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

I get the cultural differences but surely anyone can treat a grazed knee at home? Are Spanish drs really having their time taken up by things like that?

I do think there are big cultural differences between a lot of countries though. I remember a new housemate of mine, recently arrived from South Korea. She had a cold and asked me how to book at appointment with an ENT dr at the hospital. I wouldn’t normally be nosy about people’s health but she was new to the country and asking about a hospital dr so I asked if she had any other conditions that made colds/viruses dangerous, just to see whether maybe we needed to go to A&E or something to get her seen. She didn’t, she just had the expectation that she’d see a specialist ENT dr for a cold. She was fine two days later. I think that’s an example of the pendulum going too far the other way tbh.

My Singaporean SiL was appalled to find that U.K. GPs don’t prescribe ABs for every cough and cold. She had ABs sent by courier to her teen dd at boarding school in the U.K., when the dd had a cold - admittedly quite a bad one.

Interestingly where I live (UK) I've never had to wait more then a couple of hours in A&E. Usually much less.

We've also got a walk in GP on a different site that's open evenings until 10pm and at weekends. So there's no need to go to A&E because you can't see a GP. Though I've always been able to get same day at the GP anyway.

There should be more set ups like this as it works brilliantly.

The NHS isn't all bad. When it's needed to be for us it's been lightening quick.

I'm sure she would be able to have that kind of 'support' if she was willing to pay for it. There's an assumption in the UK that parents are not entirely useless. If there was a charge for A and E going for ridiculous things might be reduced.

I think some urgent treatment centres are like this. I did a first aid course recently and the tutor said the one local to me has an Xray department and paediatrician available during the day

Often with these threads I think there are underlying health conditions that the OP doesn't know about. But an ambulance for a graze?? This lady sounds like very hard work. What do other people say when she tells these stories? Surely people must tell her she can't call an ambulance for a graze or go to A&E for hurty legs. I would really struggle to hold my tongue with these stories and would probably distance myself.
That said, I have a Spanish friend who will go back to Spain for medical conditions e.g. an operation after a broken bone and will say the NHS is very slow and useless. So maybe it's normal in Spain to overreact to everything? But the British husband should be embarrassed

I would talk to her about it.

I agree with everyone who's said it's cultural. My ex was Spanish, and he was so used to being able to see a doctor at short notice and get prescribed things like antibiotics with ease that it was a real culture shock, and it took him a while to adjust.

It also sounds like she might have some health anxiety or something going on.

These things would seem a bit silly on principle, but there are too many stories of GPs brushing off issues even if she did take her kid to the GP first.

There is another live thread about a mum who was brushed off and now her 1 year old is staying in hospital while they need to do bloods etc.

Our GPs have been bad with my kids.

-Improper eczema treatment due to telephone appts
-Brushing off breathing issue when surgery was needed
-Planning to precribe medication even I knew had been banned in the UK

Trouble is we don't have enough radiographers and biomedical scientists trained in diagnostics to interpret the scans and blood tests quickly enough.
Often the minor injuries near me is shut, not because it lacks the equipment, but there is no radiographer. It's about time the government invested in high quality apprenticeships in these areas to speed up the diagnostic part and promoted this as a career.
Similarly with phlebotomists and other scientists who could interpret such data.

I’ve lived in six different countries and the UK is an outlier, worst healthcare I’ve had by far. Not being able to get same day GP appointments or being offered online appointments is ridiculous and not something I’ve seen elsewhere having lived in the US, Asia, Europe and Africa. The waste and bureaucracy is off the scale. GPs either dismiss concerns or refuse to make a diagnosis- I’ve been sent to A&E with my kids before for what turned out to be hand foot and mouth, which any GP should be able to diagnose. Don’t get me wrong some people are definitely just hypochondriacs and should be charged for appointments/rocking up unnecessarily to A&E but when it comes to kids where do you draw the line? I’m in favour of privatising the NHS and in any event I use a private paediatrician for my children after multiple unsatisfactory experiences with the local GP surgery but I can also understand why people overuse A&E given the frustration of trying to get an appointment, being redirected left right and centre, spending hours on 111 and waiting for a call back etc. It probably is quicker to show up to A&E and wait.

There is too much healthcare being used to very little improved health.

Most of our fears have been created by scare stories in the media - most of our conditions are short term and can be cured without needing outside help - just sleep, warmth and fluids.

“Modern medicine is a negation of health. It isn't organized to serve human health, but only itself, as an institution. It makes more people sick than it heals.”
― Ivan Illich

My Spanish relations use the pharmacy a lot. Does she know that they can do that.in the UK too.They do tend to medicalise things that we don't though and it's the same in France
I don't think it's particularly helpful to be honest

It would be good if we had diagnostic centres. Somewhere between a GP and a&e. You could go and get a scan / blood test etc same day but not waste a&e time.

I have a Spanish mum friend and she loves medicine, visiting the drs, covering her kids in stuff. She flies back to Spain if she can't see a specialist here.
Her kids have everything all the time.

Spanish here. Just to add that you mileage may vary when using the Spanish health system as it is a competence that has been devolved to the regional goverments . At any rate, I understand your frustration with your friend. Maybe someone should give her a proper dressing down.

Have you explained to her how good your GP practice is and that you'll almost certainly get a same day appointment?

I would certainly give that advice to someone going on about going to A&E with minor things, if that were the case re the GP.

And if your GP is rubbish and you couldn't tell her that it's easy to get an appointment as it isn't true, then I don't blame her for falling back on the hospital.

The UK is not weird.

The NHS is evidence based. It is responsible in it's prescribing of antibiotics. It is conservative in it's use of tests, particularly in children because they are traumatic for children and not usually helpful.

All parents should have prepared for having children and have the ability to care for minor health issues - as described above - none of those need seeing by a health care professional.

Parents should be able to treat minor cuts and certainly a child with a cold/fever/stomach upset.

It's time for the NHS to start charging people because it is being massively abused due to it being free.

Individuals such as those described are making it impossible to actually see and treat sick patients and are wasting tax payer money. I'm quite happy for them to seek private treatment and to pay for that.

This. The UK approach is actually the weird one. Babies can go downhill very quickly and it's always better to be safe than sorry.

As someone whose child was actually dying & sat in a&e waiting room for 18 hours to be sent home with no tests despite very clear signs of DKA to then have to be diagnosed by their GP and then blue lighted to hostipal.
It pisses me off to no end that they are filling a&e with pointless shit that doesnt need to be seen in a hospital- maybe then the doctors & nurses can actually get their heads together and have time to diagnose & treat correctly.

My brother emigrated to New Zealand.

healthcare there is mostly private but the government funds it for children under 18.

one of his kids was ill and needed to be off school so he took them to the doctor.

he was genuinely gobsmacked that the child was seen within two hours and they got a follow up call the next day to check how they were.

nhs standards of care are incredibly low, by comparison with most other countries.

It's annoying if people are abusing A and E like that. It costs us all money in the long term and means the wait is even longer. I went to A and E once over my two kids' childhoods and that was after a traumatic accident needing stitches.

I have Eastern European friends that do this constantly, and yes it’s very annoying! They have to pay for it there so obv can go for a sniffle - here it’s actually costing lives.

It's partly cultural I think. I know someone from Eastern Europe locally who goes to the doctor every time she has a cold or upset stomach, demands antibiotics and rants angrily on social media when refused. Apparently in her home country the doctor still does home visits and always prescribes antibiotics so she thinks that is the "correct" way.

But calling an ambulance and going to A&E for a grazed nose strikes me as someone who is very self important or has serious health anxiety, not just a different cultural background.

NHS is utterly broken but somehow most people accept it as normal. A parent should be able to have their child seen by a doctor if they are worried.