they did, with an apology 👍

If all else fails go to GP surgery upon opening and kick up a big fuss. I have also done this and was seen very quickly (it was a real emergency and I couldn't get through on the phone, and actually ended up with an ambulance to hospital where I was admitted).

Harsh times call for harsh measures, unfortunately! These days I refuse to be fobbed off with insufficient care/pain relief.

Please make a complaint to your GP surgery and/or your local ICB about the waiting time for an appointment. A&E isn’t the right place to treat non-urgent issues but your GP should be providing that care and they need to be challenged if they’re not.

GPs should be assessing patients and providing appointments based on need rather than blindly assigning them like a normal queue. How they do that is up to them but it’s poor practice to make someone who is in debilitating pain wait weeks to see a GP who may just refer them for specialist care or further tests.

Unfortunately the way around it, in the absence of private healthcare, is to book a private GP appointment. Yes an appointment will cost you hundred quid but at least you get seen quickly.

So one doctor in your local A&E shouted at you, and now all Mumsnetters across the entire UK shouldn't advise anyone to go to their A&E, if they're in agony and crying with pain?

Op if it feels like a severe uti are you weeing as much as you are drinking?

I work in acute medicine and I'm surprised they didn't do a scan of your bladder. Although if the root cause of your pain is known about perhaps that wasn't appropriate.

Severe pain is an emergency, especially pain that prevents you from sleeping or mobilising. I would echo pps in talking to pals if the Dr really did shout at you.

Also yes to getting an urgent ooh appointment through 111.

A&e is pretty full, and yes we are stressed beyond belief, but we still need to treat patients appropriately, even if that means signpost to a more appropriate service

Sorry but that's terrible advice. Just because some doctor in some A&E yelled at you - doesn't mean it's going to happen to anyone else. I've been going to my local A&Es for ages as the GP is absolutely useless and can't even do a blood test let alone anything more useful (also I can't even get through to reception as the phone waiting queue is always full). No one has ever yelled at me at A&E and they have been most useful.

Does your county have an out of hours service? Ours has an OOH unit alongside A & E that if you're not ill enough for there, they boot you round to see a GP and you can get appointments via 111. It's staffed by GPs and a nurse practitioner and runs from 6.30pm to 6am nightly and is open all weekend.

Have you tried 111?

It sounds less like you did the wrong thing, and more like you were treated badly by the A&E doctor.
Our GP surgery, and the rest I have used, do indeed have around a 2 week wait for 'routine' appointments or non-urgent cases, but you can always phone on the day and be seen that day for an emergency/urgent issue.
It sounds like you're being let down by your GP and the doctor you saw at A&E. In your situation I'd be complaining about the doctor who shouted at you and demanding to be seen, crying in pain for as long as you have been isn't normal or something that can wait 2 weeks.

You could try 111? I've seen many people who've rung them and 111 have managed to get them an appointment with their own doctors surgery much sooner.

To leave you in severe pain, unable to sleep, with no pain relief is not acceptable and not usual either.

I'm also surprised they didn't consider doing a scan in A&E to check there isn't something serious going on. Pelvic pain can be any number of things.

Can you make an appointment to see a private GP? Or go to a walk in centre if there is one?

My dd was in severe pain recently, not life threatening but she has an ongoing medical condition which we thought was causing the pain. She insisted a&e wouldn't be able to do anything except give painkillers. I insisted she went and took her along, turned out she had severe pancreatitis and was admitted. Her only symptom was pain and they took her seriously and saw her quickly.
I'm sorry you had that experience but severe pain to the point you're in tears really does need checking out, no doctor should treat you the way they did

Does your GP offer on the day appointments for urgent matters? We can ring at 8:30 (and join a massive queue to get through), to potentially be triaged for a call back from a GP.

Our routine appointments are regularly booked up 5 weeks ahead!!

@Miriad

I think you need to call 111 and explain to them. They will hopefully get you an OOH appointment with a GP.

In my view, someone who is in utter despair due to unbearable pain needs to be seen asap. If A&E is the only available option then so be it. Even if it is due to an ongoing issue, crisis point could have been reached and that makes it an emergency.