If you get a call from school to say child needs A&E

[Explaintome]

Would you still tale them even if you disagree?

Ds hurt his wrist in PE. I expect it hurt at the time and will be sore for a few days but he seems to have full mobility and there very little swelling.

If it was my wrist I'd wait and see. School insisted I should tale him to A&E. Personally I didn't really feel there was any reason for him not to be in school.

Anyway, I did take him because I was worried that going against their orders advice would look like neglect and as expected , there's nothing wrong and I've been made to feel a time waster.

Would you have had more confidence in your own judgement or gone along with the school, just in case?

School done this with my DS! Hurt his leg at morning break, i wasn't contacted. I picked up at 3 as usual and though hmmm he is very quiet. Fractured in 2 places.

Guess every first aider will advise different.

I've advised 3 parents to take kids to a and e for suspected fractures - I've (sadly!) been correct each time.

Advised 2 for cuts to head. One I was sure about and was obvious (had 3 stitches and glue) and other I said I couldn't see enough of the wound through hair (caked in blood!!) to know and so I have called her for her judgement. She choose to take child home and saw local nurse who said was borderline but no glue needed. Mum thanked me for not taking a risk with her DD!

But you don't have to take them. You are the parent and have PR and can make the decision.

However if you decide not to attend and return child to school and they do have a serious injury it can become a safeguarding issue and SS could be involved. It's very rare for a standalone misjudgement but it'll be logged.

Oh and I always tell parents I'm a first aider and not a doctor and have a duty of care that does mean I have to be cautious.

I find they appreciate honesty above everything else.

I've heard so many stories of people not getting broken arms checked out for several days because they could wiggle their fingers or didn't think the pain was bad enough to be a break. Based on that, I'd err on the side of caution and listen to the school.

DD fell and hurt her wrist earlier this year. Initially, we all assumed it was just bruised... until she started to lose sensation in her fingers. By ten days after the fall, a second visit to A&E as advised by a physio with experience of scaphoid fractures, she ended up in a cast. It was the best part of three months before she regained normal sensation in her fingers and could feel temperature differences again. So yes, if a PE teacher told me my DC had injured their wrist I would absolutely get it looked at, especially now I know about the scaphoid and blood supply.

I would have taken to A&E.
it’s not a great doctor who made you feel like a time waster.

I had the opposite with DD. School phoned to say she'd hurt her wrist, falling on it, but they thought it was just sprained, but I needed to collect her.

I picked her up and could see it was slightly swollen, but she could move it (which is why the school said it was a sprain).

Took her to A&E. Had x-rays, found she'd broken both bones in her wrist.

I've got no objection to the fact that they called me or that they wanted me to see him, but having done that, I object to them insisting they know better than I do.

Well since the correct advice was to go to A+E, it does indeed appear that they do know best, unless you have x-ray eyes?

Why was it correct advice? A&E didn't seem to think so.

I expect it hurt at the time and will be sore for a few days but he seems to have full mobility and there very little swelling.

That to me would need checking and I'm not one to dash to A&E.
I was told by my GP when ds fractured his wrist that it should be checked if there was swelling. In fact his wrist wasn't really swollen to the naked eye, just obvious when measured and they described it as "significant swelling".
Both times ds has fractured his wrist he's had full movement.

Pharmacists and GPs don’t have X-ray machines last time I checked? Or have event minor injuries training?

School should send home with - injury advised. Parent to monitor and take to urgent care if symptoms display along those lines.

They told me dd needed to go to A&E I said call me when you get there let me know what they say....silence no we want YOU to take her I said why? You feel its an emergency I'm over an hour away an emergency is urgent? I'm assuming you have called an ambulance? No apparently she was fine to spend the day at school I was supposed to rush her to A&E after school, yeah....no quick call to the Dr's and minor injuries for an x-ray no breaks and I was appalled that they were not ringing me to collect her for an emergency they wanted me to collect her after three as per usual? If her ankle was broken surely walking on it half a day would be a bit painful?

My daughter fell over and bust her lip a few months ago. School were insistent I took her to A&E for stitches. I popped to our local pharmacy and they said she didnt need stitches and would be ok. I took her back to school after that 😅

I’d have probably gone to minor injuries, after many times with the DCs that I haven’t thought it is broken but taken them to appease their whining and they’ve come home sporting a cast 🙃

Some of the responses on here are crazy. Why waste a GP appointment for a suspected break? All they'll do is tell you to go to hospital for an x-ray. Ditto 111. I don't understand the resentment of a school wanting you to act in the best interest of a child. 🤷‍♀️

The school can recommend that you take your child to A&E to get checked out but can't insist. Its up to the parent to decide.

In my area you can't just rock up to minor injuries and say xray me they will send you to A&E which is over 20 miles away HOWEVER if the gp believes there is a chance of a break they put it in the system and you can get an xray literally round the corner from the school no lengthy wait no long drive and Dr's will do it via a two minute phone call

@Isaidnoalready that's really interesting. My GP surgery won't see you - they'll just say a&e.

There's no point going anywhere that doesn't have X-ray/scanning facilities for an injury you can't see. GP and pharmacy are silly suggestions.

I'd probably phone 111 for a minor injuries unit appointment or see if the hospital has an X-ray clinic.

I'm wouldn't go to A&E.

If the injury is so bad he needed to go to A&E why did nobody from the school bloody take him, if it's that bad you don't wait for someone else to collect and take them. If so

If someone at work was injured and you called in a 3rd party to look after them instead of getting then the medical intervention they needed you'd be bloody well closed down.

You do realise the A in A and E is accident?

You're DD had an accident. So they advised A and E.

Anyone who has an emergency would call an ambulance. We've called ambulances and then called the parents to tell them.

Thankfully not one of them has said "let me know what they say". They've said they'll come to school straight away or if they are far away let them know which hospital they are heading too and they'll meet it there.

Because an accident is not the same as an emergency.

It's really not that hard to understand