To think some things should just be turned away from A&E?

It's unhelpful to give the impression that attending A&E with a minor injury is wasteful or somehow immoral, taking resources away from those who need it.

Everyone needs to understand what resources the NHS has in their area and use them as directed, in line with the intentions of those running the services. In my area, if I go to the NHS website and look for facilities to deal with minor injuries, I am signposted to the local hospital's A&E department - there is a list of where to attend with a minor injury, and you're told to attend the nearest place listed. The A&E department is on the list.

It's also understandable for people who are travelling to an unfamiliar area of the country to be unfamiliar with the arrangements in the area they're visiting. A&E departments are generally bigger, better known and better signposted.

Also, people may not know whether a particular issue is minor or part of a bigger problem.

If you have one where you live, or they are open when you burned yourself.

BTW, if you attend minor injuries with something minor but it is self harm, they will send you to A&E anyway, because they do not deal with MH stuff.

My son was significantly unwell. He had a bowel obstruction, sepsis and cancer yet was chatting to me in A&E and playing on his ipad.

He had a cardiac arrest later on that same day for 17 minutes and almost didn't survive. Some people can absolutely be very, very unwell but appear fine.

Medics treat people on the basis of medical need not a personal judgement over whether they deserve it because ‘they brought it on themselves’.

I’ll always remember a trip to A&E in my early 20’s… My dog has skanked an empty tuna can out of the bin and placed it carefully next to my bed so I got up and stepped straight in to the jagged edge. Huge C shaped cut on the bottom of my foot that was spurting blood like a fountain. Called my parents. My DM said ‘It better be bad as she was sending my dad’ He turned up took one look at the murder scene in my flat, went white as a sheet and said ‘I’m taking you to your mum..’

We got to spend 6 hours there , they actually had to come and change the dressing a couple of times in the waiting room as it just wouldn’t stop bleeding. By your standard it was my own fault and I wasn’t entitled to have it fully cleaned out, a tetanus shot, and dressing. Yes it was an idiot move on my part but without that urgent care it could have progressed to something far worse

Self inflicted injury is not a reason not to treat someone. The injury is the important bit, not the brains of the patient.

Yes I remember DS playing away with toys and chatting and (now ex) DH having a tantrum saying he clearly didn't need to be there.... An hour later DS was in HDU

Interestingly exH is one of those people who is always very dramatic and noisy if he is ill

Absolutely incorrect. We both needed to be seen urgently and we had both been sent their by our GPs

Your assertions are so utterly ignorant.

What would someone on the door look like? Would people be queuing outside?
How much time would they get with the triage person? Surely they would need access to your medical record too.
It seems like a big responsibility. Someone rocks up with severe back pain, and the triage medic tells them to go home and take painkillers. It turns out to be something very serious that needed immediate attention.

But burns over a certain size do need to be seen in a hospital setting, they can be serious.

OK, you asked so here’s the full story. Sorry it’s long.

My DH visited his GP three times in 2 months with shoulder pain, a cough and breathlessness. Each time GP said his chest was clear on examination. Wouldn’t even refer him for a chest X-ray.

He was unwell a week later so we went first to the walk in centre. Triaged by a nurse, diagnosed with a trapped nerve as the cause for the shoulder pain, referred to physio and given pain killers. No X-rays or scans of any kind, didn’t see a doctor.

A fourth visit to the GP a week later because the pain and shortness of breath was much worse, and he really wasn’t looking very well by this point. He was tired, lethargic and grey. GP endorsed the diagnosis of trapped nerve and offered to try to speed up the physio referral. Said Xray wasn’t necessary because it was clear what the problem was, and gave him stronger pain killers.

We visited A&E twice after that because we couldn’t get a GP appointment, and he was much worse. Each time the advice was the same - trapped nerve, wait for the physio referral.

A week later, well before he could be seen by physio, he had a fall and fractured his femur and was blue lighted to A&E. He had a chest xray and scan to make sure he was fit for anaesthetic. Nothing was picked up as amiss with the chest xray or the scan, he had surgery to pin his femur and was discharged ten days later, once he was self reliant. They didn’t address the shoulder pain or other symptoms because the assumption was that it was a matter for physio and the referral had already been made.

Less than a week after discharge he was coughing and breathless and GP came out to the house and examined him. Said his chest was fine after examination with a stethoscope. When things didn’t improve, again we went to A&E with the same result as before.

A few days later he collapsed. Blue lighted to A&E and the on call doctor said he had one of the worst chest infections he’d ever seen. Actually tried to shame me as to why I hadn’t at least called the GP and when I explained the chain of events he clammed up and avoided my questions. DH was transferred to HDU then progressed to ITU on a ventilator as by then he had pneumonia in both lungs.

Five days later he was sent for CT because he wasn’t responding to treatment. CT scan showed a large tumour in the top of his lung, which was deep seated and long standing. It was responsible for setting up the infection and was inoperable - and by that time had spread to his lungs, spine, bones and brain. He died a few days later.

The cancer was a ‘pancoast’ tumour. In the top of the lung, sitting on a nerve, which is what caused the pain. I later learned that the shoulder pain, coupled with cough and breathlessness, along with eye problems reported to the GP (and dismissed) are classic symptoms of this kind of tumour. The GP missed it four times, and A&E/walk in missed it a total of five times.

After his death I asked for a consultation to find out more. The consultant wouldn’t agree to meet me and I was given an hour’s consultation by someone who clearly wasn’t medical, but admin and had some of his records. I wasn’t allowed to view them directly and my questions were answered in vague terms so I took legal advice.

The solicitor secured some of his records which showed that the tumour was on the routine chest Xray before surgery on his leg. It wasn’t well defined so had been missed, but it was there. It was also suggested that due to the circumstances of the fall that caused the fractured femur, A&E should have investigated further. The femur is the strongest bone in the body and the fall was minor. It suggested that the cancer had spread and weakened the bone.

I really only wanted to get things straight in my head for my own peace of mind, and although the legal adviser thought I had a good case against the NHS for negligence I decided not to go ahead. Profiting from his death didn’t sit well with me and suing the NHS wasn’t who he was. I felt I had to respect that, but going forward, I now don’t trust GPs at all and I feel that the other NHS services involved let him down badly. It was only when we got to the professionals involved in the highest levels of care in HDU and ITU that we got to the bottom of things, and by then it was too late.

No they are not medically trained. You have to extra training to triage. There is good reason to have someone senior on the front door to try and head people off who don’t need to be there.

Some people are very stoic when it comes to pain and illness.

I am sure the NHS would be delighted in employing you as some sort of on the door triage medic... being able to tell someone is not unwell by seeing how chatty they are.

You are being ridiculous. A&E is medical care triaged based on need, not on how the injury occurred.

I think that doctor got his qualifications from Temu.

My father was chatting to his wife in A&E the day he died. You can’t always tell.

If you were significantly unwell you would not be 'chatting to a friend' 💯, I'm sure a GP or minor injuries would have sufficed....there are people in cardiac arrest being treated whilst you're chatting away!

A brain haemorrhage is very time critical!

Depends on the extent of the burns and any systemic complications and any underlying conditions. I don't think the idea that a person brought it on themselves is of any relevance as to wether this is a matter for A&E or minor injuries unit.

We don't have either of those in our large Northern city. We have to go to A&E. Register wait to be triaged and then get sent to the minor injuries area of the A & E.

I was laughing and joking, but had a broken foot (that only hurt if I tried to stand on it).
Weird how some people think that you are only genuine if you are sombre and/or groaning in pain.

I used to work in a children's hospital, and the patients in A&E would often be playing and zooming about.

Right ok, one time I was actually sitting there laughing with my partner and eating dairy milk as I felt awful, I ended up having urosepsis and ended up in ICU due to my blood results. You have no idea why anyone is in there.

now I’d never had either of these above conditions before and with HINDSIGHT they’re not remotely serious but sudden onset incoherent pain or what felt like paralysis was really frightening

Dh rushed me to A&E the first time I had an ocular migraine. Absolutely harmless and rarely even something to bother a GP with, never mind A&E. But at the time, one minute I was cooking dinner and two minutes later I was blind in one eye and half blind in the other...it was utterly terrifying, I thought I was having a stroke or haemorhage and my number was up 🙈

I wouldn’t turn people away but health promotion and education is key. People that arrive at A&E with injuries from the silliest of things know they’ve been silly but some polite health education goes a long way whilst they are being assessed. Sunburn for example…we see it a lot….assess, treat accordingly and educate and hope they learn that lesson.