To share ways to make A&E more bareable

I’ll leave that to whomever looks at your posting history to decide
but certainly it’s clear to me

Your local A&E is somewhere you seem very familiar with

When my DD had severe ongoing respiratory issues, we knew that once we'd called an ambulance we'd have c20mins to pack a bag. We quickly learnt to take an iPad and phone charger! Plus clothes, tooth brushes, snacks etc. Longest we were in A&E waiting for admission was 33 hours.

Regarding phone chargers, packing bags etc as @SmallGoddess says, when I had to call an ambulance for DH the paramedics were brilliant in checking that I'd got everything we might need.
(Phone / charger/ keys / pyjamas/ toothbrush). They were lovely and very reassuring.

@ShutTheFuckUpCakes my mistake, quoted the wrong person! I doubt the clinical manager telling people to go home story.

I have a bag that I keep in the car, so it automatically comes with us or I can quickly pick it up if am ambulance is required.
I have spare clothes for each child (helpful anyway if we're out for the day and they're needed), a portable charger and a wired one, small snacks and bottled water. Water is the main one for me, each time we've been I've been absolutely parched, the hospital is so warm and all the vending machines were cash only. I had to keep asking for cups of water for each of us at reception while we waited.

Really? My neighbour collapsed last year, was taken in by ambulance fitting, with chest pains and an abnormal ECG. She lay in a gurney for 23hrs with her 6yo daughter sitting at her feet without food and drink. She was admitted to the cardiac ward at that point and finally someone thought to call a relative to collect the child.

That's in Derriford in Plymouth. Frequently on code red or code black or whatever the hell they call it.

Yet when DH was punched in the face and presented with a mild orbital swelling, we were in and out in an hour including xray, review by orthopaedics and advice. No way was he more deserving than the neighbour.

Yes, really. They wanted it to be X rayed first, which they weren't able to do. We live equidistant from 2 minor injuries units (both are over 15 miles away as it's a rural area) and picked the one we thought was going to be a faster journey, but it turned out to not have an X ray machine working because it was in the process of being closed down and moved to a new building. So they referred him to the nearest A&E instead.

Why would you "doubt it"?

These threads always go the same way. "Don't use it unless you've got a limb dropping off..." It's not always possible to avoid unfortunately.

My local minor injuries unit is... A&E
My local urgent care is... A&E
My local out of hours service is... A&E

If we're to not use A&E unless it's a life threatening emergency then we need our services back!

So 79 year old man with two gashes in head requiring stitches would have been told to go home? (In case you’re wondering, he’d been sent to A&E from Minor Injuries because Minor Injuries don’t deal with head wounds in the over 70s).

Slick answers are rarely the right answer.

@CheeseWisely, my friend's 18 year old daughter, who has cancer, was able to pack her own bag and walk into A&E with her dad when she developed a fever. She has been told that a fever while you're on chemo means A&E, regardless of how you feel. She was admitted for 5 days.

MN is always awful for the holier-than-thou crowd who would never dream if using A&E even if their arm had just been torn off.

But back in the real world … if my GP, or a pharmacist/111 etc have told me to go to A&E then that’s where I go.

I had to wait 12 hours last year when I was 19 weeks pregnant. My bp was through the roof. This was because the labour ward wouldn't accept me before 20 weeks at first and they couldn't decide why to do with me. After I was admitted by baby died and I was in for 2 weeks with various surgery and mediation. I can assure you I was unwell enough and wouldn't have gone unless I had to. They told me I had to go through a&e.

How irresponsible.

That sounds so logical, but many people don’t have a minor injuries, and people can’t always get a GP appointment.

When you can stand without pain but you're having a reaction to chemo, A&E is still the right place to go, in fact it's the place the chemo unit direct you to, and even give you a priority treatment card.

If you have a broken arm you wouldn’t be able to stand up without pain 😉

Observed from my last visit to A&E after MIL broke her hip....Don't take the whole extended family with you. Mum, Dad, Granny and 3 kids taking up 6 seats in A&E waiting room while genuinely ill/injured people were sitting on the floor. Oh, and the reason for this family being in A&E was 'Jaydin' fell and hurt his leg, same child that was running riot, squealing and having a great time so definitely did not have a broken leg!

Another tip, unless you are dying, heart attack type thing, or bleeding to death, try calling NHS24 first as they might put you in a virtual A&E queue and you go down to the hospital for a pre agreed slot (not sure if that's just a thing in Scotland though?).

Really? I doubt that. Last time I was in A and E I was sent there by the OOH GP because I'd tripped and smacked my head on a doorpane, resulting in a split in my forehead that needed stitching. It didn't even hurt that much, but it was gaping and obviously not going to close, and though I asked if there wasn't a minor injuries I could go to, they said the minor injuries unit had closed. So I went, and of course I waited hours, as I should have, because I was hardly on death's door. But it did have to be stitched, and there was nowhere else to do it. I even asked the GP if she'd do it, but she said she didn't do stitches. I felt quite apologetic when I finally saw the doctor, but they completely understood, and agreed with me that whilst a minor injuries clinic would have been preferable, there wasn't one!

Well that's obviously nonsense. At least half of my A&E visits are for broken arms!

(And yes, we use minor injuries if possible, but it's only open 8-8, and they don't have x-ray facilities every day)

We had to take DF there twice the other week for a nose bleed. He's on blood thinners and has various health issues so it's an apparently minor but potentially very serious problem. He'd had a couple which we'd dealt with before but this was worse.

The GP no longer offers a packing and cauterisation service and told him to go to A&E

We tried the local minor injuries with the same response. We don't do it - go to A&E

We applied some DIY packing and trundled off the local major hospital. The bleeding did eventually stop before he seen and he was sent home untreated with instructions to come back if it happened again.

We were back the next day with the worst yet - this time they did the quick cauterisation procedure he needed and all is fine. Why on earth GPs no longer do this beats me. DF did not need a full A&E service but that was the only place where he could be treated. No wonder it's collapsing under the weight of numbers using it

OP I would respectfully suggest that if you haven’t already done so, you have a look at information about health anxiety and how to manage that.

If you feel you don’t have any type of health anxiety you really do need to think about the appropriateness of the healthcare that you chose to access in any given situation.

Most accidents are not life-threatening. The vast majority of my time sat in A&E is with kids with potentially broken bones - I always make sure to pack a bag!