How does urgent care within a and e work please can I just turn up ? Please help if know I'm due to to away tomorow 111 has given me a hospital 33 mikes away

[Whatswrongwithmeq]

111 has sent me to hospital miles away .
Can I go to my own urgent care center ?
How does it work ? It's for gastix issues not broken bone

Do I need to be booked in or will a and w triage me and book me in .

Depends what your problem is? Your urgent care centre might not be equipped to deal with it.

Or are you saying you have a hosp with an ED closer to you than the one 111 have suggested?

Have 111 made you and out of hours GP appointment? Or is it that you need something specific? There'll be a reason they've sent you further away if there was something closer that would work.

Is there someone who could take you to the hospital?

How far is your nearest hospital? What is gastrix? Gastro? Urgent care is a&e.

Some A+E departments assess you when you arrive and decide whether you go the the actual A+E or to the Urgent Care. Sometimes they are literally next door to each other.
However not all hospitals have that and an Urgent Care Centre could be in a completely different place.
Have you Google your nearest hospital (that you can get too) to check what their facilities are?

@Whatswrongwithmeq why didn't you tell 111 you can't get to that hospital?
Ring them back.

They'll have sent you to a hospital 33 miles away as not all A&E departments have Urgent Care.

Based on recent experience of A&E and Urgent Care -
111 said DM had an appointment at A&E re poss broken arm: this wasn’t true. There were no records, no system links, we basically arrived just like everyone else - and waited many hours for treatment (1 hour for triage).

UC - DF was sent by GP for lung problem; they were expecting him & triage less than 30 mins. Excellent cubicle care as concern for health which was resolved.

So don’t believe if 111 say you have an A&E appointment, you may not.

Do check queue lengths on line before you go to A&E. Avoid obvious peak times if you can, like Saturday nights!

If possible, use GP (own or OOH) with UC follow up if needed.

And in an ideal world, search on line & treat at home - use AI, use a pharmacist, use anything you can get to keep you away from A&E unless it really is an A or an E!

Good luck & have a great holiday.

Every hospital will have a slightly different system. What one poster says on here will be true for their experience, this may be completely different to the hospital in the next town

Maybe you have been directed to the nearest hospital with best resources for your condition. A and E is for acute care and may not have facilities or specialist for a chronic gastriic condition and any investigations at weekends. They may refer you on.

I've had to come I've driven all this way and I'm there now

All the best OP.
Keep us posted if it helps you.

@CleanSkin I've also had that before turn op and no one knows about it. Thankfully today they did but I'm always anxious when they try and find you.

Hope it goes well for you @Whatswrongwithmeq

i wouldn’t class 33 miles as particularly far… my nearest A&E is 25miles away

My usual one is about 20

And even though this was far it was a more straight forward drive