Health Anxiety clogging up A&E

[Influencerofcrap]

Im really pleased that finally someone within the NHS has come out and said this.

Having been treated myself in A&E, in the corridor (outside triage) due to lack of cubicles, I was genuinely shocked at the amount of patients that attended who shouldn’t have been there. I’m not talking about those that were genuinely ill and couldn’t see the GP and had no other choice but the ones that were clearly anxious about their health and symptoms that didn’t warrant an A&E visit. They were all sent on their way but it still was time that was taken away from those patients that genuinely needed help. I wonder what the answer is to this, because something has to change.

Health anxiety not emergencies clogging-up A&E

You see it all the time on MN. People advised to go to A and E or take their child to A and E for minor symptoms, always with warnings about sepsis. They inevitably post many hours later saying they were told it was a virus or cold.

Sure but how would one know their condition was purely down to anxiety?

Sometimes these issues manifest in physical symptoms

Treat the cause, not the symptoms i say

Completely agree with you

If health anxiety is anything like OCD reassurance doesn't actually work anyway... It gives you a temporary reprieve but it's like scratching a gnat bite. What makes this type of condition really hard to treat is that not only do you need the mental health services to be available but part of your condition is not actually wanting to get better. Because tempting fate and sitting with anxiety and managing uncertainty are all horrible and scary so it's much easy to label it "useless" and carry on with the endless cycle of reassurance. I found my fourth go at CBT very useful because I was finally in the right state of mind but they can only show you the way, you have to put in the graft.

The way the world is now there’s no wonder so many have mental health issues, including health anxiety. Perhaps we need to start tackling this at the root instead of blaming those who are having adverse reactions to the last decade or so of government.

Round here it’s very difficult to get a gp appointment and risks have been taken with patient’s health, there are stories (real cases, not rumours) floating round like a small child dying of sepsis after a rushed appointment, a mum of three being diagnosed with endo over the phone which turned out to be stage 4 cancer which sadly killed her shortly after, which increases the anxiety all round , and governments past and present are letting the NHS sink after using psychological tactics and lies to scare people into compliance during the pandemic, and honestly if this isn’t a case of you reap what you sow I don’t know what is.

@Influencerofcrap Whilst I agree with the article, what do you think is actually driving this anxiety?

Everywhere you turn, there’s another cancer diagnosis, another warning to “never ignore this symptom,” another tragic story of someone dismissed by the healthcare system, only to later be diagnosed with something life-threatening. These constant messages fuel fear, but what makes it worse is the sheer difficulty of accessing medical care.

Take GP appointments, for example. My surgery has five doctors, yet it’s practically impossible to get an appointment. When I found a lump in my breast, I was turned away. Granted, I didn’t go to A&E, but I pushed for an appointment—because that’s what we’re told to do—yet I still couldn’t be seen. And I’m not alone in this experience.

People are being turned away for “minor” symptoms, only to tragically die weeks later from conditions like undiagnosed blood clots. It’s one thing to acknowledge that health anxiety is on the rise, but let’s address the elephant in the room: this isn’t just about anxiety—it’s about a failing system that leaves people feeling unheard and unprotected.

My friend is a paramedic. She can determine if someone is genuinely having breathing issues and if they are having a bad cold or even a mild cold. If she wasn't sure she'd bring in the GP but she's been qualified for 20 years plus and saved a fair few people with acute and serious illnesses . She doesn't see people with chronic conditions as it's not her area of expertise. She's the kind of person who is diverting the health anxious from A&E

Access to GPs is a huge problem... but part of that problem is the patients who do not need to be there. GPs get bashed a lot on here but they are seeing so many more patients in a day now and the phone calls on top. My eldest is a GP. She absolutely never minds seeing babies, children with worried parents, elderly and vulnerable people, and genuinely sick people but sees so many who have a one day history of a cough, google and panic, and those who need mental health support that simply doesn't exist.. and she hates how helpless she is to do anything that really helps those struggling with mental health.
She's not blase about her patients in the least... she goes home and worries about them, then goes in the next day and starts all over again. She spends half her day trying to get patients referred to appropriate specialists only to have the referrals batted back.
The system is broken.
There needs to be a huge number of GPs recruited but they are leaving in droves. Personally I think there should be a small charge also for every visit to a GP (which are not direct NHS funded as most people believe) to keep practices going. The vast majority of people could run to £10 if they really felt they needed a doctor with exceptions for low income.

People are being turned away for “minor” symptoms, only to tragically die weeks later from conditions like undiagnosed blood clots. It’s one thing to acknowledge that health anxiety is on the rise, but let’s address the elephant in the room: this isn’t just about anxiety—it’s about a failing system that leaves people feeling unheard and unprotected.

I've ended up in A&E because I couldn't see the GP.

I’m not sure how we’re supposed to know though. I had a “cold” last year, it was pretty bad but I didn’t go to the dr because the answer is always “it’s viral, there’s nothing we can do” (which is true!). My Fitbit happened to pick up low oxygen sats, my nurse neighbour made me call 111 and less than an hour later I was being blue lighted to hospital and ended up staying for several days with severe pneumonia. I honestly would not have been able to tell that this was any worse than the flu I’d had a few months prior.

As an aside I have GAD and OCD (not so much health related though) and I was on the waiting list for 18 months to get NHS talking therapy so it’s not exactly a quick option.

I don't know any young person who goes to the GO for a jolly. It's such a pain in the arse to book & attend an appointment loads don't bother.

Which is why people with a mild issue need to be seen quickly at the GP level or even by a nurse practitioner for guidance on simple treatment or triage to the appropriate care.

people may have anxiety, but they may also simply not be qualified to tell if their symptoms are serious.

@melodypondisasuperhero yes I had pneumonia & didn't realise.

It's incredibly difficult/near impossible to get a GP appointment.

That is why everyone is at A&E.

I don't get how you would know even from listening to people as you often hear half a story

You might have heard me say I was anxious about diarrhoea
But not heard it had been for 10 days and I have an underlying health condition and it was campylobacter, the GP had sent me to a&e as high risk for sepsis

@cerisierblossom it obviously depends on personal definition but to me people with health anxiety harming a&e are ones who feel that each time they have a stomach ache then it must be ebola and decide that every time they feel slightly unwell they must go to a&e for reassurance (I know someone like this, they go there so often they are on first name terms with some of the staff and there is yet to every be anything wrong). It then becomes a mental hurdle that if they don't go this time then it'll be the one time when there is something seriously wrong so that'd better go "just in case".

Clearly none of that applies to you and I do genuinely hope that your health issues will be able to be resolved soon 💐.

Has anyone ever had useful advice from a pharmacist?

If you go into a pharmacy, the actual pharmacist is run off their feet dispensing anti depressants

The only person you can speak to is a retail assistant who advises the doctor or an off the shelf medicine you already tried

It's a broken system

I was in A &E last year, it was classed as an emergency and a GP sent me there. It was a Friday but the amount of people that were there because of booze or drug related incidences plus fighting was awful. I mean you unfortunately get to hear everyone’s issues as the receptionist questions you. So that’s nothing about anxiety just bad behaviour.

No such thing in Scotland, you have to go to your GP (or A&E) to access those NHS therapies.

Lack of GP appointments/accountability is definitely a big issue too. DD had an unlucky period of bad health last year and the amount of times our GP suggested going to A&E because they had no appointments available or simply because they didn’t know how to treat her was ridiculous. They sent her to A&E because of tonsillitis twice - each time I felt like apologising to the staff there as obviously she didn’t need to be there! A 12 hour wait each time just to be sent home with nothing more than advice to speak to said GP again.

I thank my lucky stars that we have private health insurance.

My issue is, I've felt unwell for seven years.

Have you ever had sinusitis? It's awful, and having underlying symptoms of it everyday for seven years is awful. The headaches kill me and get worried it's a brain tumour. If it wasn't for my parents keeping me sane, I would 100% end up in A&E.

I think judging people for being mentally unwell, who cannot get the support they need, rather than those who have voted for and enabled the system to be stripped, is the issue. Whether or not someone is a "time waster", they deserve to be treated. The idea that you have to be dying to be "deserving" of NHS care is exactly what they want. They want people to turn to more and more private services, so that they can justify privatising it.

Blame the Tory Government and years and years of austerity

It's fucked us

Here we have an 'urgent treatment centre'. It's a walk in clinic staffed by nurse practitioners and a supervising doctor. The headline is that it's for people who have an injury which isn't life threatening but still requires urgent treatment, plus minor pregnancy related issues, cuts, bites, emergency contraception. They open 8am to 8pm every day. This is where the majority of people who shouldn't be in A&E go. Its based in a different hospital to the A&E department and has significantly cut waiting times in A&E......

Totally agree. You only need to read this forum to see everyone is instructed to go to A&E for every aliment. Constipation will be a perforation, a temp will be sepsis, a headache will be a haemorrhage as someone's next door neighbour's Auntie had one.

A&E is used as a GP service. If GPs are used appropriately the system works, so use econsults or get an appointment in a couple of weeks for non urgent stuff or an emergency appointment/111 if ill and need seeing today. Most if not all practices have available nurse appointments so if you did have a problem that a nurse couldn't deal with they'd soon seek a GPs opinion.

But nope. Far too may people go to A&E then wonder why there's a 12hr wait.

'A & E is not a walk-in clinic' struck me upthread.
It's not, but that's what's missing. I'm old, but when I was in my prime reproductive years, there were Well Women Clinics and Well Men Clinics.
No appointment needed and the women's clinics were run by female doctors. You could get a smear done there, talk about period worries, pick up birth control, get advice about conception or the menopause - the whole spectrum of women's health issues in fact. Same, presumably for the men.
If further action was needed patients could be referred in the usual way. It seemed like false economy to cut them and so it's proved.
I remember (to my embarrassment) having a lost tampon removed there - that would have been a visit to A&E these days🙄