There's Labours extra one million appointments without doing anything!

[KnittedCardi]

A total of 340,441 people sought emergency help with a sore throat in 2022-23, up 77 per cent from 191,900 the year before.
The number of people with coughs going to A&E rose by half, to 322,500. Those with earaches and nosebleeds were up by a fifth, to 233,00 and 56,500 respectively.
There was a 44 per cent rise in people whose chief complaint was a fever, a 30 per cent rise in nausea, and a 12 per cent rise in diarrhoea

How do we encourage people to be more self reliant - or even go to a pharmacy. You shouldn't even need to go to a GP with these sorts of issues, unless severe, let alone A&E.

I went to A&E 30 years ago with a child with an obviously badly broken wrist. We were there 8 hours from 3pm till 11pm on a weekday. Things have always been bad in A&E departments IME. I agree that the biggest problem these days is the lack of a GP service. For a while we had lots of walk in clinics, then they started to be closed down.
(A nurse in a walk in clinic saved my relative's life. I doubt the outcome would have been as good if they had been waiting for a GP call back, 111, or sat in a queue in A&E).

We have encouraged a culture of learned helplessness, coupled with the gatekeeping of GP appointments and the advice of the 111 service always being "go to A and E as a precaution"
Pharmacists in no way alleviate the burden on GPs as they refuse to do so much. They won't prescribe anything to do with the face for example and rarely seem to have the confidence to actually make a decision. I imagine their hands are tied
There needs to be minor injuries walk in centres in every major conurbation, we had one which was very well used. So the health board shut it down despite the many protests, and then complain about the A and E department being overburdened

I was a patient going to the GP with dandruff after trying everything my friends and pharmacist recommended. GP prescribed a few things that did not work. I was then referred to dermatology, scalp biopsies done and was diagnosed with lichen planopilaris, a type of scarring alopecia.

https://dermnetnz.org/topics/lichen-planopilaris

My local pharmacy (Boots) always has such long queues for prescription collecting that I think that asking the pharmacist for advice would piss everyone off because they are fully aware how pissed off the prescription collectors are.

The NHS has never been so well funded or had as many staff as it has in the past 10 years (I think that was a Guardian article I read a few weeks ago, it tried very hard not to admit it because it wanted to blame the govt for everything)
The problem, as ever, is that there are too few staff on the front line (GP's & A&E) causing the awful delays that people experience.
Having just been discharged after having an emergency gall bladder removal, my care including the ambulance and A&E, and the aftercare so far has been superb. My GP surgery is already on the ball and they are also dealing promptly with other family member's medical issues.
The press and the Labour party seem to be hell bent as usual on whipping up hysteria unnecessarily. I am not saying that there aren't issues because obviously some people are experiencing them but I don't think it's anything like as bad as the scaremongers are saying.
As pp's have pointed out above, statistics can be twisted any way the propagandists wish to further their own ends.

That how I thought the system was supposed to work - you try and sort with over counter options - then see GP then if they can't help get referred.

It stuck in my mind as DS was staring with what turned into a long expensive process of finding what worked for his scalp issues - and it was at back of my mind already we may need to go to GP -though thanks to MN we did find a helpful product.

Exactly, and I’m not a dermatologist so I described my issue as really bad dandruff that would not go away as my main symptoms were an itchy scalp and flaking…

So members of the press using what laymen patients describe as their symptom to say oh we have learned helplessness and are abusing the NHS with minor ailments is misguided. Laymen patients will never call a GP and go, I think I have this very rare type of scarring alopecia….

The NHS has never been so well funded or had as many staff as it has in the past 10 years (I think that was a Guardian article I read a few weeks ago, it tried very hard not to admit it because it wanted to blame the govt for everything)

That is not true on a per capita basis. Absolute basis, yes, but after you account for the size of the population now vs whenever, it’s worse funded and staffed.

@Fizzadora
BMA did an analysis.

I have a stoma. I may look perfectly well when I tip up to A&E. I know when I need to be there and I know the GP would be saying the same.
I looked perfectly when I was operated on at four in the morning.
Try not to judge people who look perfectly well.

How many of those 'unnecessary ' visits were due to untreated dental problems? A fair few I'd guess.

40 years ago the Tories were in power.

Wait times reduced a lot under Labour.