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

🤦🏻‍♀️

Ambulance absolutely get first priority. With regards to druggies and drunks they are not in police custody. Picked up by police and dropped of in A&E, usually assigned their own nurse to watch them.

alot of people just waste the time of A&E, your're being reasonable!

People have drunken falls and can require A&E despite not having a head injury…

Could people who know nothing stop saying stupid things??

MNs wouldn’t exist then!

Your argument fails because it gives you the universal moral judgement of what injuries/illnesses "deserve" treatment. But a) you only speak for yourself b) NHS healthcare largely doesn't look at cause - only effect. So a critically injured person will be treated following a car crash irrespective if they were driving 100mph on drugs or if they were hit by the aforementioned. Treatment is the same - it's not based on morals or judgement. I believe this is right.

They sat there laughing and chatting.

You sat there judging and criticising.

Yeah, you are so very much more WORTHY.

It’s not those with self-inflicted injuries which are the problem, it’s people who can’t seem to compute that there are such things as pharmacies or supermarket medicine aisles.

I went to urgent care with a dog bite from a random dog. In came a woman who said she had a runny nose and hadn’t slept all night. The receptionist said have a seat but you’ll be waiting hours. The woman said, Oh, in that case I’ll go home and you can call me when it’s my turn 😲 .

I was seen almost immediately (preen) and the doctor said I was the first genuine patient that day. They’d had people going in with a single bout of diarrhoea (nope, if diarrhoea is that bad you are not leaving the bathroom) or mild constipation.

Post like this really annoy me.
People are so precious about the NHS on MN, to the extent that hardly anything warrants GP surgery time or, perish the thought, a visit to A&E.
The system is on its knees, absolutely beyond embarrassing, for a civilised country, to keep thinking and promoting this idea that most things don’t require a visit to the doctor or A&E.
Accepting this utterly rubbish service is part of the problem. Unbelievable how bad pre-maternal and maternal care is at present. Just one example. Because nobody dares ask for the right help, and, if they do, they are fobbed off. Self perpetuating terrible health care.
Disgusting.
Who are we to decide who should or shouldn’t go to A&E? Let the professionals decide.
The entire health system is not welcoming or serving patients in a pro-active timely manner.
Hats off to anyone who works in the NHS providing direct care and supporting services under very difficult circumstances. But this is not sustainable.
The health system needs a major overhaul and people need to stop making excuses and deny themselves and others the right care.
And better preventative campaigns and care are absolutely needed in this country.

This is absolutely not true. Triage is triage. People in police custody are NOT given priority, ask any cop who has spent their whole shift waiting for some wee bampot who feigns chest pains bloods to come back.Same as ambulances, you will not be seen quicker than everyone else, just because an ambulance brought you in.

Just to add too, I’ve been sent to A&E about all sorts of things I considered “minor”. Turns out A&E was exactly the right place to be. Leave it to the professionals to decide.

The NHS guidance specifically says that if you burn feet or hands you should go to A and E.

Could people who know nothing stop saying stupid things??

Last time I went into A&E I walked into triage and was immediately told I was going to resus. I needed someone to go and get my coat and bag from the waiting room. I was then admitted to icu for 2 weeks

And how do you tell? When you’re just a bloke, not a doctor? How do you tell if you should go to A&E or not? And how does the nurse know the door tell just by looking at the patient?

My advice would be to go to A&E, if they decide it’s not serious after taking a detailed history and examination then fine but you don’t risk it.

FYI burns are very complex, it’s very normal to underestimate them but even just a brief scald can be scarring and dangerous. With burns it is very much a case of being safer than sorry.

No-sometimes the most minor things turn out to be serious, and cost the NHS far more because they're not treated quickly. Returning GPs to how they were a couple of decades ago (obviously allowing for changes that actually benefit people) would mean far fewer people would go to AE in the first place. Older nurses tell me that when GPs did housecalls/welcomed people to appointments more, hardly anyone went to AE unnecessarily.

Drug users and 'drunks' have every right to be seen and assessed.
We need to be aware of our prejudices.
What about people with a high BMI?
Should they be turned away too?
Or smokers?
NO
Everyone has a right to be seen.

Depends on the extent of the burn. Not all burns need emergency care at all!

I think people have forgotten or lost the ability to think for themselves. No, burned feet isn't A&E I wouldn't have thought, not unless the normal method of cold water didn't help.

Fgs. Lots of swollen ankles don't need hospital treatment, but how do you know which is which? I know two stoic women who tried to treat swollen ankles for days before going to A&E to discover they were broken. Are we really in such a state that it's unreasonable to ask the medical system to check?

“Burnt down to the bone” is not a medical term that this HCP has ever encountered OP.

I don’t expect you or any other average Joe to have have enough medical knowledge to triage patients in A&E but at least have the self awareness to realise you’re wrong on this one. There are plenty of reasons emergency departments are struggling across the country. Treating accidents and emergencies isn’t one of them.

If you have broken a bone then you need treatment, it's a 'genuine' accident no matter how you did it. A broken leg is a broken leg even if it was caused by playing football or getting drunk and then falling over.

I have attended our nearest MIU twice (40 mins away from home) and both times I have been redirected to A&E ( which is only 5 mins away) because MIU cannot give me antibiotics etc as I am a type 1 diabetic. If similar was to happen again I would now just go to A&E, though others waiting would no doubt be judging me as not ill/injured enough to be there.

A swollen ankle can 9 times out of 10 be dealt with at home.

Most people do.

I only know of one case where school mum ended up in A&E after twising ankle after doing a hill walk and catching foot in rabbit hole - that was after a few days and because it was then thought broken - it was while there they found an serve undelying condition affecting all her bones - she ended up doing school run on moblity scooter for months then in hospital.

I don’t think you can turn someone away just because they’ve been an idiot.

I think there should be a mechanism for turning someone away with a GP appointment in their hand if their illness/ injury isn’t urgent.

You seem to be confusing is and should. You're allowed to have whatever standard you want for what sort of self-inflicted injury doesn't deserve A and E. Meanwhile, some of them are going to require emergency treatment and others are the sort of thing that could become more urgent later if not dealt with, and that's a clinical matter rather than someone's reckons.