To wonder if as many ambulances are called out over the Christmas period

The GPs have been awful this year I must admit but these are all people who have been registered with us all year and so can get appointments any time they want (not GP service) but just ignore their symptoms. All men Im afraid. Their wives were bloody fuming because they had to manage christmas without them.

I had to take my toddler to a&e on the first evening of half term once. We were the only people in the whole paediatric a&e dept. When I expressed surprise the triage nurse laughed and said it’s always like that at the beginning of the school holidays in London a&e departments. Apparently it’s the best time get ill!

I used to work in A&E and we used to get less walk ins. If it was icy outside, we'd always get fractured wrists, twisted ankles etc along with alcohol/stress related things.

Ambulance shifts at Christmas generally go like this…..
Christmas Eve - manic, especially in the evening which is usually lots of drinking related and mental health issues.
Christmas Day - early morning flurry of issues as people are waking up (or not). Then Quiet until 2 pm ish when all the older people have been stuffed too full with food and then pass out, a few chokings, then quietens down again until early evening then it’s drink related and domestic violence all night. There’s usually at least one major road accident too.
Boxing day - same as Christmas Day but with the added issues experienced at Boxing Day sales.
New years eve is normal until 11 pm ish then it goes mad and continues all night.
New Year’s Day is quiet in the morning then steadily gets busier.

My friend works in A&E she says you can set the clock Christmas Day by what type of ‘emergency’ they will get in. It is the same every single year and says.

There will be drunken mishaps, elderly people taken into hospital etc I'd guess.

I had to go to A&E in the early hours of Christmas morning many years ago.

A friend had been allowed to have a party on Christmas Eve while her parents were out. Towards the end of the evening, I was sitting down and a loudspeaker vibrated its way to the edge of the shelf it was on and landed on my head. It was a bloody big speaker and left a gash nearly 2" long on my bonce!

Her parents came home to find about 40 pissed up teens around the house and me sitting in the kitchen bleeding into the sink, while someone was frantically applying pressure in a futile attempt to stop the blood.

Luckily, they'd been driven home by a sober friend, who kindly drove me to A&E where I had 12 stitches, and my BF's dad came and picked me up after collecting my drunken friends. I was the only person in A&E and no-one arrived while I was there, by ambulance or any other means.

But for every genuine sporting accident there’s an idiot in there who doesn’t need to be.

Quite.
Most of my children's trips to a&e have been from sporting accidents. Their clubs aren't open over Christmas.

I hate these threads because I spent many years with in-laws who were reluctant to seek medical help for family members to the point it was downright harmful and abusive .

My (now) ex screamed at me and mocked me for wasting resources when I rang 111 and they rang and ambulance for our son. He didn't even apologise when DS was sent straight to HDU

I think there are genuinely that many time wasters.

In my experience Christmas Day is quiet but Boxing Day is busy in A&E - lots of people hanging on and trying to get through Christmas that should probably have attended hospital sooner, some elderly relatives that may not have been seen for a while and then on Christmas Day their loved ones notice that “uncle Bert isn’t right” so bring them in the following day.
(And of course the things that aren’t urgent at all and don’t really need to be in A&E come in now they’ve finished the main festivities)

It's very variable and unpredictable.

I've had Christmas days where we literally haven't stopped, and I've had Christmas days when my hungover crew mate slept the entire shift and i watched movies and washed my car.

I don't do nights and haven't for a long time, but my understanding is that Christmas night shifts are incredibly busy.

I had to take DD to our urgent treatment centre on Christmas Eve a few years ago after she tipped a kettle fully of freshly boiled water down herself

It was empty, we were the only ones there and we were done and dusted in an hour. We had to go back to change her dressings on Boxing Day and it was pretty empty, but when we went again 2 days later it was heaving

DD works on paeds A&E and she says Monday mornings on a school day tend to be busier. It’s been very quiet this week. They always get a lot of respiratory issues in, which is something I didn’t really think about before she started working there.

Even if you can get a GP appt they often can't really do anything to help.

GPs are just glorified pharmacies really, they can't do any referrals that will come up before 6-8 months, which is usually too long for anything and often they tell people to go to A&E.

You get there and A&E's first priority seems to be to tell people to go home.

It's a mess. And really scary. My mum suddenly lost the use of her leg within a week and was having spasms.

I'm realising that the NHS is just shop front, there's nothing behind it to actually help people. No budget, no availability, no people, no resources. Doctors who can't do anything except move people from one list to another. But hey, the stage set looks great from the outside!! It's scary.

My dad was a hospital doctor (surgeon) and was often on call over Christmas. He did get called in, but not too often. Domestic violence goes up. He had a stabbing one Christmas day and had to go and operate. That was memorable though, so think possibly not super common (thankfully)

Sorry you had to work those extra hours, but people may sit on nasty infections for ages because they can't get a GP appointment and know they will have to sit uncomfortably in A and E for many hours to get seen. Then go in when its desperate.

I had to take my DS to A and E two Christmases ago on Christmas night. He had a really bad ear infection which had suddenly developed. It was really busy, every seat was taken. All sorts was going on including prisoners arriving with police, lots of very unwell people, no one obviously would have been there if they didn’t have to be. It took us about 7 hours to be seen. So, in my experience it wasn’t empty at all!

I found when I used to work in frontline healthcare that mornings were quiet but by about 4pm it got busier with families who couldnt stand being together so someone got chest pain and called an ambulance

Yes the quietest day. People are at home with less risk of accident, fewer cars on the road, no GPs who send a chunk of a&e attendances.

Temporarily Reduces risk of heart attacks & strokes (similar pattern when clocks go back) but unfortunately these will just happen a few days later.

Mental health & alcohol incidents will still be high.

Unfortunately then results in a massive surge a few days into January.

It tends to be heart problems and things brought on by stress and food/alcohol, plus people with chronic conditions who don’t get a break from their illnesses.

It was major stuff though cardiac arrests etc

Probably more! I’ve worked as a nurse some Christmas days and quite often we were busier.

Generally quieter but as someone unthread said some people sit on their symptoms who should’ve come in .

It must be quieter. There's no sports being played, building sites etc are closed and fewer road traffic accidents.