To think 70% of people shouldn’t be in A&E

What on earth makes you think that YOU can judge who should be in A&E, just by looking round the waiting room????

I was sent to A&E at 16 weeks pregnant when I started bleeding by my midwife, I had to prove I was pregnant before they’d send me up to the ward. To look at you wouldn’t think there was anything wrong with me, and I really didn’t want to be sat in A&E waiting to do a urine test, I just wanted to be checked over.

You said I had no right to have an opinion if I hadn't experienced pain.

'Unless you have experience of being in extreme pain for hours on end, unable to move a millimetre due to extreme pain, and wishing you were dead rather than suffer anymore , you absolutely have no right to say that people suffering pain where the cause is known, shouldn’t attend A&E'

I'll say again: You have no idea what my medical history is. If I have experienced a level of pain to your satisfaction will you believe me then? That's a silly thing to say.

A lot of people believe pain is an emergency in itself, of course they do. It's frightening and painful and they want it to stop. And GPs and 111 refer all sorts of things that aren't accidents or emergencies as well - not least because that's where the good drugs and fancy machines are. But they help to make up the statistics of people who are there for good reason but aren't an emergency.

I said before that I don't think OP was necessarily wrong to be there, or that I wouldn't have done it myself - I don't actually have a problem with it and better to be safe than sorry. But I do have a problem with OP looking down her nose at people who she didn't deem 'true emergencies' when she knew fuck all about them so I simply pointed out that - as it seems she was discharged without admission - technically speaking she wasn't either and perhaps she should reign it in.

Unless she comes back to say she was rushed in to theatre or admitted to ICU I'll stand by that.

One of the problems with my local NHS trust is it's split between two hospitals about half an hours drive apart and some bright spark decided to put minor injuries in one and A&E in the other. The next nearest hospital has both on the same site which makes far more sense, people are triaged and sent to the appropriate side. Or as they said when DH went with a blood clot 'life and death is over there'! Thankfully he's deaf and didn't hear!

There’s lots of conditions that you need A and E for that don’t have any visible symptoms. Someone who uses a EpiPen for example must go just in case they suffer a secondary reaction. Someone might have broken something but taken strong pain meds so look ok. My child had a bang to the head once and looked like she had a little fit before going very sleepy, didn’t stop her bouncing off the walls in the waiting room 🙈 but they kept her over night for observation. Another girl was in for the exact same reason.

My local A and E has 2 clinics in the same area. A walk in and A and E so a lot aren’t Coming for A and E just need to see a GP and can’t wait 1 wk

I didn’t say I did ?

You have zero idea of my medical history

As a registered nurse and also a chronic health sufferer , I think you are very wrong.
severe debilitating pain is enough reason to attend A&E, and GP’s and NHS 111 do send patients to A&E when experiencing a severe debilitating flare up.
I have endometriosis and adenomyosis, have had several surgeries however my internal organs are still ‘stuck together’. Waiting for a hysterectomy for the last couple of years .
I am on a cocktail of medication , from opiates to NSAIDs. Sometimes I require IV morphine to help the pain after a nearly 24 hour flare up. Unless you have experience of being in extreme pain for hours on end, unable to move a millimetre due to extreme pain, and wishing you were dead rather than suffer anymore , you absolutely have no right to say that people suffering pain where the cause is known, shouldn’t attend A&E.

Years ago I was sent to a and e with my young daughter because she had a splinter in her bottom, we'd tried everything we could think of to remove it, last resort (so we thought) was to call our G.P. surgery and we were told 'what do you expect us to do about it?' And we were directed to children's a and e, the splinter needed removing or it was going to become infected but there was nothing else we could think of to do. Sat in that waiting room feeling such a fraud, luckily it was early in the morning so not busy, she was given gas and air while they nicked her skin with a scalpel to remove it (they popped it in a container for her to keep 😆). It was immensely frustrating as we felt we were wasting a and es time but 10 years later I'm not sure there was anything else we could have done (side note, she was very annoyed as they sold gas and air to her as laughing gas and it didn't make her 😃)

DH was given sandwich and tea, when we were waiting last week as did every patient. They did want dh to leave until he had eaten.

How do you know what they were really there for? People with mental health problems often don’t want to give their exact diagnosis, because of the stigma around it! Some of them don’t have insight into what is wrong with them. They might say, they have depression when actually they’ve got psychosis! Or, their wife has taken them, because she can see the mania side of bipolar is getting out of control, which they deny.

Why do posters think nobody in A & E should eat, and if people are eating, it means there is nothing wrong with them? Don’t you all realise, the people in Majors are getting three meals a day, plus tea and biscuit rounds? DD1 was in Majors with a broken fibula from 5 am until 5.30 pm! She was given menus to choose every meal - nobody expected her to starve, because she was in severe pain!

(At both our nearest hospitals, in different counties, people in Majors get three meals a day, plus drinks rounds)

I’m always baffled by the things people go to A+E for, however I think a big part of it is the reduction in other healthcare services, like the closure or reduced hours of minor injury units and lack of available GP appointments. I also think 111 send people there at the drop of a hat.

Some people certainly shouldn’t be in A&E and mainly it’s some of the relations or friends
of some patients. One patient and one friend or relation would work well but for some people, A&E seems to be a social outing.

I broke my leg one Sunday afternoon recently and while I waited in a busy London A&E, a woman was there who had been in A&E for several hours. She had refused the medical care that was offered by the staff but then refused to go home.

She was accompanied by her increasingly bad tempered partner, three children under 10 and her mother. It was difficult to see why she needed to be accompanied by more than one adult, as from what she said they all lived locally, and the other adult could have gone home with the children.

Another apparently very mobile patient was there with three boisterous friends who ordered takeaway food which made some people feel even more nauseous than they already were.

Both sets of people were rude and insulting to staff and other patients.

Am very pleased that my own days of working in A&E are long gone!

Playing devil's advocate all the people insisting they've seen people with a paper cut/broken nail etc or regular visitors going there for an outing - potentially these people have health anxiety or a MH problem (that obviously should be treated outside of A and E) because I literally can't believe people are going (and spending literally hours there) just for the fun of it. ...

I’ve unfortunately been in A&E quite a few times over the past two years not for myself but with close family. Before that, I’d not been for years and I was shocked to my core to find a situation like the third world with a clear lack of resources and yes people there that shouldn’t have been. The patients ranged from death imminent very elderly, people obviously poorly, people obviously injured etc. to someone with a sore finger (it had been sore for 3 weeks but they’d decided not to go to the GP or chemist), an attention seeking man in too small high heels with pains in his feet (I’m not kidding), a woman with a hair growing out of a mole and that had apparently never happened before, several people with headaches / migraines. I also witnessed a lady screaming intermittently in agonising pain from gallstones who was unable to walk, begging for help to the toilet, she kept being told to wait and she couldn’t hold it, so she peed all over the floor, they soon helped then! They failed to give one of my loved ones the necessary care and as a direct consequence, they now have a life long debilitating condition. It’s truly a place to avoid unless there is no alternative.

There are people who chronically abuse the NHS I've known people go to a&e for a cut finger my mum was in not so long ago with issues that ended up being cancer and there were several people there that obviously spend the majority of their time there. The staff knew them well unfortunately the caregivers have to follow rules and aren't allowed to just send them on their way.

That’s ridiculous. No one goes to a&e as an outing.

I agree. My daughter had ongoing abdominal pains. GP referred her for an urgent scan. That was 5 weeks ago and she has heard nothing. GP did say that if the pain got severe, she should go to A&E.

My 91 year old dad couldn't swallow. His urgent referral took 4 weeks.

If you go to A&E you are likely to get scans straight away.

It's not about jumping the queue, but people needing access to medical treatment now, not having to wait months for so called "urgent" treatment.

Totally agree with you . I split my head open after collapsing on the floor and waking up in a pool of blood. I sat in an and e for 15 hrs and watched people come in with broken finger nails, ordering take a ways and just generally having a nice outing. Made me do cross as most should have just sorted a lot of their ailments themselves

I must say i disagree. As a daughter to an 83 yr old who we have been to see the GP 3 times this week with vomiting for days, and tremendous pain our GP sent us to A&E... we came earlier in the week (sent by GP) left after 5 hours not seen, here again today, at 4 hours not seen.

Is my mother entitled to not be screaming in pain at 83? i'd say yes. Do we want to be here? no.

But, this is our way to get her into the hospital system. The GP sent us, on a weekday.

I have endometriosis and adenomyosis (currently waiting for a hysterectomy however there is a long wait).
Before I got referred to a pain management consultant , I would have excruciating pain flare ups . Thankfully I have only had to attend A&E a few times in the two decades of suffering with these conditions. I only present at A&E after hours of excruciating pain, where every movement causes severe pain.
People with chronic health conditions should not be having to attend A&E for pain management… the problem lies with waiting for specialist care and how people are coping in the mean time. Before I get any sarky comments , strong opiates were not cutting it , and my GP and nhs 111 directed me to A&E.

I went to A&E nearly passing out with a badly broken arm. The man in front of me at the desk was with his wife who said to the nurse he was there with 'anxiety'.

yes you are disgusting.

My local a&e have a mixed waiting room for urgent care. Some most are not there for intense kidney pain often infections. Last time I was there was because of a hernia not eating and falling down the stairs as so dizzy. The staff was great but nowhere to put me, people on beds everywhere I only copped as had my walker. Breastfeeding as well. Luckily they found something wrong with tummy and I'm feeling better thanks to a&e. This has been missed by gps for 2 years I've had the hernia pains!