I get that a&e is busy, but was not expecting to be spoken to so rudely

Other doctors and A&E staff on here have said she was in the right place at the A&E MIU triage desk not the GP.

Like many our GP stops online bookings at 9.30, you then only get an appointment for 2 weeks later or longer. Said GP would never deal with removing objects pushed down into the ear and would send you to A&E MIU triage desk which is where she was.

I originally replied to you to say A&E's don't have different ways of working when the original topic was talking about triage etc... you then replied to me explaining about the different ways of referring out and services such as mental health. Apologies, I did perhaps get you mixed up with the other 2 or 3 rude posters who are deliberately derailing the thread, I thought you were doing the same. I was just trying to stick up for the poor OP amongst the sea of people who haven't got a clue what they're talking about.

They come on here shouting at people who obviosuly don't have a clue how the system works, because why would they? It's a complex system and they're not supposed to know, we're supposed to tell them when they arrive. Then they're telling OP that it's people like her who are clogging the system up when that couldn't be further from the truth.

It had been there weeks. ENT provide 9 til 5 sessions. Attending main A&E is inappropriate and a waste of their time.

Obviously the FB needed removing no-one disputes that. I had an eye issue a while ago, needed seeing asap guess what I went to the walk in eye department not main A&E. Waited hours yes but I was seen and treated.

Several posters who are doctors and work in A&E have said she was in the right place and acted correctly.

This.

She went out of hours, obviously ent opds are not staffed 24/7 like A&E.

ENT dep, like eye opd will have a walk in 'A&E' session 9 til 5. This was neither an accident nor an emergency

Then it isnt an emergency even if it started as an accident. See your GP.

I’m fully aware how A&E works, had to use it unfortunately many a time the last few years .

Yes exactly. This is the correct process.

Yes and you don't want to risk your hearing. Not the same situation but my BIL got fobbed off by his GP about an ear issue and is now partially deaf. The ENT people said they might have been able to treat it if he'd been sent there immediately, but he wasn"t.

Many conditions that warrant A&E may have been going on for weeks.

Yes. We need to stop responding to her/him. Me included!

I have actually been sent to hospital by my GP for a suspected foreign body (fish bone) stuck in my throat. She phoned the hospital spoke to an ENT medic, printed me off a letter and sent me to A+E. When I got there I handed over the letter and the receptionist sent me straight to triage, who then phoned the ENT ward. I was sent up to the ward but then waited 4 hours to see an actual doctor.
Some things are not an actual emergency but can only be dealt with in clinic due to the need for specific equipment.

@Scapella spot on . I've been lost in this system over the past few weeks not knowing what I can do or where I can go and where I need to go.
As above id be happy to pay more ni for specific causes within the NHS I could see like better a and e waiting areas ! Short term projects

The GP has to refer you. So you need to explain to a GP what is going on

Took my child to A&E recently with something that started out potentially life threatening but started to resolve. It was middle of the night and there were 3 other patients in children's A&E. My child is severely autistic and so we only go to hospital if we genuinely think he might lose life or limb because of how traumatic it is. We waited, and waited and waited. It was obvious by this point that it was no longer life threatening but he was suffering. He started vomiting everywhere, I was delirious with lack of sleep, I couldn't get myself a drink or to to toilet because I couldn't leave child. Eventually, I popped my head around the corner and I kid you not, 6 members of staff at the desk on their phones. 6. At the same time.

Normally I wouldn't believe a story like that but I saw it with my own eyes. When I asked for a bit of help, they weren't even embarrassed, just slowly looked up and said "yeah, you're next to be seen" and waited for me to go away again. This hospital has always been absolutely excellent in the past so not sure what's happened.

So why did you argue with me about saying they are shortcuts to A and E when I never said that?

Nope, just aware of how the system works. Maybe try it when you have a genuine issue that warrants it instead of knocking it. Not something you've had going on for weeks

Patients have a duty to act responsibly of course. But goodness NHS systems need to be clear and accessible. All the cuts mean that GP practices cannot offer the services they did 20 years ago. The routes to urgent care are too complicated. We cannot expect patients to know everything about the right treatment for their situation, and trained staff should be able to guide people. This is what failed the OP here.

And people sometimes do avoid getting care because the NHS is so inaccessible, and then a stable situation might become an emergency. I don’t hold patients responsible for that either.

Ultimately, we need an NHS that functions well and it is not patients’ fault if it has become difficult to access and confusing. I lay the blame for that with the health service cuts and a system that is no longer working.

As an experienced consultant, I am often embarrassed about what the NHS has become. Am I still don’t think it justifies rudeness to any patient ever.

Unfortunaly patchy care is not good enough .id also rather self care than go.
I can't understand why the basics of nursing and health care are not put into practise in the NHS ,being hygiene and fresh air.
I'll never forget this film with Florence nightingale going into a ward with people dying of yellow fever Inna dark closes room .the first thing she did was rip curtains open and fling windows wide to get fresh air in.

I very much begrudge giving governments money for NHS when it's lost on this bloated mid.mananaged system however ....if I.was asked for specific money projects eg 10 a month for a few months (along with the rest of the country ) to pay for better a and e , ( some recling chairs for very sick people ) air con ...more spacious sperated areas / better facilities and care...I definatly would.

If there was one, the receptionist would have directed her there.

Then you’re deluded

So you see the gp and they send you to ENT 'a&e' usually in their opd area. All ents have 9 til 5 walk in sessions.

I’d have stayed just on the basis that it’s a three month wait to see my doctor 😅

You argued with me first that the fundamentals of A&E are different in different hospitals, of course referrals out are different depending on the hospital but that isn't what I was talking about. I was saying that everybody is triaged in the same way regardless of whether you've arrived by yourself or a GP has sent you. I'm a nurse and bed/site manager in A&E and the whole hospital and have oversight of all referrals coming into ED, the assessment unit, our same day emergency care etc...

The poor OP was treated terribly by the nurse, she's got people on here telling her she's wasting resources. She did the right thing, GP would have sent her in anyway and if ED couldn't retrieve the foreign body they would have to refer her straight to ENT.