To complain about A&E not changing my dressing?

[HarderToKidnap]

I have an open wound on my abdomen that has a small pack in it. Last Friday my consultant told me I would need to see someone on the Saturday to have the pack removed and changed. I was due to drive 2 hours to stay with my MIL for the weekend, to catch up with the all the inlaws and attend several family events.

On Friday morning after seeing my consultant I called my MILs GP to try and arrange to have the pack changed the following day. GP flatly refused to help or see me the next day but did tell me I could go to a walk-in at the local hospital.

Friday pm I drive 2 hours to MILs. Sat am I get up and head to local hospital. I find the Walk In boarded up and looking deserted. There is no other option to see anyone other than A&E. Receptionist/Triage nurse said they couldn't take the pack out. Just that. They couldn't, and wouldn't do it. It wasn't their dressing to change. Oh, and the walk in had been closed for 3 years!

There followed quite a long Mexican stand off during which she repeatedly told me they wouldn't change the dressing, and where I asked for reassurance that I would not get an infection or the pack would not adhere to the inside of the wound if I didn't get it changed until the Monday. She told me she couldn't assure me of that but that they couldn't do it. She phoned an OOH who wouldn't do it either. In the end I told her I would go to the toilet, remove pack myself and if I experienced a lot of pain/bleeding I would come back and be seen as an Emergency. She then said they would do it "just this once" and let me go through to a deserted waiting room, I was called 2 minutes later and dressing changed by a lovely nurse, back in car 10 minutes later.

Now, I'm a frontline HCP and bolshy with it, so I got seen - but what if you were a vulnerable person who had the temerity to be far from home when you need your dressing changed? Who thought if the receptionist was telling you they wouldn't do it, that you would wait however many days until you were back home, potentially causing problems? There was no "we can't do it, but if you go here/do this they will see you" just a very very flat "no". I'd like to complain to PALS, not about my treatment but about the lack of healthcare options there and the fact I had to throw a hissy fit to get medical treatment I needed. Other people wouldn't have thrown the hissy fit and wouldn't have got seen. WIBU to do so?

[thistlelicker]

[HarderToKidnap]

Yes crashdoll, they did do me a huge favour I think, in retrospect. But the flat "no" does worry me. A less savvy person would have wandered off and possibly had huge problems as a result.

[MintyyAeroEgg]

I do wish people wouldn't reply so pompously when they haven't read the op's posts properly!

[olgaga]

It's people like you, OP, that mean people with genuine emergencies have to wait way too long in a&e.

You were absolutely nuts to make that journey with an open wound.

Next time be more sensible.

[HumphreyCobbler]

But WHY should she be ashamed of herself?

She needed healthcare through no fault of her own.

The responses on here are bonkers

OP - know your place. You must not travel with long term health problems. How dare you! How dare you believe the GP who told you there was a walk in centre when you went to arrange the necessary care to enable you to leave your house? You should stay and home for ever ffs.

[HarderToKidnap]

The position it's in, I can't see it. Also it's fucking painful!! Madame it was my MILS GP who told me about the walk in (ie, a GP in the area I was visiting). I have said that several times.

[ImTooHecsyForYourParty]

Madame - it wasn't her GP she spoke to. It was the GP of her mother in law. In the area she is visiting.

The GP in the town she is going to told her that she could use the walk in centre in that town.

That is very different from her own GP telling her. Her own GP did not. She called the local area and spoke to a doctor in that area.

Who surely to god should know what services are available in the area?

[olgaga]

less savvy person would have wandered off and possibly had huge problems as a result

Even a "less savvy person" would have been savvy enough to have looked after themselves a bit better than this.

[HumphreyCobbler]

Me too Mintyy.

My blood pressure will not stand it.

[McNewPants2013]

I am not a nurse or doctor, but I work in a hospital and I see many dressings.

Would there be more than 1 way to pack a wound which without notes and the patients record mean the nurses may not have known what type of packing dressing to use.

[HumphreyCobbler]

how olgaga?

By NOT asking the GP where she could go when she travelled?

[Wabbitty]

Hold on I don't get it. In your original post you said you had to have the pack changed cos the consultant said so, later you have said you have to have the pack changed daily...? Also who normally does it on a Sunday if it has to be done daily?

[IneedAsockamnesty]

Oh and loads of people with long term wound dressing needs where capable are able to obtain dressings and do it themselves should they need to go elsewhere

[BrianCoxandTheTempleofDOOM]

FFS!

OP, it is so glaringly obvious YANBU, let's look at the facts shall we (what with me reading. understanding and not being an arse due to this being AIBU)

Open wound for 6 months.

Daily dressing - essential to the healing process.

OP checked with MIL's GP who have her incorrect info leaving OP in a potentially difficult situation.

what's not to understand? How is OP being unreasonable?

So, anybody with an ongoing health condition would not leave their home for 6 months to visit family? balls to that.

Am very tetchy sat here with a packed, open, infected, wound, requiring daily dressings - without fail - and its only been 3 weeks. Frankly, OP, I'm behind you 100%.

[sarahtigh]

she rang a GP in the area she was visiting not her own GP it was her MIL's GP so it was reasonable to believe him as he worked in the area, it is also reasonable to believe that when told there is walk in centre/ out of hours service that there is

I think you should have accepted that A&E was wrong place ,surely there is an out of hours/ minor injuries unit it can't really be the case that absolutely every medical problem from 6pm friday to 9am monday goes to A&E

[EduCated]

Apologies, OP, I misread your post. However I would still be concerned at travelling such a long distance without checking for myself the availability of a walk-in centre at the other end, although the GP needs a bit of an earful for giving out wrong information.

[AmberLeaf]

Blimey @ people missing vital info in the OP!

the GP that told her about the walk in centre was local to the area she was visiting

YANBU

However, in your position [and daily dressing changes for months is a position Ive been in] I would have double checked by googling walk in centres for the area I was visiting, you can do this on the NHS website Im sure.

[lyndie]

Actually the GP should have seen her as a temporary resident, but it was perhaps a bit much to phone them on the day and expect to be seen? Even in A&E it's not that unusual a situation, though maybe the ward where the procedure was done or district nurses would have been more appropriate.

[HarderToKidnap]

Sorry, my wound hasn't always required daily dressings, there has been lots of management changes to it and this particular go round involved it being packed on Friday and Saturday, potentially Sunday depending on condition and then back to consultant Monday.

[MamaChocoholic]

I don't think ywbu to travel given the advice. I don't think ywbu to throw a strop to get the medical attention you needed. I think your first complaint though is with the local gp for poor advice and then with a & e for not helping you work out how you should get treatment when away from home.

To those who say the op shouldn't travel: seriously? Open wounds can be problems for many months. She should move only a few miles from home for all that time? Nhs is paid through national not local taxes, and treatment should be available nationally.

[EduCated]

Although I can well believe the lack of walk-in/decent OOH provision. It is only in the past couple of years that my parents city has got a walk-in centre. Before that anything that happened was either A&E or a massively over stretched OOH service where the appointments were like hens teeth made from gold dust.

[edam]

Blimey, there seems to be an outbreak of angry, misplaced self-righteousness on MN of late.

Of course OP is not BU, she did everything she could to check she would be able to get her dressing changed.

NHS Choices is all very well, btw, but information is often out of date (I was linked to a group that did some research on this). Fact is, out of hours care of all kinds is a bit of a mess and even local health professionals often don't know what is available or, worse, think they do and are wrong.

[AmberLeaf]

Would there be more than 1 way to pack a wound which without notes and the patients record mean the nurses may not have known what type of packing dressing to use

The patient would know what type of dressing to use, if being seen daily they would more than likely have a supply of such dressings for when they go to walk in centres, as they expect the cost of them to be covered by their GPs nurses budget.

When I was having to use the walk in centre at weekends, I was expected to bring dressings given to me by my GPs nurses on the friday, sterile dressing change pack too.

Also who normally does it on a Sunday if it has to be done daily?

I would assume that the OP like me when I was in that position, has to have it done at a walk in centre that is open 7 days a week.

[CloudsAndTrees]

You are already convinced YANBU, so why are you asking?

Complain about the GP giving you false information, but don't complain about an accident and emergency department giving you treatment when it wasn't an accident and it wasn't an emergency. You were lucky they agreed to do it at all, especially of you came across to them as rudely as you are coming across here.

[sarahtigh]

it may well have been reasonable for A&E to refuse to see her it was not reasonable for them not to point her in right direction, they should have said go to x clinic or call this number or drop in is 2-4pm in main street or whatever, would have saved their time too

no-one with chronic problem should expected to stay within 3 miles of home for months