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

I took him because the paramedic ordered us a taxi to go there. When I say severely underweight, I mean starving. It did turn out to be an eating disorder, we didn't find that out until the next time I took him to A&E, because the first time the doctor discharged him because his blood sugar was up, because the paramedic had managed to get him to drink orange juice and eat jam on toast.

I think taking your DC to A&E because they're literally starving to death is a good enough reason, but hey ho.

I agree.

My son had an intussusception which is when part of the bowel telescopes in on itself which can cause a bowel obstruction as it did with him. This is usually found in babies and toddlers aged between 3-18 months.

My son was 8 years old at the time. They didn't check for it because it is incredibly rare in older children, I wish they had. By the time they had finally accepted it wasn't appendicitis or gastroenteritis, he was going into septic shock and ended up having a cardiac arrest due to multi organ failure. The surgeon was adamant he wasn't a surgical case, he was very wrong.

If they had checked just a few hours later, he likely would've never had a cardiac arrest. Thankfully, he survived but he is now disabled due to their delay because 8 year olds 'never' have intussusception.

sorry - FIVE TIMES - (it just feels like 6!)

I've been in A&E 6 times over the last 12m.

1-3 with my son, who wouldn't have 'looked unwell' especially. We walked in.
He was 19 & in acute Heart Failure from PeriMyocarditis. 5 days in High Needs.
Ongoing issues (had to go back into A&E via ambulance twice)

2nd with my Dd, who wouldn't have 'looked unwell'. She is Autistic & would have been hiding her suspected broken hand under her jacket. Needed X-Rays.

Last time I was sent direct (no ambulance availabe) by GP, suspected Cauda Equina (needed emergency MRI which GP couldn't do)

It's not always obvious to an outsider (or even a HCP) what is / isn't 'going on'.

Well firstly, an associate isn't a medic. They're not fully qualified in the same way and unlikely experienced.

And to clarify, he made me feel I was in massive danger and must attend a and e or die, which was not going to be the case according to someone whose time I ultimately wasted. If a doctor had seen me in the GP surgery, I probably wouldn't have ended up in that queue, taking away from things that needed dealing with there and then.

And maybe I could have been the fourth, but youve ignored the details about the associate not realising it wouldn't be the case without other symptoms I didn't have, and extremely unlikely without other significant risk factors that did not apply.

I’m sure plenty of people shouldn’t be in A and E (or need it be) but I don’t think k other punters waiting are the best people to judge that, for obvious reasons.

For three days off work they could just self certify. Even for a week.

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.

Mine is great, I'm sure others are.

Back in the days when doctors covered their own out of hours on a rota (so my local surgery had six doctors and they'd each do a couple of days on a rota) my one year old had a bad cold, as the day went on it got worse and I phoned and receptionist told me there were no appointments. I pushed so she spoke to a doctor and came back and said no one would see me. I said fine can you just let the on call doctor know it will be an emergency before midnight so I will be calling him out. I was told to bring baby down.

So I got the frozen treatment from receptionist and left sitting for ages. Got called in to the doctor who was very frosty. He listened to her chest, looked at me and apologised and said I was right. Sometimes mother does know best.

Some people probably look fine on the outside but are not actually fine.

Poor medics, damned if they are careful damned if they dismiss things and people die. You could have been the 4th.

I wonder if AI could be useful? I had a black mark under a nail a couple of years ago. Apparently this is typically what cancer looks like. I did an online consultation with my GP including a picture. They fast track refered to hospital appointment. I went, doctor there had a good look at it, took a picture on her phone and expanded it to have a better look. Told me it was nothing to worry about. I can't help thinking my GP could have just sent my original picture to the skin cancer consultant or even got AI to look at it, very quickly, no cause for concern, no appointments needed. I don't know, maybe the skin doctor needed to physically see me, see my overall condition, to aid diagnosis?

Are they running to the doctor over everything though? It’s a battle to even get on the system in some areas. Why are people in their droves going to be choosing to go to the doctor over every little thing when juggling appointments with work is often extremely difficult and stressful?

This is absolutely a big contributing factor. In our area it’s 4-6 weeks for a routine GP appointment or telephone queuing for an emergency on the day appointment, which are hideously scarce. So you’re kinda stuck in a limbo where you don’t feel like you qualify for A & E but also might struggle to potentially wait days/weeks to see someone. More GP cover could reduce A & E visits substantially.

Although I do agree that there will be a number of people there who really don’t need to be, as someone else said, this has been drastically cut down by the sheer Hell of the current reality of A & E wait times etc.

It’s a valid point but it completely depends on the reason for the GP appointment. If you she. An infection fair enough, but you can wait to see the doctor two weeks of you need to have an annual checkup for a chronic condition for example.

The compounded problem is people running to the doctor over every little thing and then the number who miss appointments.

Not everyone sitting in A&E will be a patient, some will be relatives and friends supporting the patient, so will be chatting. I’ve only seen one person in A&E who physically didn’t need to be there, and he told me that. He was convinced he was going to suddenly die and would rather sit in the A&E entrance all night than at home, just in case his heart suddenly stopped. I actually felt really sorry for him.
I do think 111 advise people to go to A&E when they might not need to, but there’d be an outcry if someone died after 111 told them to have a cup of tea and stay at home. 111 told me to take my adult DS to A&E when he was violently vomiting after swallowing river water. I didn’t and DS was perfectly fine by the next morning. I’d just wanted some advice on how to best treat DS at home. (MN were no help with advice and I was nastily accused of trolling for not taking DS to A&E )

What a brilliant idea!! X

It is true that many people in A&E probably don’t ‘need’ to be there but many of them think they do and so attending is not unreasonable. It is also the case that there are tests that can be and need to be done in hospital in a timely manner .Patients can look well eg the pp with a tendency to blood clots but where a missed diagnosis has potentially catastrophic outcomes .Better education around health would be very helpful to give us confidence as to how to use services and what constitutes an emergency.

Bit of a positive story about how brilliant A&E can be . A friend of mine had an 18 month old baby fitting and not coming out of the fit. Baby had been unwell for a day or two before. She ran into A&E carrying Baby and screaming for help. A nurse dumped the patient she was about to take through and ran over, grabbed the baby, and ran straight through to resus. Within seconds of arriving at A&E six people were working to save her baby. This was before they even knew his name. Turned out he had meningitis. He is now a fit and health teen. Mum is convinced if she had been ten minutes longer he would have been dead.

Possibly something to do with the gate-keeping of doctors? Few years ago DH had a bad cold, and then started vomiting. It went on for days with no improvement, until even water made him vomit. Since his under-eyes were black and his piss was brown and he could barely get up to go to the toilet I rang the GP. Predictably, a receptionist offered me the option to ring back in another week if no improvement. Following day was a weekend, he’d visibly deteriorated and 111 told me to bring him to OOH. We waited two hours and saw a nurse who gave him a row for coming into a waiting room when he might be infectious (?) She administered an anti-emetic and told him he HAD to drink and would be fine.

Next day but one, DH went down like a sack of spuds grabbing his chest. I phoned the GP and said it was an emergency and he needed a doctor right now. They said if it was that bad phone an ambulance. I said okay, then they made me hold and then came on and said ‘doctor says bring him in’ - despite the fact that at this point DH was struggling to breathe and couldn’t walk without me taking his weight. GP said as soon as DH fell through the door ‘looks like pneumonia, son.’ Ambulance came to the surgery to get him. Not only pneumonia, but his lung had collapsed; cue a week and a half in hospital.

Now, we shoulda gone to A&E, right? But when? Before his lung collapsed, ideally, I guess. But the OOH nurse treated him like a malingering nuisance, and the prevailing opinion is, as we see often on here, even with people who turn out to have sepsis, stay away from A&E unless your head is hanging off.

Kinda feels like it would be handy to be able to access a GP before it gets to the nee-naw stage, what do we think.

My son passed out in the shower and slipped and banged his head. No blood but a bump, and as it turns out, concussion. He was laughing and joking with me in the waiting room. We were told to go to A&E. You’re not really qualified to make an assessment on someone’s health.

Maybe waited until I got toxic shock and would be deemed worthy of A&E attendance.

It is really concerning how many people think illness is a visible, performative thing.

It's such a dangerous and ignorant assumption.

Just take anaphylaxis for instance, I just had to completely amend the draft first aid plan my daughter's new school sent me, because it said you would know someone had anaphylaxis as there would be "very visible swelling and hives". That's not necessarily the case at all. My son has had his airway closing but no outward symptoms at all (other than a very slight pallor).
(It also said to take the child to the first aid room, which made me very cross as it is well known you don't move a person who is having a suspected allergic reaction)

They absolutely are not and all need to be under one dep instead of autonomous, doing the same thing whilst being held to account if they’re not. Then we will all know where we stand, what service we should be getting and the I’m all right Jack brigade can experience what others are. The government would also be less able to get away with hiding the shit service that is going on in many GP practices.