So I’m currently sitting in A & E and it’s been eye opening

[Stressedout150]

I’m sitting with my mother who is in here for chest pains. The wait to be triaged is 2 hours and 5 hours overall to be seen.

Here’s a few things I’ve noticed:

1. it’s sitting on the floor room only, and i happen to be sitting next to check in. So here’s what I’ve seen so far.

2. a lady coming in checking in for pain in her toe

3. a lady who was told it’s a 5 hour wait, and after been told that/ was then asked if the wait still applied to NHS staff- as she works for a hospital. She was told yes of course. The cheek of it

4. a chap who checked in his girlfriend due to a headache.

it goes on and on/ I’ve never seen anything like the cheek of some people and also the ridiculous shit people are here for. And even when told it’s a 5 hour waits, they seem quite happy to wait 5 hours for their toe to be assessed.

What the fuck is going on

I can't understand why GPs are so difficult to access. Ours is genuinely brilliant. You fill in a form on "ask my GP" which gives the GP the option of responding online with a bit of advice, or ringing you, or inviting you in for a face to face appointment. You fill in the form by about 10:30 am and get a response the same day. I have had all 3 outcomes - a bit of written advice for something that didn't need me to go in, a same day appointment, and a phone call. The appointments seem much less rushed than previously and there are usually only a couple of people in the waiting room.

We had occasion to call an ambulance a couple of weeks ago - a neighbour was choking on food, had some airway but was in great distress - the first responders were there within 5 mins. I was very surprised as I expected a lengthy wait.

I have observed similar in peads A and E. My child has Crohn's and is sometimes directed to attend A and E for treatment - the IBD consultant is then paged. I see a lot of parents with unwell children, mostly coughs and vomiting, that are just standard nasty viruses, as evidenced by them being seen, given advice and leaving while we wait for the gastro consult or for admission.

I did once overhear nurses talking about someone who had come in with a verruca. That was while we were in a cubicle awaiting an emergency operation; my child had intussusception and was going to die without that operation. I did find that a distressing waste of resources.

A sore toe in an older person could be gout that can quickly cause a rampant infection and cellulitis. Been there and done that will an elderly relative who spent over a week in hospital.

Stop eavesdropping on people's private medical issues and posting them online!

Bob Marley died from a cancer that started under his toenail. Yes there are time wasters but OP is in no place to judge people’s ailments, that’s for the doctors to assess, not the OP.

We don’t have a Minor Injuries unit in our county.

I know someone who went to a+e with a very severe headache, he had eye rolls even from the doctors in a+e, right up to when his scan results came back with a brain tumor, the doctor questioned how he was still up right and functioning given where it was (well he wasn't really). After lots of tests it turned out to be the agressive terminal type. So yes people may attend a+e with all manner of things that seem trivial to you but can actually be an indication of something quite serious. Everyone in there has as much right to use the service as you.

I went to the GP earlier this year because I'd been feeling particularly rubbish for about a week. Went back a week later feeling worse and she sent me straight to A&E. I'd have said I looked a bit peaky at most.

Turned out I had a severe case of pneumonia, one properly working lung and needed multiple courses of IV anti-biotics and steroids.

never good to assume about the scant information given at the desk. A headache could be a cluster headache, and believe me, if you have ever had one, you pray for death; it's so bad.
painful toe, who knows? it could be leading to sepsis, etc
You just cannot get a Dr's apt these days, and to be honest if my A and E was not 20 miles away, I would think about going on some occasions

You don’t sound all that ill to me either, OP @Stressedout150

I don’t know what the answer is, but the problem with something being free at the point of use is that too many people don’t value it.

It’s well known that some people do go to A&E unnecessarily. That must make it really hard for hospital staff to decide who is more urgent. Taking OP’s example of a headache, some people would only go to A&E if they were in excruciating agony (and obviously need seeing). Others would go with a minor ache but create a huge drama.

I’m fortunate that we have rarely needed to visit.

I’ve seen a mother come in creating a scene and demanding her daughter be seen as she’d dropped a stone on her foot and she thought it could be broken. The child was literally running around the department. Another mum brought in her 6/7 year old who had had an earache for a few hours. The child was a bit grumpy(probably tired at 9pm), but certainly not in any great pain.

Last time I was in with my child, there was a group of people with 1 individual who needed medical attention. These groups were taking up valuable seating. I was fine standing, but my child needed a seat. We eventually found a seat, but ended up taking it in turns to share it with an elderly man who’d come in running a high temperature whilst being on chemo treatment but had to go via A&E to access the care he needed. He had to wait hours, like the rest of us.

ETA - the issue isn’t helped by some GPs being too overstretched and sending their patients to A&E when perhaps another area of the NHS might be more suitable.

Totally agree the number of people there who could either self manage their symptoms with a bit more common sense and a trip to the pharmacist is totally ridiculous.

I think we really miss a trick with pharmacist in this country and a bit of education and awareness about their role, the depth of their training and when to visit a pharmacist would keep an awful lot of people out of the GP surgery and A&E.

They need a minimum 5 years training yet some people just see them as the shopkeeper that sells plasters & cough medicine and makes up prescriptions! I know in France for example they are much more at the forefront of primary healthcare and are generally seen in higher regard.

We don’t have that facility here either—you call 111 and they tell you to go to A&E. There is no GP Registrar at our hospital—the only open desk where you can present yourself is at the A&E desk.

My sister works in A&E.

Her usual first words to a patient (after they've waited X hours to see a doctor) are 'so what accident or emergency brought you to A&E today?'

I've attended a few times recently, once by ambulance (genuine need) and on one occasion was balled out by a chap for sitting in HIS chair whilst I was almost immobile with pain - whilst he'd gone out for a fag! He wasn't even the patient!

I do appreciate that gp appointments are hard to get. But the application of a bit of common sense and home-care and/or first aid would reduce traffic in A&E. Speak to a pharmacist.

Firstly, I hope you mother recovers well.

I would like to explain why I had to go to A & E recently and I'm sure that anyone not hearing me report to the reception desk might have thought I looked as if there was nothing wrong with me and I didn't need to be there.

Having previously had cancer in my head, I have to have regular MRI scans. On one occasion when my consultant was reviewing the results of the scan, he phoned me and told me that coincidentally the scan had picked up a large DVT in my leg and I needed to take myself straight to A &E, as it was serious. I didn't have any symptoms and would have looked perfectly healthy sitting in the waiting room, but it could have been life threatening.

I agree. I don’t think many people are aware of the Pharmacy First scheme, where pharmacists can prescribe antibiotics for certain conditions. This frees up GP and A&E resources

www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/pharmacies/how-pharmacies-can-help/

Probably half of MN judging by threads on here

There's always some people who are time wasters like there's always judgemental people. I went to A&E with a swollen arm from my PICC line for cancer treatment-didn't know if it was an infection or DVT (it was). I was cold capping and had only had 2 chemos so my hair wasn't too bad. Aside from being pale, I didn't look ill. I was frog marched straight to majors but I remember someone making a comment about the junkies getting seen quickly!
Hospitals with both A&E and urgent treatment centres make it easier as they decide where the patient is seen.
My parents live in the north east where there is only one proper A&E for all of Northumberland and North Tyneside (massive area but.not including Newcastle) which is a specialist emergency care hospital. Some urgent care centres aren't open 24 hours. You may live right by this hospital but it doesn't have urgent care, just A&E! I was visiting my dad and they were sending people to other places.

When I was last in A&E I overheard a mom with her DS talking to him about how the school rang her after he fell in PE and hurt his arm and they suggested he get it x-rayed in case it's broken. He was in front of me swinging his hoody over his head with said "injured" arm. I think part of the issue is the school don't want to be responsible for not sending kids home in case they have really hurt themselves and they are held responsible, and then the parent feels they have to take the child to A&E because the school suggested it and they don't want to appear like a negligent parent if they don't take them.

I've also seen a child coming in limping and leaning on their parents, but at times fully weight bearing and forgetting to limp on the "injured" foot and full of smiles, giggles and excitement about getting to go to A&E, so I think sometimes children exaggerate the issue to get out of school and are less likely to do it if they were off school and doing something fun

Minor injuries refused to do anything for my fractured and dislocated toe. They said I had to go to A and E. It was sticking out sideways.

I went to a&e for a headache.
I didnt know what was happening to me scared the life out of me.

My local A&E has a minor injuries department ,a few years ago I burnt my ring finger and it swelled up I waa worried my wedding and engagement ring would cut off the blood supply so went to A&E and triarged to minor injuries within an hour they had cut my rings off dressed my finger and.given me antibiotics.

Theyve probably called 111 and they have sent them to a&e because its rhe only way tbey can get them seen by a doctor. nt get a gp appointment. A suspected dislocated toe would need medical attention as would some headaches.

I doubt that many people subject themselves to hours waiting in A&E for fun. What I object to more is the hangers on. Some people seem to treat it as a family day out, which is why genuinely ill people sometimes can't even get a chair to sit on.

But that's probably because people in general are less likely to be doing things during a big world cup match, or on Christmas Day that would usually lead to an accident. More likely to be at home, sitting down, than driving a car which crashes, or going up a ladder and falling off it, or using a power tool which cuts their hand off, or playing rugby or football which leads to a broken collar bone or concussion.

There wouldn't be fewer heart attacks or fewer asthma attacks or fewer strokes, but everything else that is an accident or injury caused by an activity, yes of course there will be fewer. It's not difficult to see why.

You make it sound as if people go to A&E for a fun, family day out when there's nothing better to do.

Both the head pain and the toe pain could be threatening to life and limb.
Obviously I'm not party to the detail, but.....

The last time I had to go to A&E I was blue-lit in an ambulance due to a suspected stroke/heart attack.
My heart is problematic at the best of times (open heart surgery in 1992 when I was a baby was my only option of survival and even then the odds were 90/10 I was going to die)
I was left on a gurney, in a corridor, gasping, in and out of consciousness, with presumably a heart monitor attached to me.
When I woke up and had clear, lucid thoughts, I heard people walking past saying stuff like “she’s faking it” “OMG she’s so dramatic” and I overheard one person complain to their doctor about the wait because they had “an important job to get to tomorrow morning and needed his sleep” I didn’t hear what his issue was, but I bet with him being more concerned about sleep than anything, it was probably a minor injury.
Meanwhile, apparently (I read in my notes after) I kept dropping oxygen saturation, my heart was “fluttering” and several times it skipped and/or stopped and restarted.
I was seen by two nurses during that time - a grand total of 5 hours before I was discharged with the doctor stating “we need the bed space”.
Apparebtly because I had woken up and was “fairly lucid” it would be better for me to go home and come back to a cardiologist in the morning. I wasn’t given an appointment or anything just turfed out.
Turned out I had had a minor “heart-attack like event” that could have killed me.
But they still turned me away. (No im not going to sue, even though I think I have a right to. Suing won’t get me anywhere and will ultimately cause the NHS to have even less money to put where it needs to go)