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.

111 in our healthboard 9/10 it’s because there’s no cover for out of hours service so they redirect all to a&e

My son was the child who was still playing and larking about and chatting. Partly I suspect the salbutamol made him hyper. He was admitted (as I had been warned he would be ) and a day later was rushed to ICU and was there for a week.

It's so easy to judge. It takes a lot more intelligence and wisdom to accept you dont have the full picture

Also some people just don't get all dramatic when they are ill or in pain. My son and I both tend to just retreat into ourselves if we are in pain so we are just quiet and often get underestimated. I am fairly sure DH (and the whole waiting room) doubted I had anything wrong with me until the moment he was there when I had my x ray and he saw i had a fully broken and displaced bone. I had sat quietly reading the whole time we were waiting. I was in pain it's just not my style to make a big fuss

I had a similar experience. I took my then 4 yo to the GP for neck pain (his nursery suggested he go as they were also concerned) and for that and a few other reasons the GP was concerned he might have cancer, but she said rather than refer him I should take him to A&E in the next day or two as tests would be conducted much quicker (she said day or two because I was at the time juggling his much younger sibling, of course as soon as I heard the word ‘cancer’ we were straight off to A&E!). Thankfully it wasn’t cancer, but to anyone in A&E I probably looked like an over over anxious time waster (and I very self consciously kept explaining the GP had told me to come and presenting the letter they’d given me!).

Running around A&E while having an asthma attack probably wasn’t the best idea. And you’re questioning my intelligence?
Strange that you’re assuming I don’t know the reason the child was in A&E considering I was there and you weren’t.

Because
1.the general public have little understanding of self care
2 its free
3 the system is broken

I didn't say he was running about. But he was definitely playful and chatty and "didn't look ill" while we were in the waiting room. He wasn't having an asthma attack.

I don't understand people who are so nosy about what others are doing . I tend to focus on my own child in that setting not sit around judging others.

The first time I took then 2-year-old DC to out-of-hours appeared to be fine, cheerful, etc in the waiting room. It was really busy andbthere were definite judgey stares. Within minutes of the Dr taking oxygen sats we were off in an ambulance to a larger hospital, oxygen mask in place.

Obviously, some people are time wasters, or make poor judgements, or are over-anxious, etc, but it's very hard to know who is who!

Some things that seem innocuous can lead to more serious things. I took DS (rightly or wrongly) to A and E because he had D and V. Of course Ive experienced probably 20+ D and V bugs with my kids at home, kept them hydrated, not mixing with others, bland food etc and not needed to visit a gp or medical setting. This seemed different and more severe so I sought help.

If you look at the list of symptoms for eg meningitis, appendicitis on their own they can seem like flu or other viruses that wouldnt necessarily require medical attention.

Nosy and observant are two different things.
I can sit with my child on my lap and watch a child run up and down after their parents being repeatedly told A&E isn’t for running around without being nosy.
And yes, I absolutely judge parents who let their children run around A&E while they’re on their phones showing each other videos that they’re laughing at.
The irony of you judging people for judging people 😂

Yep.

They thought my son had gastroenteritis, then they thought it might be appendicitis and then they went back to gastroenteritis.

He had cancer. Many of the symptoms of cancer can present exactly like bog standard childhood bugs.

I wanted advice from 111 about my child, and they said I should take him in because it was a very high temperature. I argued that I just wanted to know how to cool him down because the HV said not to use a cool bath (no idea why). They said if I didn’t take him in they’d report it to social services since I’d be refusing him medical attention.

We sat in a&e for a whole day. He was fine. Bouncing off the walls within a couple of hours. But we weren’t allowed to go home before he’d been seen - again under threat of social services.

Does make you wonder if a more localised, child-focused service for out of hours was available it would trim the A&E wait.

I just wish they had a separate waiting room for the patients who likely have viral illnesses. Might save those of us with seriously ill children having to leave them in hospital without a parent in their hour of need because we have caught a stomach virus in the A&E waiting room.

We've got a fantastic walk in centre in the nearest town that is open till 10pm. All well and good, but the only pharmacy that is open past 6pm is right on the other side of town and closes at 8pm. So if you get a prescription after 8pm you can't actually do anything with it until the next morning. I suspect if they solved that, fewer people would go to A&E in the late evening.

My child once had a seizure as a toddler (turbed out to be reflex anoxic seizures, qjixh thankfully he grew out of) and was unresponsive. Was blue lighted to hospital. Perked up in the ambulance and by the time we had got to a&e was running around like nothing had happened. My other daughter fractured her wrist last year. Was triaged within minutes and given calpol, and within minutes she was playing with the toys and giggling that isnt any sort of gauge as to whether the child needs to be there.

In almost 16 years of parenting four children these are the only times ive been to a&e with children.

I have a friend with a child with an underlying serious condition. She has to take her child to get urgent medical attention at the first sign of pretty much anything being wrong so she would be the soet that woukd be there with a sore throat.

Right at the start of Covid, the local hospital decided in their wisdom, to put any children who attended A&E with temperatures, coughs or breathing difficulties in one large cubicle to wait for assessment. This meant my 7 month old, born prematurely twin, was sent to wait in this room with too few seats and not enough space for the 12 families in there.

When the Dr found us in there, he was so angry because my child was more at risk being in contact with possible covid than he would have been to others waiting in the other waiting area with those who had broken bones or other reasons for being in A&E. We were swiftly moved to the ward where he was diagnosed with bronchiolitis and an oxygen requirement. Swabs taken showed he did not have Covid, flu or RSV and should not have been put in with those other children.

That episode led to me keeping his twin home much longer than we should have done later that same week when he presented with similar symptoms - by the time an ambulance came, after a call to 111 as the only way to access any healthcare at weekends during covid, his oxygen levels were below 80% and he was so poorly he ended up in HDU for 2 full days before being moved back to the children’s ward for another 4 days while they weaned him off oxygen and get him feeding by mouth again. Again, no covid, RSV or flu on swabs so, had he been made to wait in that communal cubicle he could have ended up much worse had he caught covid!