Advice please do I go a&e?

[MeMyBooksAndMyCats]

Past 5 days I've had a dry hacking cough, that is leaving me gasping for breath. I'm very breathless.
Coughing up foamy white mucus with brown/red flecks in it sorry TMI!
My chest In the middle hurts and feels like a elephant sat on it. Got a headache non stop, feel dizzy & faint. The back of my throat at the top feels damaged I've coughed that much.
I have asthma on top and my inhalers despite being strong ones aren't helping. Drank more than enough water and it's not helping, have cough medicines that aren't doing jack sh^t!

Tried for two days to get through to my GP to be seen and can't get an appointment. No walk in centre by me.
It's killing me off, last night I barely slept as I kept waking up gasping for air and coughing. 😭
Not sure if I'm being over dramatic but it's so damn painful. Haven't been anywhere to get a cough, all my family & people I've seen don't have a cough/cold neither so I don't think it's a cold I've caught.

Glad you've got a GP appointment op. Sounds like a chest infection that needs antibiotics.

Where has anyone said NOT to go to A&E?

Some people have suggested to seek advice from other health professionals first because that's the way the system is set up!!

I would not have a moment's hesitation in those circumstances. They wouldn't have given an appointment if they didn't think the OP has grounds for a complaint. Her health comes first and denying her an appointment with those symptoms is a far worse 'look'.

Hi op I had similar symptoms tried to manage without bothering Drs had increasing difficulty in breathing and the coughing was so painful. After two weeks finally saw Gp yesterday. She was horrified at state of me. Said if I’d left it any longer I’d have been hospitalised. Am now on steroids antibiotics and inhalers
ignore all the ludicrous people telling you not to go to A&E if you can’t see Gp
Hope you get seen and get well soon

Gasping for breath without medical assistance is an even worse look

I think the NHS advice website should include the following advice:

If your symptoms are causing you to doubt whether to attend A+E or not, and you can’t get a GHP appointment immediately, please post your symptoms on the following: www.mumsnet.com/talk/create-thread?topic=am_i_being_unreasonable where you will be inundated with conflicting ‘advice’ from non-medical people

I am absolutely NOT saying don't go to A&E, I am saying while waiting to be seen it's better than nothing to ask other people!

If my DH were gasping for breath without medical assistance, Id be taking them straight to A+E, not wasting time trying to get a GP appointment.

@kittensinthekitchen

Dangerous suggestions when OP had already tried a couple of times to get a GP apt. The 111 ship has sailed too. I think it’s plainly obvious if you’re gasping for air then this dangerous advice. Admittedly it’s not the posters fault, they are after all not a HCP. I do find it lacking in compassion though when people shout in CAPS NOT TO SEEK MEDS ADVICE. With the chaos of the NHS it’s only natural people will seek advice. Often you get overwhelmingly useful advice here as thankfully the large majority of posters do have common sense.

Several posts, can't be bothered to look back, but posts 2 and 3 just as an example.

The classic 'it's not an accident or an emergency ' 🙄

@Soontobe60 - seems more sensible to me to push hard for a GP appointment this morning than go and sit in a chaotic A&E waiting to be seen for the next 24 hours given how poorly the op feels.

What thread are you reading my love? It can't be this one

It might need antibiotics, or not it might need more

No one on here can know without doing an assessment.

Not even the ones most concerned

"Just flu" ???
well, flu can be a life threatening emergency, so if it is flu, and the OP is asthmatic, then yes, A and E is appropriate

Op, I suggest speaking to a pharmacist if you can see one locally, and getting their opinion

Stackhead said it was a no for them re a and e.

They did suggest she try options that I'm this broken system are not open to her. Understandably she doesn't want to die from an excess of decorum so that is not an avenue worth pursuing. Her partner was able to reopen the possibility of a GP appointment by making them aware he'd use the complaints process if an appointment wasn't offered. Despite this being the approved protocol for patients struggling with substandard care and a million miles away from coming into the surgery to throw chairs/intimidate staff/threaten anyone's safety, it has been suggested that even this was inappropriate and threatening.

The utterly insane moral of the story seems to be, bang your head against a brick wall until you're at death's door, then call an ambulance and die in the queue outside A and E like everyone else. You must not under any circumstances follow accepted channels to insist on life saving healthcare in today's NHS.

If someone rocks up at A+E and is clearly not able to breathe they are not left in a waiting room for hours. That’s what triage is for. Even now, when the hospitals are overrun, they are still prioritising those needing immediate medical attention.

@Forthelast

Yep, got it in one there. Standard protocol.

You are able to write a detailed query on Mumsnet. And presumably able to read replies so don't have a very high temperature etc. Or not in so much pain that you cannot do so.

I would present yourself at the GP surgery. Or to the pharmacist. Go there. If you can get to A and E you can get to the Doctors. Or ask someone to get you there.

I am not a doctor or a nurse mind.

The clue to whether to go to A and E is in the title. Accident ? No.
Or Emergency ? Emergency to me is Road Traffic, heart Attack, broken bone, Stroke etc. That sort of thing. Blood everywhere. Fatal bite/ food allergy. Needs treatment urgently and now/today. Tomorrow will not do. That is my interpretation anyway.

I would literally present at the Doctors rather than try to phone. A nurse assessment would be better than nothing .
From what you say, it sounds like you have a horrible virus. Cough. Phlegm. If you had flu you would be in bed I think.
And you can cough so hard your chest hurts.
But it is miserable and lack of sleep doesn't help.
Actually go to the Doctors. They may take one look at you and decide you need to see the GP now. If the GP won't see you a nurse probably will.
Good luck anyway.

How can anyone advise no to 111/a&e when you don’t know the OPs age, co morbidities, medications, medical history etc and she has chest pain and difficulty breathing. Seriously? Either you are not a HCP in which case don’t give out medical advice or you are in which case you need some retraining.

There are reports from A and E doctors this week of patients sitting in the waiting room to be triaged for two hours and then found to be dangerously unwell but there are no established beds (with oxygen beside them etc) to put them in. The system is broken. You can no longer assume anything.

@Sherbetdib

Ey? I had a sky high temp last month with a ridiculously high HR. I had the flu. I still managed to go on my phone even whilst I was breathless. Thankfully I did get a GP apt and was sternly told by my GP that I had left it far too long to seek help. You don’t know anything. None of us do.

OP needs to seek help via any means that she can, and thankfully she now has.

And to avoid gasping for breath you might try to get an appointment - many GP surgeries will have a nebuliser and be able to prescribe steroids and antibiotics and of course refer on to A&E if necessary. Part of the crisis is surgeries and medical centres not being able to operate as they should.

@Sherbetdib

Just turning up at the doctors is terrible advice and often won’t get you very far. If you were so poorly to do that they would redirect you to A and E anyway.

No one, clinical or not should be giving any medical advise on mumsnet for these reasons. The question was "do I go to A&E" which is an impossible question. Other routes have been suggested which the OP can look at and decide if it's right for them. If not then of course A&E would be a sensible option.

Blood when coughing? Could be trauma to the throat or a PE or something unrelated.

Crushing chest pain? Again from coughing or heart attack or something unrelated.

Breathless? Able to talk in full sentences or blue around the lips unable to lay down or not able to walk upstairs like usual without getting out of breath.

No one knows the answer on mumsnet. Think it's time for this thread to be deleted @mumsnet. It's just turning into a bun fight.

That's terrible advice. The GP surgery does not want people presenting to get an appointment otherwise everyone would do it. If she presents herself after having been refused an appointment she will be must unwelcome. They would turn blithely advise the op to go off to A and E if she felt it was an emergency (she won't be taking to clinical staff unless she actually collapses). If she said that she didn't feel it was an emergency such as she needed to go to A and E, they'd reason that they don't have to give her an appointment because they've only got 'emergency' appointments left. It's down a rabbit hole. She would not get near a doctor without an appointment and would probably end up being sent to begin the long A and E wait later in the day.