Wwyd, Dr wants me to go to a&e

[Alpacathebag]

I've been feeling a bit off colour for a few days, with a bit of a temperature, headachey, sore throat and needing to pee more frequently. Was pretty sure it was a UTI or possibly even a kidney infection, but also maybe a virus of one kind or the other.

Been to walk in centre this afternoon because I thought if it's a UTI I should get it checked really. Did the usual dip test, no infection apparent. Have got a bit of an ache in the kidney region and it was a bit sore when he pressed on my bladder and upper stomach (around the bra line) but otherwise nothing much else. My BP is fine and he recorded my temp as 37.1c (although my skin does feel warmer than usual)

He can't decide what's wrong with me so wants me to go to a&e. I don't think I need to, I don't feel THAT ill. Husband of the opinion I should go if GP said so.

Wwyd?

I don't think we are getting the full story.

I signed paperwork to say I understand the risks and left under my own steam

You don't get asked to sign these docs unless you are leaving against the advice of a clinician.

people are sent to a&e not because they are exceptionally unwell but as a quick referral to a specialist. hence the GP letter. It should fast track you to see a specialist, renal, surgeon etc just for a check over. So I would go. He's basically saying he doesn't know as its not his field of expertise.

people are sent for other reasons of course (arm hanging off etc) but GP referral is common.

also must say some GPs are lazy gits and send patients to A&E as a way of offloading them (fortunately in the minority, but I knew one notorious one!)

@Tistheseason17 yes you do in some cases actually. I’ve signed it before and it was advised by the doctors. It was glaringly obvious to everyone I just needed to be at home in bed and not waiting around with sick people and a compromised immune system in a and e. Likewise I’ve signed when they couldn’t discharge me from ITU because there were no normal hospital beds for me to go and I had three “well” days in ITU wasting a bed.

Your choice. It sounds like a complete over reaction from your GP but A&E sees plenty of them. You've been advised to go. I don't see what a bunch of randoms on the internet can add to an appt you've already had with your GP except speculation with no real facts.

Sorry- updates hadn't loaded. I do think GP's can be quite over cautious- and quite unnecessarily so at times, but if that's the advice given, it's usually best to follow it, if you trust the GP

@NovoJester - I hear what you are saying but, from your post you acknowledge that you were/had been unwell but that they recognised you would be better off at home so got you to sign the form. A bit different to OP who states they told her nothing was wrong with her.

Sounds like hes passing the buck. Both gps and a&e are gatekeepers to the services. A good GP would refer you straight to the specialism he thought you needed. He doesnt need to know the exact cause but broadly whether its medical or surgical then speak with that team, bypassing a&e/doing the same job as a&e

Mumsnet really can’t make its mind up about A&E.

We’ve got threads telling posters never to go unless they have to literally crawl there carrying their severed limbs, and then this thread with a poster insisting that she is quite well, who is then called every name under the sun for not immediately attending.

It’s baffling.

This is the full story, I've not hidden anything. I was given paperwork to sign saying I understood the risks, if it turned out to be something else. I didn't leave against medical advice, but the nurse wanted me to sign anyway given the dramatic language the doctor used in his letter. We were in agreement that there wasn't much to be done, and I'd be sat in a surgical ward for upwards of 6 hours waiting for a blood test when I didn't think I needed it and she was happy to say she thought I was well. I double checked I was not leaving against medical advice, I asked about the risk of sepsis and she said she thought if I was going to develop it, I would have been quite poorly by the time I was sat in front of her.

Trust me, there's been no drip feeding from here, I've been upfront from the start.

I definitely would not have wanted to go to A&E in your position OP!

Shock horror - drs are human too and while some of them are brilliant, some are average and some are actually not very good at their jobs. My sister is a dr (a brilliant one of course) and would be the first to agree.

Shock horror - drs are human too and while some of them are brilliant, some are average and some are actually not very good at their jobs

Agrre with that, but one i know made the wrong call one day he had a out of hours phone call from the parenets of a young child and thought the symptoms described didnt quite warrent that child being taken to A&E .

The outcome was rather tragic IIRC the child was in the very early satages of menengities and sadley died.

It wasnt helped by the fact that English was not the childs parents first language but it was still the Doctors call.

He never got over it and had to take early retirment he died not long afterwards, some think he killed himself but the coroners verdict was open..

@WellErrr

If you can carry your own severed limbs then you are to well for A&E.

The simple mumsnet test for A&E is thus...

Can you talk?
Can you type with non severed thumb on phone?

If yes to either of the above your to well for A&E.

Eg severed foot? - you can talk AND type = wait to call GP in the morning

Sore throat, lost voice? A&E

Phone battery dead, cant type on it? A&E

HTH

Was going to post to say doctor sounds like a fucking idiot but I see that's been proved. Glad you're ok anyway OP.

People can be a bit too mean over the internet - they would be different face to face.....I am glad you are well OP. x

Was going to post to say doctor sounds like a fucking idiot but I see that's been proved

Seriously, people criticising the GP for sending her to A&E... better to be safe than sorry. With these attitudes it's no wonder GPs are leaving the profession in droves.

When our GP sent my 6 year old daughter straight to A&E (because the cluster of virus-y symptoms made no logical sense) it saved her life.

We went in on a Friday afternoon and by Sunday night she was in PICU on a ventilator having been diagnosed with a 1.2 in a million condition that is often only diagnosed at autopsy.
Not knowing exactly what’s going on doesn’t make a GP and idiot, it means they are aware that they have ‘general’ training and won’t (can’t) know everything..
Thankfully our GP was humble enough to not believe she knows everything. I couldn’t be more grateful.

GPs are not leaving the profession because people have no faith in them. They leave due to burnout and stress due to chronic underfunding.

To not employ an iota of common sense and an excessively low bar for "better to be safe than sorry" when deciding whether to attend A&E, actually contributes to overstretched services.

Not all GPs have common sense, unfortunately. This one needs retraining due to contributing to wasting resources.

@ThreeLittleDots
I work with GPs so I think I can state something that causes the stress

Tistheseason17

I also work with GPs so I think I can also state something that causes far more stress. Have a yourself and good day to you.

A trained medical professional told you to go to A&E. You had nothing to lose by doing that

What a ridiculous statement. I was also told go to A&E even though I knew I wasn’t that ill - unlike the OP the hospital triaged me as a low priority as I ended up waiting 9.5 hours to be seen, from 8pm to 5:30 am.

I was told I had a virus, that bloods were fine and left with no further advice/treatment/medication. I’d have much rather spent that time recovering at home - you know, actually resting and sleeping, instead of doing an all-nighter in a busy A&E waiting room, without food. There’s also the costs of travel/parking/childcare etc.

Sometimes GPs get it wrong - hence why the NHS is so well insured. This may have been a minor mistake but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t inconvenient for the patient.

Now lets see if this idiot GP was right in what he did?.

The OP wrote the following;

But I don't have abdominal pain @xxcess that's why I'm so confused. He prodded me in the stomach and it hurt. But it's not abdo pain. I saw the dr last year with serious lower abdo pain, they thought it might be appendicitis, I went to a&e and it was something else equally serious, a burst ovarian cyst. On that ocassion I felt really ill. I saw a GP today because I thought I had an infection or virus. I don't want to waste a&e time, I don't want to clog up a system to be told yep, it's just a bit of a temperature and it'll sort itself out

Now based on the past history we can see that the OP has some "previous" that did indeed turn out to be a serious problem a burst overaian cyst.

Now it would be totaly justified seeing she had that before to get the present symptoms checked out further at this sytage all looks quite mild and a lot of things don't just suddently come on ilnesses devlop bacteria multiply as do virri so that was a very prudent thing to do.

I do wonder what would be the OP's reaction if she didnt go and had a repetion or similar to the burst cyst?.

that would have caused the MN website to melt;!!

Maybe google didn’t have the right answer. 🙄

Around here they google your symptoms then give you antibiotics even if you don’t need them 🤷🏼‍♀️

@Alpacathebag glad that you are okay and its just a virus and nothing else. Heres to you feeling better soon

@ThreeLittleDots

ah, my bad - did not know you had the monopoly on reasons for GPs being stressed... Have another

I would have gone but if I felt ok
and had someone at home then I would definitely wait until morning when
It might be quieter.