Why do parents take children to A&E when it's not an accident or an emergency

[MigGirl]

So spent Tuesday evening/early morning Wed in A&E with DS as he was having an asthma attack which we couldn't control at home. I would have preferred an out of hours appointment but 111 sent us to A&E.

It's been a few years since we have had to do this, as his asthma has been very well controlled. I wasn't to happy with the number of children there who only had viral colds, at lest three went home with just eye drops for conjunctivitis. Yes we could hear everything that was going on, not ideal either.

We where there till 3am who takes their small child to A&E after 10pm at night when they just have a cold and sticky eye. Surely you wait until the morning and ring the GP, I know GP services can be stretched but ours will always see ill children the same day.

I'm annoyed now as DS has come down with a cold and we probably caught it there, he'll be lucky if we don't end up with another vist for his asthma as colds are often a trigger.

Is 111 sending to many people to A&E when they should really have an out of hours appointment? No wonder the waiting times are so long if they are having to deal with so many minor aliments.

Ugh, because the GP sends you there! The last two times my under 2 year old has had a cough and fever that hasn’t gone away (over a week) I’ve gone to GP and known I just needed antibiotics but because she’s young they force you to get checked at the children’s A&E. Waste of everyone’s time. Though I understand why they’re being careful. But yeah - I’m that parent with a toddler with a cough at A&E. I don’t want to be but had to jump through the hoops to get the same antibiotics the GP could have given me to start with. Last time I was there I saw so many kids with coughs.

Entitlement. Stupidity.

Because pharmacies are useless. ( I went to one this morning for advice) and people can’t get an appointment with their GP.

On the NHS website, there are several circumstances listed where conjunctivitis does need urgent care.....

@RudolphTheReindeer and yet some bosses are absolute arse holes and unreasonable and make people feel bad for asking some people are on zero hour contracts.

Mine are very good but that doesn't stop me from understanding that some are awful and it's not that easy for people

Our a and e is a fucker to get too as well many people can't drive and need buses ours is 40 mins away and a difficult drive

Luckily any time we have had to go DH has been at home but again i.can understand people waiting for a driver.

Whilst it is frustrating having to wait a long time in A&E you can’t possibly know where you DC caught a cold from. Similarly, if you ring 111 a lot of the time they send you to A&E with children if there’s no alternative service open

To be fair, this is what some kids do!

My daughter had this last year, at home very unwell all day, wouldn’t eat or take a sip of water, bad chesty cough & temp that wouldn’t go down with medication. Really we needed a GP appt, called 111 because we worried she had a chest infection and our GP couldn’t see her but told us to call 111 to try for an out of hours appointment, they sent us to A&E instead. She did have a chest infection which needed antibiotics but my very poorly child who had barely opened her eyes all day suddenly was dying to run and play when we arrived🙃

Can't get a GP appointment and walk in centres aren't available.

Because they closed the walk in centre, the pharmacy is in the hospital and they seem to say “a&e” for everything, 111 says a&e for everything and our GP don’t see anyone on the day - if it’s not super urgent then it’s 5-7 days and if it’s super urgent they send you to a&e

Were all the children you saw defo seeing someone in the a&e department? I know where we are a&e, urgent care and an OOH gp service can all be accessed at the local hospital. You go to a&e reception and get triaged first, then they siphon you off to whichever is appropriate.

Op if you had to wait a long time, there were that many children triaged ahead of you so they had no less reason to be there than you did.

It can be lots of reasons, sometimes 111 sends you there, sometimes you're concerned a cold has worsened and developed into RSV. As someone who has had children on oxygen for days with RSV multiple times, it's sometimes the best thing to do. Any often GP and out of hours appointments are basically impossible to access. Or GPs are incompetent and tell people to go to A&E needlessly or not to go to A&E when necessary. I wouldn't judge people, no one is there for fun.

I must admit the problem we have here is no walk in centre's. Its either an appointment at out of hours GP via 111 or A&E. Would probably be better if we had a walk in centre near by.

Our individualist culture..

I usually find 111 pretty sensible but once when my baby had a temp (wouldn’t come down) and a bad wheeze and we called in the middle of the night the call handler actually dispatched an ambulance to us! We tried to argue with this on the grounds that… in our inexpert opinion she was experiencing a bad virus and we just wanted to check with a professional. Honestly I got the vibe the handler thought I was neglectful and told us the ambulance was on the way. Thankfully someone from the ambulance service called back and did an incredibly sensible thing - switched to video call to give the little one a once over. Since she was smiley and playing in between wheezes and essentially “alright” they cancelled the ambulance, thank goodness, and said it could wait for GP next day. Honestly I know it’s not perfect but a video call saved a lot of trouble for everyone. Maybe your neighbours got a similarly over vigilant 111 person?

@Jellybunny56 absolutly

I remember leaving my very poorly DD who had been hospitalised for two days ,I hadn't slept so DH took over and when I got back two hours later I was gobsmaked she was running around the hospital play room ! I left her wan, pale and weak !
On other occasions like you DC been very unresponsive and suddenly a live wire.

We felt bad enough I can't imagine someone sat outside listening and then writing a post like.ghjs.

I hope any new ISH mum reading this never ever ever feels bad for taking a sick child to a and e

I’ve brought my toddlers to A&E several times when it wasn’t necessarily an accident or emergency, once was when she had a raging fever, lethargic, barely responsive and a concerning rash, all very much something a GP should look at but the GP repeatedly would book her an appointment and only did the morning of lottery. I wasn’t prepared to wait another 24hrs just to be told computer said no.

Another time child who has history of chest problems and had been hospitalised several times due to this was struggling with a suspected chest infection. Again I live in a terrible area for GPs, they literally tell you too bad if you want to be seen go to A&E.
Another time after being discharged from hospital at the GP check up the next day the GP misdiagnosed pneumonia and so sent us back to A&E.

You actually have no idea the full ins and outs of why children are there. It’s really not your place to judge.

You can’t really moan about it just being a viral cold when you don’t know, I’ve had to bring my child to A&E for viral infections before because they still often need oxygen treatment.

Your GP might “always” see children the same day but that’s not universal.

I think that's part of the process. I've had the same, ambulance called by 111, call from the ambulance service decided it wasn't necessary.

People are lazy and don't trust pharmacists to diagnose/treat.

Couple of other thoughts. Sometimes A&E does get it wrong and send people home saying not to worry when actually there’s something more serious going on. Also, lots of kids do have underlying conditions that tend to mean A&E as a precaution at times.

Any time I've phoned 111 I've been sent to a and e same with phoning for ooh gp appointment.

I find that is partly due to being cautious but also because they only have certain equipment where they work from so I think there's a worry they wouldn't be able to complete a full examination.

Then the other side to it is people not having the right information on what services are appropriate for which problems.

I will say I've been that parent in a and e with a baby for a bad cold before but I also found he'd 'look' better when out and distracted. It can be hard for parents to judge and obviously you don't want to take a risk and potentially miss something, especially for those of us who do not actually live near an a +e.

Op with the greatest of respect I hate posts like this. Two of my children have been hospitalised for five days to a week with things we weren’t sure about going to the hospital for. Nobody goes for fun. And one of my kids would have been like you said running about looking like nothing was wrong. In Ireland they have ads saying if you’re not sure and can’t get to a gp go to the hospital

We where actually triarged within 10 minutes, DS given more ventalin, then 30 minutes later given steroids which is what he needed. We had to wait hours after that for the results of an chest x-ray the doctor insisted on. Sent home with rest of steroids.
I can't complain about the treatment we where given, as DS was seen and treated before most of these other kids. But it was just the long wait after to be able to go home with the rest of his medication as he was then stable so we had to wait behind everyone else.
Which also exposed him to a longer time in a waiting room full of coughing kids, which as an asthmatic he could have done without.

Hopefully posts like this doesn’t put people off calling 111 for themselves or their children.

111 is also there for advice on the best route to take based on them triaging your symptoms. It’s not A&E and isn’t reserved for when you’re really really unwell.

@Morepositivemum I agree it's not good is it..

The laughable idea that parents are happy to drag sick DC to hospital at 3am!!
Usually after a day or days of extreme worry wondering what to do!

Most people already feel bad about going to a and e !

Thankfully ln the few occasions it's happened to us the staff couldnt have been kinder and said it's always best to check out DC
They also said them peeking up in a new environment with new faces is common