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

And I was always taught, as a nurse, not to be judgemental or sarcastic, how times must have changed.

There is no minor injuries or walk in doctors where I live. Everything we have to go to A&E for. I dropped a metal framed heavy divan bed on my toe it ripped my big toe nail off and was sticking up. I rang the doctors they told me to go to A&E. Had to have it removed ended having gas and air the numbing injection they gave me numbed my toe but not the area where my nail was. I went at teatime and was seen pretty quickly.

I have waited with ds until early hours when he’s been injured that I can’t patch up at home. I have every dressing you can think of but sometimes I can’t patch him up myself. What’s frustrating is seeing people come in drunk and go ahead of a severely disabled young adult. Lack of sleep has a knock on affect on his epilepsy.

people going to ane so they can check in on sm

I can understand the NHS staff asking, it might be they have appointments booked with patients that have to be cancelled at the last minute.

I was sent to A and E by 111 last week, they sent me to 'urgent care' which is what the 111 person said might happen.

We’re in Wales and thankfully the children’s department is separate so they are generally dealt with fairly quickly.
However we have no minor injuries dept (in a city) so everything goes through A&E.
111 are pretty good at triaging to the right service but not everyone calls them before they actually attend A&E.

I don’t blame people for taking their children though, anxiety or not, when my DS was little he bumped his head, small mark, nothing major and dealt with at home, a few days later I’d taken him to A&E as he’d fallen on his arm and wasn’t using it as he usually would, thankfully all fine but I was questioned by 2 different Drs and a nurse about the bruise on his head! I understand they have to be thorough but it made me really paranoid that I needed to report all marks/bumps etc incase they thought I was harming him!

My child always seems to get ill on a Friday night, before our GP shuts for the weekend. A few times we've had to call 111 who book an out of hours GP appointment at the local hospital. Every time we've been right to do this as he's needed antibiotics or something.

I hope your mum is OK op. I will say that sometimes I think people try the GP first or try to chase up things like physio rehabilitation and if they can't get seen they might think right then, I'm going to a&e to force someone to see me. Which isn't right but if other services were more available it wouldn't happen.

I know someone who took their child to a&e because they had nits. There are so many time wasters.

When I went into a & e last year (ended up having an operation) they didn't let me sit and wait to be triaged with the others. I was sent with a handful of people to another department. We were all either lying down or hunched up on chairs/floor. It was obvious we all needed medical attention. While we were waiting before being seen by the doctor, we were all given paracetamol in the waiting room! I think they know who needs urgent attention and divert them else where.

🙄

Why not see a Podiatrist? (GP can refer you or in some areas self-refer)

A few years ago I would have agreed with you OP but not this time. Unfortunately sometimes is very hard to get an appointment, or even to be seen by the doctor as they are conducting many checks up on the phone, so the only option to be seen is to go to A&E. I think nobody likes to spend 5 hours or more in the hospital. Of course some people abuse the system but we can’t just judge the situation by a few comments you overheard. As some PP mentioned already, what seems minor to you can be a huge deal to someone and potentially dangerous. You say your mother has pain in her chest (maybe she has a cold? I could assume, just to give you as example). I hope your mom gets better soon and is nothing serious.

A few years ago I would have agreed with you OP but not this time. Unfortunately sometimes is very hard to get an appointment, or even to be seen by the doctor as they are conducting many checks up on the phone, so the only option to be seen is to go to A&E. I think nobody likes to spend 5 hours or more in the hospital. Of course some people abuse the system but we can’t just judge the situation by a few comments you overheard. As some PP mentioned already, what seems minor to you can be a huge deal to someone and potentially dangerous. You say your mother has pain in her chest (maybe she has a cold? I could assume, just to give you as example). I hope your mom gets better soon and is nothing serious.

I took my DS to A&E on Sunday afternoon. He is 14 and got literally stamped on during his football match and couldn’t weight bear on his foot which was incredibly swollen. First time I’ve taken him to A&E since he was a tiny baby. We were basically made to feel like we were wasting their time despite his team physio telling me we needed to go. Refused to x-ray it and basically just said get on with it. We are now 3 days in and he still can’t stand on it.

I genuinely felt like we needed be there, we have no separate minor injuries dept, it’s all done through A&E but because he is a child he couldn’t access it.

While we were waiting, the lady checking in before us had a staple in her finger, it was sticking out and she could have just pulled it (I work in a school and have done it multiple times) but no she wanted someone to do it for her.

I used to get sty’s a lot. One I had OTC treatment caused my eye to swell had an allergic reaction. It was dripping puss and I couldn’t see out of it.Thankfully managed to get a GP appointment the same day. I don’t think I would have been going to A&E over it.

Loneliness id imagine too.

I think it’s worth considering how the art of (largely female) home medical care was systematically undermined and discredited first by (mostly male) physicians and then by pharmaceutical companies. The transfer of information about remedies and cures was disrupted and lost, so that other people could make money.

Today the health services are desperately underfunded, while corruption is rife. I don’t know anyone with more than two degrees of separation from someone who died of a missed cancer. Whatever about the US where many ordinary people actively and openly support the concept of restricting access to healthcare, in the UK free healthcare is one of the perceived benefits of paying taxes.

Maybe some complaints shouldn’t end up in a&e, but they should be picked up somewhere. No one in a 21st industrialised, democratic country should expect to live with pain that is treatable. The problem isn’t with fellow patients. But as long as people are intent on picking off their neighbours, the fat cats get fatter.

My mum went to A&E a few months ago, looking at her you'd think she was fine. She'd just had tests at the GP that said her potassium levels were at dangerous levels, they called the ambulance. Any lower and she could have died.

She looked fit and healthy to me.

Never judge a book by its cover or ill people by how they look. The headache could have been serious.

Yes, probably this as well. A great many very vulnerable people have no-one to talk through their health worries with and they will sit alone and catastrophise. They want reassurance and some very old fashioned human contact, not apps and computer generated chat bots. They also have all day to kill and sitting in a busy A&E waiting room is probably the nearest thing to company and excitement that they are going to get in an otherwise dull and isolated life. Sounds mad to the rest of us who have busy lives and different priorities, for whom it would be hell on earth and not something we'd contemplate lightly, but there you are.

I took MIL two years ago, and it was the same then but with an 8 hour wait to be seen. The guy next to me had hurt his foot by tripping over his flip flop, it was a bit red between his toes and I just couldn't believe he would waste 8 hours of his life for that.
A girl wearing a PE kit who looked about 12 came in with her dad, she was clearly in agony and it looked as though she had a broken arm. We were called in about an hour later, so I'm not sure if she was prioritised, but I'd hope so. There were so many people just chatting/walking about as if there was nothing wrong with them. There was a sign outside that said 'A and E - Accident and Emergency, not Anything and Everything', which obviously made no difference.

I went to work with a sprained wrist for 3 days. It was actually broken, and I got a bollocking from the doctor when I finally went to A&E.

And when I dislocated a kneecap and went to the pub instead of going straight to A&E, when I went the next morning the A&E doctor was horrified I hadn't gone straight to A&E in an ambulance. (In my defence, it happened 50-odd miles from where I was living and I didn't want to be admitted to hospital so far from home.)

It's sometimes hard to know what needs looking at urgently and what doesn't.

So you slowed everything down more by arguing about the priorities?

At our A&E triage was pretty fast (15 mins) and then you were assigned to a fast track or standard track depending how serious your problem is considered to be and given an estimate of wait time. If it's trivial wait time could be long! But there is definitely priority given to more serious problems/injuries. If there is paediatrician on duty there are separate queues for children. All seemed pretty sensible although very busy.

Or the time I went in for a sore thumb, which turned out to be an infection that had gone to the bone and required a partial amputation.

We just moved to an area which does triage as soon as you have booked in. You have to go to a desk by the reception bit and you explain your symptoms and the nurse puts you in the “queue” for the urgent care team. (pretty much seen immediately or within a few minutes) If you obviously need something for a diagnosis an X-ray, blood test etc you are sent to that department straight away

Non emergency will wait. But even then I dont think I have spent more than 2 hours in there.

It’s eye opening how with a bit of thought and logic things can be run properly.

Last time I was there- maybe 10 years ago- we sat opposite a person who was telling someone she knew a long, complicated tale of how she was there as she’d hit ‘some skank’ in the supermarket as they had slept with her boyfriend and she was so angry she had forgotten she’d broken her arm and she was back at A&E to have it reset! All of this with copious fucks and cunts despite it being Sunday afternoon and lots of children there.

I agree..it might be an emergency..we are not doctors. Talking of pain..the first time I had gout the pain was so bad I was up all night and straight to a walk in clinic. Now I know what the pain is I can self treat.