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

You are completely clueless

That makes no sense that means your child also having to sit with you for hours and potentially having no way of getting home if train tickets or whatever are booked.

No. She did not.

This is why people are waiting hours for corridor care. Because of people like you.

It sounds like the nurse may have misunderstood after you saying it had been there for weeks.

The pertinent information you need to give is that you discovered the foreign object the day before, that you have had earache for weeks which went away but has come back much worse and has now spread, and that is it.

Do not mention your friend who is a doctor, unless you've seen them professionally, it is not relavent. It's not helpful and from friends I have in nursing the amount of times they are told "my friend who is a (insert medical professional here) told me to do this" it becomes infuriating.

Dr here. Having read that it was the back of an earring and it’s causing you pain I do think it’s fair to go to an A&E. BUT I think going in the evening wasn’t best as there are fewer staff to go around and , presumably, just one oncall ENT doctor who will be prioritising things like post tonsillectomy bleed. I imagine you could have waited all night possibly.

Try again in daytime hours where the wait should be somewhat shorter.

And the member of staff shouldn’t have been rude to you. Sounds like she has empathy burnout which many of us end up getting

Try GP and they can do a referral letter to A&E if deem it necessary. Then at least you’ll have the ‘official’ ‘yes you need to be in A&E’ letter.

Some HCPs are just rude and dismissive, unfortunately.

Right! For the hard of reading. OP has said she called 111 who told her to go to A&E as they have the specialist tools to remove foreign bodies which the GP is unlikely to have.

A&E in most areas is split into Minors, Majors and an out of hours GP service .

The OP not medically trained followed medical advice (we can argue forever about 111 sending everyone up to A&E) .

Some of you need to get off your high horses and consider all the above.

OP you did nothing wrong and as a former nurse may I say this nurse was rude and unprofessional.

Taking a child to a long awaited medical appointment is not frolicking in a hotel.

You were in the right place. I have been to A and E when one of my children was small and put something in their ear. They retrieved it at A and E. A GP will not be able to help you.
Most people would have gone to a long awaited appointment for their child as you did.
Sometimes A and E staff get cross/upset when they are dealing with a life threatening emergency but they misunderstood you. Go again.

She did need A&E or MIU, they used the same deck. She was in the right place.

Our hospital is the same you get triaged before you walk in left for a&e right for miu.

Is there some way you can have an NHS record that quickly shows how often you access the services and for what reasons? So they can spot the time wasters and see that another person goes years without seeing a medical professional?
Then they can contact the time wasters and suggest they are using services inappropriately. I watched some of that Ambulance series on iPlayer and they seem to have loads of people abusing the system and using ambulances as taxis.
I guess the staff are always under the threat of complaints and litigation and can’t take even the tiniest risk but must want to just tell some people to go away.
OP you did nothing wrong. The time wasters wore out that nurse. Not you.

In our hospital A&E and Minor injuries have the same front door and the same check in desk.

Not unusual. The sign on the main front door says accident and emergency.

You are ridiculous. She has not misused an A&E. She was in MINOR INJURIES unit in A&E and was sent there by 111

You did nothing wrong

try and speak to the GP this morning, don’t wait days for an appointment. This is not life t
threatening, but urgent

GP may well send you back to a&e in which case you go back and tell them “my GP sent me here”

I think the nurse was horrible to you and very unprofessional. I'd go to the GP today and tell them what happened.
The only mitigation really is that maybe she thought you'd known about the problem for weeks and gone to A&E instead of the GP.

If it was so bad to need a&e she realistically would’ve attended a&e at the hospital the appointment was at, not waiting and frolicking in a hotel.

Weird. The first line of her post states she went to a&e.

The night in the hotel was for her childs appointment not a fun night away

They would. Wait lists anre insane. Making a child wait several months for a replacement appointment and cancelling last minute when you can simply go to A&E a day later is far more sensible. You can check severity too.

The point is she did not need a&e. She didn’t have an accident, and she didn’t have an emergency.

god GPs has become ridiculous now. They should be able to remove that but I’m not surprised they wouldn’t. All they do is now send people somewhere else. Thats just pathetic.

I was told I was misusing a&e once and it was "just" anxiety. It was a pulmonary embolism

No she absolutely did not. Going to A&E a day later is neither here nor there. Makes no odds , if you need A&E you need A&E. Most times we’ve used A&E we’ve tried to wait to check for absolute necessity and gone a day later.

She wasn't in a&e she was in minor injuries unit