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

My daughter and I had a recent experience at A&E and I can understand their frustration, tbh.

My daughter had a minor injury at work a few weeks ago. She was treated by first aid and told to call 111 for advice.

111 instructed her to go to the local Urgent Treatment Centre where I was expecting her to need blood tests, a Hep B vaccination and antibiotics due to the nature of the injury and none of which seemed beyond a UTC.

I went with her. We saw the doctor there who was impatient and heavily criticised the incompetence of 111; admitted he could take blood, administer a hep B vaccination and prescribe antibiotics; but then refused to treat her and sent us to A&E instead and said injuries of that nature should always be an A&E visit.

So we went to A&E which was far busier than I'd expected on a weekday afternoon, tbh - it was packed.

She was triaged on arrival by two nurses at the first desk and directed to the Minor Injuries part of A&E. She first saw a nurse there, who was very abrupt and a bit rude about the fact we were at A&E and hadn't gone to UTC because it could have been treated there.

So we explained what had happened and she then heavily criticised the UTC doctor to my daughter and said he'd have been able to treat it perfectly well and moaned that this is why A&E had such long waiting times because they had so many people sent on to them who could have been treated elsewhere.

The doctor who finally saw her was lovely but did say the whole thing was a shambles. People can't get GP appointments, call 111, get automatically referred to UTC, where the doctors don't want to deal with stuff and refer patients on to A&E who have nowhere else to send people on to and so people end up waiting for hours. He said there was no reason the UTC doctor couldn't have treated her and we'd spent 4+ hours in A&E completely unnecessarily.

Basically, my recent experience (and first A&E experience in around 10 years) suggests to me that the whole system is completely overwhelmed and, whilst there isn't any excuse for rudeness (or criticising colleagues to patients, tbh!) I can well understand the frustrations when someone presents who an individual professional thinks could have been treated elsewhere.

Having to explain to each person why we were there and not somewhere else was uncomfortable. Feeling like an inconvenience was uncomfortable but I'm not sure why OP left though because the issue is now unresolved and shes now back at square one.

Yeah we have a person who cannulates everyone in a+e who might need one..that is standard and saves time.. even if you have a packed waiting room, if your observations warrant it at triage, your care will be escalated more quickly. Those waiting 6 hrs didn't have deranged observations at triage hence why they are still there. Anyone who does is seen more quickly.

Did you read what the something else was? Or is it easier to just be a bitch?

As an experienced doctor, I can tell you that she did nothing wrong here. Nothing. And she did not deserve rude treatment. She needed appropriate help and was failed.

Read the whole thread. Like most A&Es,MIU is triaged at the same desk.

No, people are left in corridors because of too few hospital beds, staff shortages, delayed discharge because of shortages in social care and community services, rising demand from an ageing and sicker population, asset stripping, staffing and attrition problems, increasing numbers of patients with multiple long-term conditions, seasonal surges, underinvestment in NHS infrastructure and estate, increasing ambulance arrivals causing emergency department congestion, delays in diagnostic tests and specialist reviews....

i live in London and the only rapid clinics access that I’m aware of are minor injuries units in A&E which is exactly where the OP was

Lucky you. It’s not the same everywhere.We have had to go many times for a condition my daughter has which most definitely were emergencies, we often had to wait several hours. Once her cannula was fitted during the wait prior to being seen because it was obvious she’d need to be admitted.

111 do that for everything. It's on their flowchart.

Was that the only part of the post you read?

Yep A&E is grim, I’ve walked through my local one to get to the children’s part with DC and had to step over pissheads laying on the floor in pools of vomit. There’s always police officers there. It’s like a third world country in truth.

Also always seems to take hours for a simple ailment. I actually learnt how to pop my son’s pulled elbow back into place to avoid going. We have private healthcare which is also useless, I’m not actually sure what it’s for - it doesn’t provide emergency care for example. I’d love to have used that instead.

When the NHS is good it’s great but when it’s bad…

Which part of op being advised by 111 to go to a and e passed you by?
It doesn't have to a literal accident or emergency just something that cannot be dealt with by a GP.

GPs can refer to emergency clinics without going through a+e. My GP would never say go to A+E unless they were calling you an ambulance to the surgery. They'd just refer you to the correct department and you'll be seen that day if necessary.

Read her post. She went to a&e. Largely because she wanted the drama, I suspect.

She was at Minor Injuries

If you can decide nah I won't go now as I have something else to do, then you aren't an emergency case.

Unfortunately some nurses are VERY chippy about doctors so that may not go down well.

I live in the middle of London and have NEVER waited 6hrs to be seen in a+e because I'd always be triaged to be seen much sooner regardless of how many people are there.

That's because I'm there for an emergency.

Something which has the potential to cause permanent damage to your hearing and/or other functions of the ear is an emergency.

That's not something a GP would do. They don't have the training or equipment to do it. They would advise Emergency department or possibly minor injuries (if there's a separate one in the area)

Most Emergency departments have minor injuries as part of the department rather than at a separate location.

It's not been called 'Accident & emergency' for many years.

I think you misread. I said not to go to a+e and that my local hospital would say as much. I then said you would be followed with another letter from your GP stating appropriate reasons to attend A+E.

Please read (my) posts as carefully as you can if you're going to respond to them.

• and the whole shouldn't have been sent there by 111 makes me want to scream

Empathy burnout as said by a Dr up thread is a good description ..

Op unfortunaly I've been a and e and urgent care a few times this summer and I'm.appallad
I've also been spoken to so rudely and not had the care I expect.

Unfortunaly unless you have been recently ,crammed into small airless spaces in extreme heat , people being sick ,coughing all over you ,body fluids left for ages on chairs and floors and left on hard uncomfortable chairs for 6 hours plus in what feels like a torture session it's hard to comprehend just how bad it's become .

We need better it's not anyway good enough.

Hot clinic means rapid access. It’s a widely used term.

Nope.

The GP would be able to call the SHO (I know this happens because for some reason my direct dial is confused for the ENT SHO all the time!), who would then be able to organise for the patient to attend the hospital.

OP wanted the drama of being sat in a&e, that’s it.

In any event you can go for weeks with a foreign body in your ear. The most common course of action if it can’t be removed while awake is to issue safety netting advice and wait 6-8 weeks for a surgery date to become available.