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

Everyone who goes to A&E should have to pay if it turns out not to have been necessary. The number of people who take their kids because they've got a runny nose is unreal and yes, I am being serious (family member works as an A&E nurse

And people would inevitably end up seriously ill or worse because they didn’t want to risk having to pay. Free at the point of delivery should mean exactly that.

If you hate them so much why do you even want to read them?

And people would inevitably end up seriously ill or worse because they didn’t want to risk having to pay. Free at the point of delivery should mean exactly that.

We pay for A&E in Ireland (as we do for GP visits) and there is no evidence that this leads to increased morbidity or mortality. There is good evidence that long waits in A&E do.

Reading this thread when I have a headache is making me want to go to A&E, in case its one of any number of serious things!!

I did go with a headache once though, and was admitted for the night for IV fluids.

@Stressedout150 kid you not, back in the day when I worked night shift, a/e, ambulance call delivered an old woman! she called them because SHE COULD NOT GET TO SLEEP!!! 1am! we had to find a bed for her because we didnt send elderly people home at that time of the early hours. people are probably still calling for mundane things like this!

Not really. I’m sorry for your own personal example but the other reasons you give are very much the minority. The ‘match day’ phenomenon is a well-known reality nationwide. Having worked in ED for many years I have seen so many people who visit inappropriately.

Weve been sent to a and e when no drs appointments.
Our local walk in centre is basically like a queue for an aid truck in a war torn land. There is a queue out the door and doen th3 road, people in the floor, bleeding with homemade bandages, i have been there before and been told to go to a and e. After wsiting there for 3 hours then moved on.
I couldnt get a drs appointment for my son who had a chest infection but was getting worse by the minute, I called the drs, no appointments, walk in, was told 6 hour wait and to go to a and e, wentto a and e, was told 8 hour wait and in the ned I took him to my drs surgery without an appointment and told them I wasnt leaving until we saw a dr and we would sit there until it closed. And they finally found me a dr to see who managed to prescribe antibiotics.
Its a bloody shambles. My husband got taken to a and e in an abulance with an actual heart attack and had to sit in a chair for 6 hours to be seen, next to a woman with a bleeding head injury that had been there for 4 hours.

It is accident and emergency. Some people will go due an accident. We have only got and e here, no minor injuries clinic.

So worrying. Lots of people shouldn't be at A&E but as I have found out today myself getting a GP appointment is practically impossible. So where do people go to get a doctor?

Before the NHS you paid to see a doctor and paid for his treatment. If you couldn't afford to get the doctor in then you stayed sick until you recovered or died. When they first brought in the NHS there was a slow uptake of services as people couldn't believe it was all free to them and so were reluctant to use it. I watched a very interesting documentary about life before the NHS and during it being set up. It was fascinating.

Anyway worry not folks, it seems we are heading for an IMF bailout and so they (the IMF) will be running the show soon. Britain is officially bankrupt (well not officially........because you know ssssshhhhhh but yeah we are bankrupt). Doubt there will be much of any services soon nor any benefits.

Some go to an and e when they shouldn’t. Some don’t go to a and e when they should (have to weigh up the risk of catching something, might not be able to afford to get there or be able to get there, might think they are wasting resources, might not feel well enough to tolerate the wait and hope to feel better by next day, might have been dismissed before when shouldn’t have been, might have little faith that will be taken seriously or will be able to be helped, might put symptoms down to a prior misdiagnosis or another condition, might fear being harmed due to HCW lack of understanding of prior condition, might not be able to manage dependents in a and e and have no one to leave them with).

Getting a GP appointment here is very hard but if you’re lucky enough to be able to get a face to face appointment, you get there and the waiting rooms are completely empty!

Our waiting room was mostly empty for long periods yesterday, because we have no GP’s. They are leaving and retiring and we struggle to replace. We had two ANP’s on duty, one doing telephone triage all day. She was rammed. Two practice nurses, both ‘fully booked’ but several patients did not attend.
Fifteen months and I am out too.

Yes, I've found this too. And only since Covid. (It's almost like they thought the lockdown was great, and have decided that life is much easier without patients!)
It is nigh on impossible to get an actual appointment - they won't give them over the phone anymore, and as I said upthread, you have to fill out an endless online form and wait for them to contact you. There is a lot of fobbing off - more than once I've put in the symptoms for something a GP has dealt with in the past, only to get a message "go to A&E". Hard to criticise the patients turning to A&E for non-life-threatening things, when it's the GP that sent you there.

The nearest A&E to me (40 mins away) has two sections. There's the blue light ambulance part with seriously ill or hurt people who are seen immediately. Then there's the walk in bit. This doesn't have an official name, but you go in, are questioned about what's wrong, and wait to be triaged. Once that's done the long wait begins.

This bit probably shouldn't strictly be referred to as A&E because it seems to be where anyone (timewasters aside) who should be going to all the places already mentioned congregate - local doctor, a minor injuries unit, urgent treatment centre, out of hours service.

However, since these aren't readily available, people end up at A&E. It's not really their fault that there are little to no alternatives.

Some people died because they could only get phone appointments with GP. Everybody tried not to go to A&E because of saving the NHS.
Some of the saddest stories were posted here on MN.

Hard to criticise the patients turning to A&E for non-life-threatening things, when it's the GP that sent you there.

I was sent to A&E for a wrist xray by my doctor. I was told if I did that I'd get the results immediately instead of having to wait two weeks if the doctor referred me and the results were sent to the surgery.

I think the lack of confidence in self-care/self-treatment is a huge factor in this, and one that gets overlooked. When we were first married, DH was ready for A&E at the slightest sign of anything, until I showed him that a lot of things can be treated at home or by going to the pharmacy. His sister is still an A&E frequent flyer, with all sorts of fairly run of the mill things, but she just has no idea what to do to help herself.

My mum was a GP receptionist and used to get people demanding emergency appointments for things like a baby with nappy rash, a sore throat, chicken pox etc (no underlying conditions or particular cause for alarm, just people who didn’t know what else to do, or didn’t want to wait for the medicine they’d been given to take effect - they wanted the doctor to give them something stronger).

Obviously there are also those for whom what appears to be a minor symptom is actually quite serious because of an underlying condition or whatever. And I’m convinced some people just love the drama of checking in at A&E.

I was sent home from a crowded A&E with the worst headache of my life which they thought was a hemiplegic migraine and was told to return the next day to ambulatory care. They discovered it was infact a subarachnoid hemorrhage (aneurysm) which had burst and was rushed into surgery. I don't just blame the NHS staff but me puking my guts up, riving about in pain, crying about the pain, being unable to speak properly, was dismissed intially because they were busy. The care I eventually received was spot on. My recovery was amazing. Post care has been top tier.

@IfThenElse I saw this when I was a child in the '60s and when I was a teacher - '80s until last year.

Some of my friends' mothers didn't know basic first aid - Mum would finish up dressing my friends' skinned knees.

As a teacher, I'd get secondary pupils coming in on a Monday: "My mum says the school nurse has to fix my knee..." It would turn out that the injury had happened on the Saturday.

I had to point out that we didn't have a school nurse, but would issue instructions on how to deal with it and give them antiseptic wipes and dressings.

I always treat myself first before resorting to a doctor, unless it absolutely obvious that it needs professional advice , but A and E is not usually my first port of call!
A few months ago I went for a check on diabetes /high blood pressure/ medication review and the nurse was so worried about my high blood pressure she checked with a GP who felt I should go straight to A&E with a letter as I was in “ imminent danger of having a stroke” , in their opinion. I got my husband to drive me to our nearest one , 18 miles away. We got there at 18:45 and although I was triaged after an hour , I wasn’t seen by a doctor till 02:30 and sent home with a higher dose of medication!…( my gp’s thought I would be admitted) I got home at 4am.
Now,I didn’t feel like I needed to be at hospital, but I had the fear of God put into me that I needed to be seen urgently! My husband ,bless him, remained with me
throughout. The department was rammed full when I arrived, but gradually dwindled ( some people were persuaded to see the GP that was in the department,and some were treated as “minor injuries”) but there was also a backlog of ambulances with patients on trollies in the corridor.
I really felt I had wasted not only my own time, but the hospital’s. So who was to blame for that?

I have a cousin who is a pharmacist. She has just taken early retirement because she was already overworked doing her pharmacy role. All the extra training and workload being pushed on pharmacists is unfair if no extra staff and funding is allocated.

OP I feel your pain!

Took DD for a broken elbow earlier this year and in childrens A&E there were mothers who came in with friends and their kids and they all brought picnics! The ‘dreadfully poorly’ kids were all running around playing. If they are well enough to play, they are probably well enough to wait for a GP appointment or visit a chemist

On a further note - the lady being checked in for a headache definitely could be something. I had sepsis a few years ago and my main symptom was a headache that felt like my head was going to explode

Or conversely, resources would be freed up by the lack of timewasters. I’m not aware of any studies that show the outcome of such charges, but given many EU healthcare systems have such charges, it’s not all bad.

Instead of tinkering at the edges, we need more GPs, including trainees and registrars. More competent triage staff in A&E and in General Practice, access to nurse led walk in centres in places that are accessible by public transport. It was a nurse practitioner in a walk in centre that saved the life of a close friend. Had he waited and tried to get a GP appointment I have no doubt he would have died.
People should do first aid training - even just a one day "save a life" course would be worthwhile. (My child is dead because his friend did not know to put him in the recovery position). I say this on every thread asking what kids need before going to university. I get some mocking and sarcastic responses, which is hurtful, but some people do take it on board.
I would like to see the students' union sponsor a basic first aid day for new arrivals covering information about how and where to get appropriate help, when to put someone in the recovery position if they have too much to drink, get spiked or whatever. Even one life saved is worth it.

I've seen both in A&E. Grandad had a bad fall and waiting over 12 hours, then on a bed in a corridor. My DH had atrial fibrillation, they did an ECG in triage within 20 minutes of arriving and 10 minutes later was on a cardiac ward.

Issue is you don't know from description if its serious. They may say hurt toe on the desk, then they look at it and its falling off due to uncontrolled diabetes and they just didn't want to make a fuss. They may also literally have stubbed it without a mark. But they don't know until they look. A headache can be from all sorts, including serious conditions that need do be in A&E like aneurysm, haemorrhage, heart issues.

Many issues should have been GP sorted before got to the point where they're in A&E but its been 6 weeks and no appointments and its gotten worse and worse.

Whole system is no longer working.

Edit to add I know someone who fell and fractured their spine in 2 places. Their partner was out at a concert and didn't want to ruin it so waited until she got back from concert to go to A&E. People def do not seek attention in games etc but not always because they don't need it.