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

Indeed I have for the same reason 😳.

I was also told by the GP to go to get an ear bud removed. I did go in at what I thought would be a quiet time and it was indeed quiet

Oh! I understand now, no she sat there and took them.

A&E covers mental health emergencies too. These people can look fine if you are just passing by.

I think the OP is partly right and partly wrong. Years ago you didn’t go to a&e with minor things but these days there are fewer other options and people are less clued up on what needs a&e. But also - I was in A&e with basically post menopause haemorrhaging twice. Apart fro
the towel I was sitting on and that I was pale and quiet you wouldn’t have known

Conversely I was in agony following a car crash a couple of days earlier, which left my car in pieces. It was bad abdominal pain. I went to A&E bent over and crying in agony and was told I wasn’t a suitable patient. I was sent to another department manned by just one GP. After a seven hour wait, he said I had a serious injury. It was a ruptured diaphragm and the contents of my abdomen were in my chest. I’m having major surgery this week. This GP was horrified that A&E had turned me away and said he sees serious cases like mine every day because they just don’t want to see so many patients and unload them on his clinic. How patients with minor ailments get seen in the Emergency Department I don’t know.

I was sent home with a big box of paracetamol when I was discharged from hospital last week! Even the nurse said I must be special, as they usually tell you to go to Home Bargains! They don't help with the pain that much, I have to combine them with the codiene to have an effect!

I meant they won't give it to you to take home. I was given paracetamol when I was waiting to be seen, I had pneumonia, but if you need some at home you buy it.

Yeap, the option to book appointments for small issues does help to prevent the escalation to A&E. They only need to provide the service. But, as it stands today, many places do not have this option.

My local a&e won't give you paracetamol, I was there with GS after a sports injury, x-ray was clear so they said elevate and take paracetamol. I was advised to go to the 24 hr Asda in a neighbouring town when I said I didn't think I had any.

Our A&E gives painkillers. I was offered paracetamol and ibuprofen in triage when I broke my elbow but had already taken them at home. I was also given a box of co-codamol on discharge. I don’t think it’s easy to tell who qualifies for A&E and who doesn’t. When I was there with my broken elbow I bumped into a school mum who had been called to collect her daughter with a suspected broken wrist. I had my 7 year old with me as I had nowhere to leave him. We weren’t sitting moaning in pain, so probably looked as if we were there for the fun of it but we both needed to be there.

According to some, probably asked the neighbour to remove it!

100% nowhere else to turn to

Mine apparently does as I was there when she was given it, I was also give when I was admitted to a ward

So much ignorance spouted on here. You don’t need to be in crisis to go to A&E with an ED. You can look normal and be near death.The first time my daughter was admitted with anorexia I didn’t even realise she had it. I’d taken her in for something else however her bloods were so awful she was immediately whisked off to high dependency. We’ve since been in and out of hospital including A&E many times, frequently ordered to by CAMHS. I use the Marzipan list for guidance. Many of the thinks to look out for wouldn’t be obvious to bystanders or MNers who think they’re medical experts.

We went to the local pharmacy yesterday for DHs COVID jab. The pharmacist was lovely and no queues, in and out in two minutes. When baby GC was visiting and had a fever 111 directed my son to the pharmacy, again very efficient and dealt with quickly.

Yes - remember all the fuss when nurse practitioners were introduced? We were all going to die apparently. Now they are mainstream, cover many minor conditions and have specialisms, just as specialist pharmacists conduct prescription reviews/minor ailments.

My practice which by UK standards I’d say is quite good has had a PA for about 15 years. She is an expert in child development, childhood ailments, managing and supporting some of the medical conditions which are common in children with signficant special needs etc. The other GPs routinely call on her specialist knowledge. Her door is clearly labelled “Physician Associate” and she chooses to have Ms on the door nameplate with her PhD listed at the end to avoid confusion. If she sees a child who may need the GP she can fast track them into the GP diary.

This model works well and is used in some of the European systems which regularly outperform ours.

If GPs are using them unsupervised or as cheap labour that is a problem with poor practice, not the model.

The GP tried to send me to a&e the other week
i was 9 days post endo surgery, and had a UTI (from the catheter and I’m prone to them) and my pulse was a bit high (it always is) and I’m neutropenic
I’ve been neutropenic for the best part of a decade so ended up on antibiotics with a promise of a&e if I felt more unwell
But if I did have to go, I would have looked fine

Thinking about this more, with regard potential skin cancer. I wonder if HCP could be bypassed completely and a picture uploaded directly to an NHS AI reader as a first step?

Last week , dh had made it to the 3rd waiting room where there was also a large room with recliner chairs, people on drips. A family turned up with 3 boys and 3 adults to visit!. Boys were running around just being a nuisance. Nurse then decides to chuck out every who wasnt a patient. I went for a coffee ended up going home and dh came home by himself once he had steroids and they felt he wasnt going to get worse which wasnt ideal.

We do this when the waiting room is very busy.
It certainly works.

There are , I work in one. It’s a family day out for some people.

And maybe had a chat with a neighbour.

My child had a “bad cold” one time and the GP called an ambulance. It might have been a bad cold to me but it was a serious health emergency to the GP who spotted something more sinister.

Exactly but there seems to be a movement to discredit physician associates ( no need for the passive aggressive 'physician associates') Same with nurse practitioners, I've never seen a physician associate but I have been treated by nurse practitioners more than once and I've found them excellent.

Medic doesn't just mean a doctor, in the forces for example it also means paramedic. The point is he is a health care professional, he did what he thought was right and I think I'd rather have a referral and find out I was OK rather than being dismissed and finding myself dead a short time later. I guess you can take your pick.

This is an issue to take up with your GP practice who are responsible for supervising PA referrals, just like all other recommendations. Either the supervising GP agreed with the referral or wasn’t supervising properly.