Have I been a twat or should the GP surgery have given me an appointment?

If you think it’s broken then you need to have an X-ray. But there isn’t anything you can do if it’s just swollen. I injured my toe had to have toe nail removed at A&E. You can get something like this for it.

No, because they don’t have X-ray vision. It’s swollen, sore and red. It’s injured, that’s all they can tell you.

I just strapped mine to the one next to it, ime it’s pretty much all they do anyway tbh, unless it’s a real mess.

Yes there is! It even says on the nhs website. The f you suspect you’ve broken your big toe you need it to be xrayed

That’s terrible advice, I broke my elbow, didn’t think anything of it, carried on as normal and even went to sleep with it, it was only the next day when I couldn’t straighten my arm that I went to the hospital, it’s not always obvious when something is broken.

Its best to get seen op you don’t know what damage has been done, when I broke two toes they were just strapped but it’s always best to get it seen.

YABU

hope you apologise to those whose time you have wasted and take yourself to minor injuries as they said

A GP can't do anything for a injured toe and neither can minor injuries or a&e. The treatment for broken toes is rest. Buy a support thing from a pharmacy. Ask for some pain killers. It's not a trauma wound or infected so there's literally no point going anywhere.

When did you injure it? I’d only seek medical treatment is the swelling was getting worse or persisting (i.e for weeks).

NHS advice: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/broken-toe/.

What do you expect them to do?

FFS can people not actually do anything themselves nowadays without calling 111, it is a toe!

Yes it does!! I was xrayed three times over a 12 week period for mine and had to wear a boot, it’s not the same as a smaller toe

Not with a big toe. It is treated differently to a smaller toe. It has to be set straight and it’s healing reviewed after a few weeks as it can result in surgery

Doesn't matter. There is no treatment for a broken toe.

I'm struggling to see why people are suggesting ring 111 or go to minor injuries for a (potentially) broken toe. There's literally nothing they can do apart from x-ray it and go "yep, it's broken"

Exactly what i was thinking

I would call 111 for a toe

When I lived in the back of beyond in a developing country, we had a great book called "Where there is no doctor"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_There_Is_No_Doctor

There are many things, like this possibly broken toe, that one can treat oneself. I'm not recommending that everyone become their own doctor, but it might help the NHS if we recognized that in some situations, the doctor can't really do anything more than you would do for yourself. It's up to OP to decide whether she really needs an X-ray, or simply goes ahead and treats the toe as if it were broken.

Well they don't know if it might be broken do they? 🙄.

If it’s your big toe go and get it xrayed. I hurt my big toe and when I looked it up that was the advice. I ended up with a boot and crutches. You may not, but it’s worth checking. It took a while to heal, and the crutches were quite helpful.

You definitely aren’t being a twat, just an overwhelmed single parent. I have been there!

However, minor injuries is the correct route here. GP is unlikely to be able to rule out a break without x ray. Seeing them will be a waste of your time as well as theirs. You will just be adding an unnecessary layer.

I hope you get it sorted. 💐

Yeah i'm with the GP on this one. Your choice to leave remote isnt their issue.

Honestly, I would just keep an eye on the swelling, in the meantime, just stop at your local chemist for tape/plasters. If in doubt of what to buy, ask the pharmacist.
Toes, and indeed fingers (obviously, the latter depends on how extreme the break is!) quite often sort themselves out.
I know after an accident, especially if your fall painfully, it’s easy to panic, and assume worse case scenario, but it doesn’t sound like it needs formal medical attention.
I was convinced I had a broken big toe(dropped a v heavy object ontoe, and it was super painful!), a couple years ago, and made a real song and dance about it🙄, only to very embarrassingly, have the HCP tell me, my toe was ‘just a bit bruised’😳🫢…. Indeed that’s all it was.

It is not the same for your big toe. It’s a core part of your foot. It needs to be xrayed. If it heals wrong she’ll need surgery

This is NOT why there are no appointments unless you want to discount decades of underfunding and poor management of the NHS? Why would you want to blame the patients? Awful.

Unfortunately your ability to go and covering child care isn't their responsibility, the GP has sent you to the right place. They also cannot comment on the severity of the injury as, well, need an xray for that.

You can get rubber squishy toe covers (I use them for running) to protect the toe and/or tape it to the next toe to let it heal. I broke my little toe once and there was no treatment - it will heal on its own but it needs to be destabilised. So tape it up, take some pain killers, and you will be fine. Don't panic!

Like others are saying the Gp would still send you for an x ray, and wouldn't be able to treat your toe, so the options is either minor injuries or not, i hope you manage to find the time to go you must be in agony.