Walked out of A and E after 9 hours and only triage completed !!

[bumblebee1000]

Don't consider myself at all naive but haven't been anywhere near a hospital for any urgent treatment in over 30 years. Rang 111 yesterday due to constant headaches for almost a week, was advised to attend local hospital [london]. Queue out the door, after 7 hours was seen by a doctor for appx 1 minute who said they will want to do blood tests and possibly an mri scan, was told blood tests could be a further 5 hours, a scan possibly a further 7 to 9 hours so in total basically 24 hours. I couldn't wait so told nurse I was leaving and will follow up with GP and a wealthy old friend has offered to pay the £300 for the mri scan which is lovely. I was stunned to see so many people sleeping on floor and who had been there for hours before me. Then a man went beserk and grabbed a fire extinguisher and smashed in the windows of the reception area, coffe machine and a door, police already on site as were with a chap in hancuffs.....awful. I did notice that many names were called and nobody responded so assume they just left without informing anyone, I felt informing them of my departure, was the least I could do so time isn't wasted on no shows etc.

If it wasn't a mild headache she wouldn't of left a&e and she wouldn't be able to spend her time looking at screens posting on online forums

The system is broken. A friend slipped on a slimy pavement, hit his head against a wall, lost a lot of blood and lost consciousness. No ambulance for 3 hours, his mate flagged down a police car who advised against moving him in case of neck injury. They tried to speed up ambulance but couldn't so the police decided to risk moving and they drove him to hospital. After 8 hours of waiting, he went home without being seen by a doctor. Then got a phone call from the hospital TWELVE hours after booking in to say it was urgent that he came back to have a scan incase of internal bleeding. It's a scary situation.

I've just read this back and I realised it seems I'm blaming you or laughing at you OP, I'm not and I'm sorry if it seemed I was. I'm laughing with incredulity at the mess of the entire system and how it's failing at every turn, failed my family , is failing you too.

Wasn't meaning to minimise your illness and a headache can be a medical emergency so I apologise if I seemed flippant there. I hope you're doing ok and it wasn't anything to worry about.

What would you have done?

None of us know exactly what OP's headache was like nor do we know what info was asked for by 111.

@bumblebee1000 I do hope you are feeling a bit better and will get to the bottom of the issue. Am not sure £300 will be enough to cover an MRI scan though, but kind of your friend to offer.

Yes A&E is a shocking experience if you've not been to hospital for many years.

The problem is, if 111 don't send people to A and E for every little thing, they risk getting sued and slandered in the media if one of the patients then get severely worse or die. So they err on t 8he side of caution, which then fills A and E with non accident and emergencies, pushing waiting times up.

In a week of headaches it didn't cross your mind once to get a GP appointment? I'm mystified by this.

Shocking. Yet you’ll get posters here asking why he didn’t go to the GP or pharmacy first!

We know a young adult who died last year because the GP wouldn’t give them an appointment that day and A&E challenged that they needed to be there at all. That young person died of meningitis only hours later.

We should be marching in the streets in protest.

I think it is odd you did not book an appointment with your GP rather than calling 111. You might find that everyone else in the waiting room had a headache too, hence the long wait.

This

You can't judge if someone needs to be there because of the way they look I was in A&E five times last year with my teen and she likely looked alright whilst we waited in reception but twice was for serious suicidal thoughts and was advised to take her to keep her safe by her her community mental health team. Twice for kidney infections she was admitted for and once for sepsis she was admitted for from a burn on her leg.

' Get a GP appointment '

Yeah right, I've as much chance of coming across a unicorn riding a rainbow than I am actually getting into see my GP.......and my practise is one of the better ones. As in the doctors are physically there.......another practise I know of only does phone appointments or facetime calls. Often from their holiday homes abroad. Actual face to face appointments are only on certain days of the week......you can imagine the absolute carnage that's caused. People are desperate to leave but a couple of smaller practises have closed so spaces with other GPs are even harder to get now.

It's the norm now. And we've sleepwalked our way into this absolute shitshow.

I hope you're feeling better now OP!

The 111 pathways algorithm is quick to send headaches to A&E because it red flags for meningitis if I remember correctly. Whenever I do a symptom checker I have to leave off that I have a headache or it will stop helping me and tell me to go to A&E. If you aren't used to it, it's completely understandable to hear "go to A&E" from 111 and think shit, better get there straight away - the unfortunate truth is that they send just about everyone there.

Ignore the snippy comments about MRIs, I bloody wish I'd had one when my headaches began rather than nearly a year later 😅 if you are able to go private that is great and will hopefully give you some reassurance.

Going forwards, if you call 111 again and feel that A&E might not be the best shout, you can ask them for an alternative (not sure if they manage OOH in your area but that could be an option).

And as for all the "if you're really ill you wouldn't do x / y / z"... I was in A&E recently and was on my phone, chatting, watching the movie on their TV, looked absolutely fine. I definitely needed to be there, because they took me for a 1am CT scan to check if I was having a stroke or if it was just my brain tumour causing my intermittent stroke symptoms.

Please read the fully thread or see yesterday's poll in Chat. At least 25% can never get an appointment, others not within 3 days.

I did RTFT, I was pointing out that maybe A&E was full of other people who also had a headache hence the long queues. A&E is for accident and emergencies, a headache for a week should be a GP appointment.

What is this thing you call a GP?
Have you ever tried to book a GP appointment?
DH spent nine months trying to see a GP for possible skin cancer.
This is why people go to A and E because they can’t get in to see a GP.

A few years ago I phoned 111 for my daughter just to check as she'd had persistent headaches for three days and they sent a bloody ambulance. I told them not to but they insisted. She was totally fine.

I hope you're ok OP. I think somewhere like an Acute Medical unit or a same day emergency care would have been better for you but both need referrals from a GP.

Honestly a & e is a mess. But you would have been seen in 24 hours for free. You weren't a priority. You're best off seeing your gp and asking for a referral to see a specialist. They do it online now, so you can see any cancellations and take them. I hope you find out the cause of your headaches. Drinking plenty of water, eating a pinch of sea salt and switing to decaff would help immensely.

111 is useless. They can't actually tell what's going on over the phone, so they always tell you to go to A&E 'just in case', and then you feel you have to go 'just in case'. I don't blame them because if just once they got it wrong and somebody died, they would be liable. It doesn't cut numbers at emergency services at all - quite the opposite.

It’s probably because it’s one of the triggers for a brain bleed. I’m a nurse and my mum died of this unexpectedly at the beginning of the year but although persistent headache might seem minor it can trigger red flags for brain haemorrhage and other neurological related emergencies

Sorry if it's already been mentioned but if you can't get in to your GP it might be worth making an appointment at Specsavers for an unexplained headache. I did and the day after I had an emergency appointment at the local hospital. They sorted me right out. As it turns out I was quite unwell. My GP misdiagnosed me, well didn't even look at me tbh. Just sat tapping away on keyboard and barely looked up. It got worse and worse over a couple of weeks so went to Specsavers! They saved my life.

Last year, my GP refused to see me for headaches until I'd been to A&E. I was mortified but had literally no other option. A&E nurse was irritated, although not with me.

Boots opticians saved my sight I was in theatre within 48 hours.

Last year we ranked 32nd in the world for health care. This year 37th.

Yep its a broken system. I waited about about 9 hours to be seen a few years ago . I was in agony and just very grateful I was seen at some point. I agree on the post about Primary Care. I actually had to go to A and E a few weeks ago with an allergic reaction and swollen lips. They took it very seriously and I was in resus for observation for a short while. The Consultant couldn't quite believe it when I said I had contact my GP ( obviously before it had gotten this bad) and had a phone call scheduled for the 22nd May