To be annoyed at friend for taking her kid to A&E so often

If she is a friend could you explain pharmacy first scheme and tell her where minor injuries unit is. Suggest a paediatric first aid course together, there’s a local company to us that does courses very popular.

They could become patients at a private GP. Then she'd have a doctor on tap.

Over a third of GPs in the UK don't work for the NHS any more.

Do other countries like Spain pay for health care?

100% agree. I've taken my 8 mo to the GP twice (other than her vaccines and routine checks). Once at about 4 weeks because she screamed all night long like she was in pain and just couldn't be settled, tummy was rock solid and passing wind and going to the toilet didn't help. I thought something was wrong because of the level of crying. The GP was so patronising and said "babies cry...let me guess, first baby..?" almost with an eye roll and said its just colic, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't more serious.

The second time she was 7mo, she had diarrhoea for over a week and was going every hour. I took her to the GP and was met with "baby poo is meant to be runny..." like I was stupid, my baby was 7mo at that point, I know what to expect in a nappy and diarrhoea of that colour every hour is not it, again I was met with another comment like "this is your first child isn't it?.." suggesting I am completely wasting their time just because she didnt have a fever. Treatment like that has really knocked my confidence in taking my baby to the GP when she's not well and that isn't a normal way to live

We were on holidays in Portugal once and my daughter had a bad case of tonsillitis. Not an emergency but needed an antibiotic. We went to a clinic and they were apologising profusely that we would have to wait 40 mins to see a Paediatrician. I said oh we dont need a Paediatrician but thats how they do things. When we met her she was absolutely lovely, asked if there was anything else we were concerned about as we would be paying the full fee for a small issue. I was bracing myself for the bill. 75 euro and the best care we have had to date. Here in Ireland its 65 euro for a GP consultation....

To reply to OP though she sounds like a massive attention seeker and yes probably dome cultural factors but who goes to A&E anywhere with a grazed nose, absolutely ridiculous. I hope its just that shes an attention seeker and this isn't a unchallenged bi proxy scenario

The longest I've waited was 4 hours, but that was for triage, x rays to be taken, discussing results with doctor and treatment given for the fracture. That was on a weekend evening.

Other times, in and out within 1-2 hours with treatment included (fortunately never anything requiring admission). That's for kids but adult family members have had similar. When a family member needed an ambulance recently (cat 2/3 I expect,) it was less than 3 hours between the first call to 111, a call back from Dr, an ambulance being called, arriving, taking her to hospital, being admitted, given a bed (in A&E), bloods taken and preliminary treatment started.

Not everywhere is crap.

I would ignore the whole thing and if she brings it up tell her that’s why in this country we have GP’s . Unfortunately it’s because of time wasters like her that A&E departments can’t cope .

I have a Bulgarian friend who is just like this; she is in the A&E all the time too (and her kids).

It's awful when you first meet us because I seem like I don't care when she talks about her brain tumour but last week it was breast cancer and now she has a collapse lung (Im not making this up). I just look sympathetic and say "oh no'. I hope one day it doesn't turn out to be serious.

Wow. So do people call an ambulance if their child gets a graze in Spain then?

partly cultural but it sounds like she likes the attention
I couldnt' resist sayhing something like
you know you can just go to a pharmacit or GP for stuff like this, you don't need to sit around in A&E allday.
I recognise not all GPs are on the ball but at ours they guarntee all children a call or appointment for children on the day. And you can message them with queries and you get a text back within an hour or two. Either of those are vastly superior to waiting around at A&E for hours surely

If she came to our A&E I'd hope she got told exactly what is and is not appropriate for A&E. T

Wow! As in you're either treated or have a bed in two hours?! I need to move to your area!

Round here it's usually 8-12.

Our A&E takes at most a couple of hours

I have been in and out with in the hour

I have spent more than that time trying to get through to get a GP’s appointment

Can you think of a reason why "owning a plastic bag" and "accessing healthcare" might need different approaches?

@Dogaredabomb She would have got the ambulance to come out because she would have lied and over-exaggerated the sickness of the child in relation to the questions she was asked.

It is very very common. People lie all the time to get what they want.

They never seem to consider that they are allowing other people to suffer and perhaps die when they do this.

This and lots of other comments on this thread seem to assume it's inherently better for a child to see a paediatrician. But Spain's child mortality rate is very similar, but slightly worse than the UKs - so is it?

And it is our business.

The NHS is publicly funded - we are all paying for these people who are misusing it.

In addition to the wasted money is the more serious issue that when the A&E is full of people who have no good reason to be there - they still have to be assessed to check this and this reduces the time for the people who are seriously sick, who it is harder to see in the masses and who are more likely to wait longer because of the others.

We see it across our society - those who have serious conditions/ needs are not having those needs met because those with lesser needs are noisily demanding time and resources that they should not have.

I don't know how she got an ambulance to come out!

My very elderly neighbour was really ill a couple of weeks ago and the ambulance took 4 hours.

I had pneumonia last winter and was very unwell, I called for an ambulance and they said it would be four hours.

So I got an uber 😂 BUT that made me think, if I'm able to get to the taxi, work the app and stay alive for the journey then I should have expected to get an uber in the first place.

However, my elderly neighbour was absolutely too ill to do any of that.

@Shakeyourwammyfannyfunkysong

Actually repeatedly taking your child to A&E for things that are no serious is a safeguarding concern.

If you take your child to a hospital it means that they are likely to do tests purely to reassure you, not because they are clinically necessary but because there is a massive fear of litigation and many junior doctors lack confidence in their assessment skills.

The child pays for their parent's anxiety in their pain and traumatic damage done by tests . If this happens repeatedly the harm increases.

It's not called Munchausens any more by the way - it's fabricated induced illness

I would suggest a basic first aid course for her. Say its a shame to waste the day at the drs because she can't put a plaster on her own child.

Also I'd point out how useful the pharmacy can be and that for all of her issues she could probably have gone there.

She'll sounds annoying. I've got a friend who took her 6yr old to the GP 3 times in one week for a virus. Kid was well enough for playdates through the week though, we saw her twice in that time!

It wouldn't stop people with money from going but it would stop people with little money who need help from getting help.

Which is why I would never support a charge at the point of entry.

When the 5p plastic bag tax was brought in people stopped taking them overnight.
A nominal charge would stop this kind of abuse of the NHS by these entitled time wasters..

What are you gaining from bitching about this mum on a public forum? Ultimately it's her kid and her decision. It doesn't sound like there's any safeguarding concerns eg Munchausuens so I'm not sure why you're so invested. It's really up to the trained clinicians to tell her if she's overreacting not a 'friend' who only gets half the story.... and I say this as a trained clinician. If you feel like she's being a drama llama then just don't feed the drama llama.

Cultural differences is definitely an element here. In North Western Europe (the Netherlands, but I should think Germany, Scandinavia, Belgium too) you wouldn't take your child to A&E for any of that, GP for some of it. You also wouldn't post it on socials. No antibiotics for viruses either because evidence. HOWEVER, you would get a same day/out of hours GP appt and results of various tests very easily. And all the healthcare is connected and joined up, without a million apps.

Eastern Europe is different (all private and relatively cheap), Southern Europe is different again.

Yep, kids 14 and under are seen by pediatricians...

My GP practice has an Open Surgery for an hour each morning (2 hours on a Monday) where you can just turn up and be seen for acute conditions. It’s brilliant.

I’d be mortified turning up at A&E for those things.