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

While waiting 5h for a suspected second episode of sepsis (confirmed after the wait), I overheard multiple conversations from other patients around.
While I’m not one to judge as I’m one of the minions of the NHS, I overheard things that surely made my blood boil a bit more🙃
Favo one was the “can’t be bother trying for an appointment tomorrow as they never have any (I imagine they were referring to primary care) and I need off work this weekend and Monday”

Yes I agree I've seen that too.
Last year I took my ill brother to A&E and it was standing room only because whole families were in there like it was a family day out for some. One lady did kindly stand up so my brother could sit down .
Shortly afterwards the receptionist came into the waiting room and asked those people that didn't need a seat or a reason to be there, to leave the waiting area.
No one bothered to move. 🙄
Why do whole families have It's accompany one person in A&E? Its not even a nice place to be.

2 weeks, lol our GP books 4 weeks in advance and mostly there are no appointments available, even phone ones.

Tbf they do try to do a same day service but it's not on a need basis but a first come first served deal. People use the same day service for lots of reasons, they need a sick note, prescription running out, a real issue, an imagined one or even because they can't wait 4+weeks for a routine appointment.

Yes and in all honesty I can relate that many who live to our nearest hospital do use it as a walk in centre. It's in a deprived area and the locals will walk in when not feeling well. I know this because I support the community.

It's not just one person, a whole family will go, taking up all the seats in the small waiting area, order takeaways like it's a trip out. Meanwhile you're sat with someone in desperate need of treatment and in pain.

While I was waiting for a relative to be assessed, have scans, I observed the comings and goings. A family came in, the teenagers took up all the chairs so some with clearly recent wounds had to stand. After they had been seen it was advice about what to do for DD's cold. She seemed absolutely fine and was running about coughing at everyone 🙄

Others complained of aching back, ingrown toenail, rash on arm, I could go on...

It's A and E for a reason, staff are amazing and polite and must inwardly roll their eyes having to take all the details and the condition and give common sense advice.

Well, that is why (despite what some PP say) sudden and severe onset of pain is an emergency and is A&E worthy.
Unless you are a doctor and radiographer in one, and have all the scanners at home... get to A&E.

Your experience is different than mine so I apologise. You’re lucky it wasn’t a burst appendix or a pulmonary embolism because you wouldn’t survive 12 hours.

Kidney stones don’t suddenly cause excruciating pain from nowhere, had you not seen anyone seeking treatment about the pain leading up to this admission to A&E?

Same here, 3 times for my DC(2). On one ocassion GP suspects it is tonsilitis causing high temperature, but sent me to QEUTH A&E. I got prescribed antibiotics after waiting for 8 hours. All could have been sorted by the GP.

Looks can be deceiving. I have personally witnessed someone walk into A&E, looking absolutely fine after a fall, and they had fractured their spine in 2 places.

I think there will be groups of people. Some do need to be there. Many shouldn't have needed to be there but are because their condition deteriorated so much waiting for a GP appointment (basically they didn't get intervention when they should have which could have prevented A&E visit) and those there because they are sick of waiting for GP but don't need to be there yet.

We need a better system to see people earlier before things go too far.

I was sent direct to an and e by my go when I had possible heart problem symptoms. I felt fine when there as the symptoms were intermittent. Hope you are better..kidney stones are very painful.

That's a hard one to answer, when I had a gallbladder flare up, I was waiting to be seen, when a girl came in and was seen quickly in a side room, she came out sat near me and explained she had period pains and didn't have paracetamol at home, I did ask why not pop to the shop and get some and she said why? They have it here. Another time I had a flare up this was about 6 months later, I was waiting to be seen when I saw a family sat around a table eating KFC, one of them thought he gallstones too and was waiting to be seen. But ( I know am a people watcher) on my second visit there was a lovely old man who clearly wasn't well but didn't like to bother anyone but was told to go to A and E by 111 as he had fallen and was in pain. Over both visits there were people coming in after being told by 111 to go to A and E, who were saying to reception am not sure if I should be here for this problem. So swings and roundabouts I guess

I used to work in a kid's hospital and the whole family turning up was definitely a thing. Sometimes, a child from the travelling community would be admitted as a patient, and you would have about 10-15 people come with them. It would get ridiculous.
This was way before social media too.

I agree. I get to walk though A&E regularly (work) also many people like to bring the entire family along.

There needs to be a GP service where you turn up and sit in the waiting room and you’ll be seen in turn. My GP did this years ago. Sometimes you’d be there for hours but the GP would then know you were properly ill.

I amreally shocked at the number of family members that accompany for a day out at A&E. Is it a social media thing? Last time I was at a children’s A&E there was a family of four and two grandparents all having a takeaway in the waiting room. Which is a bit unnecessary when I’ve never waited more than 30mins.

Someone passing out is vulnerable and needs help straight away. It does not matter why. You can't just say "oh, they are pissed... it is their fault".

I have called an ambulance for a passed out drunk I found in the street on a couple of occasions, and was told each time by the paramedics that it was the right thing to do. Someone very drunk and passed out is vulnerable.

Waste of resources. You need to have the most experienced doctor where the sickest people are to stand the highest chances of curing those people.

Most of us realise by now that the NHS is near breaking point.
Much of this is down to a GP service that fails to work properly for most of us. Where I live there are no available appointments for 4 weeks which frankly is unacceptable but I don't see much willingness from the government to do anything about it.
We are lucky to have a walk in clinic nearby, however the clinic can now no longer accept walk in patients and we have to make an appointment to visit beforehand.
The nearest A&E is 10 miles away and the average waiting times are often in excess of 5 to 6 hours, sometimes longer. Basically the backstop is A&E and some of those patients probably shouldn't be there, but where else should they go?
The NHS needs proper reform to take account of population growth and ageing population with more complex health needs.

There were two people with minor stab wounds last time we were there, and a guy with heart problems who was going blue and wasn't seen for 8 hours. But there were also many young, drunk women, mainly European rather than British, and if they passed out they were seen immediately - before those who were obviously actually ill. Also quite a few women with children who just had a bad cold and were eventually triaged and sent home. It was heaving in there. When I finally left more than12 hours later, it was so busy that there were people queuing outside the entrance door, policed by security men.

My A&E has a minor injuries clinic now. Everyone is triaged and you are either sent to 'proper' A& E or to the minor injuries area. It means you don't have to have seriously ill people sitting alongside those with easier to treat conditions.

I could have been one of those people . My 89 year old mother collapsed at home last weekend passing lots of blood. She was brought in to a and e in an ambulance. I went with her -she has dementia and needs someone with her. While they were booking her in I was asked to wait in the waiting room. I sat there for 40 minutes and was then called by name. I would have looked completely well (I was!) and as people brought in by ambulance don't go through the general waiting room you would not have known that I was there with anyone else.

And you suspect that instead of sitting in the comfort of their own home, they fancied spending eight to twelve hours under bright lights, on plastic chairs, with no food or drinks available, and every drunken Tom, Dick or Harry in the town?

It's a reason why many people do attend, yes.

However, the cause was known, OP doesn't mention it was acute nor that there were accompanying symptoms of concern and it appears she was discharged without admission. I only really have the details you do so obviously we don't know the whole story.

But essentially judging herself to be deserving of A&E services when she may not have been - and knowing nothing about others stories - sort of opens her up to criticism.

Late night, Dh dropped me off and went home, he’s probably bored of me. I had a clot (again). Woman lying across the chairs/tables whilst we waited. She was triaged next to me. She had scabies on her hands. I confess, I was like ‘Fuck off with your nasty scabies, this is for emergencies!’

I’ve been in A&E a few times, all valid, I was especially cross when I had a bleed in my skull (another clot, blood thinners caused the bleed) and some drunk lad had had a fight and had his ear torn. I mean, bless him, it was not pretty, but omg, I was in agony, they thought I might have meningitis, but he was prioritised.

Having spent a fair bit of time in A&E, I’ve seen so many people triaged and sent home within minutes of being triaged/seen by the doctor.

Friend had the same. A kidney stoned caused sepsis in the kidney, screaming in pain rolling around the floor in agony. Ended up in Intensive Care for ten days and nearly died.
But the A&E staff didn't prioritise her over the others sat watching; she just had to wait here turn for several hours.
Surely it can't be difficult to judge that some cases need prioritising over others?