Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To complain about A&E not changing my dressing?

270 replies

HarderToKidnap · 21/04/2013 15:15

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?

OP posts:
Original poster
HarderToKidnap · 21/04/2013 15:57

Yes, temporary resident was why I called GP in the first place, I could immediately tell I wasn't going to get anywhere with them though. I would have pursued that angle more if I hadn't been told about the walk in! And when I googled the walk in, the entry was there but the info was telling me about the structure of the NHS - I assumed a broken link but because the entry for the walk in existed I though the walk in itself did too!

OP posts:
ExitPursuedByABear · 21/04/2013 15:58

Well I don't think YABU. What Brian said.

I am a bit shocked at all these open wounds though

poorbuthappy · 21/04/2013 16:00

I am aghast at the amount of people who can not read on this thread. Wink

IneedAsockamnesty · 21/04/2013 16:00

Seeing a gp as a tempory resident is intended to be done if you fall ill whilst away from home.

I still think yabu and I say this as someone's whose child had to have massive dressing changes done sometimes daily for 8 years.

There are so many things you can do and rocking up to a&e is never going to be one of them.

MintyyAeroEgg · 21/04/2013 16:01

If the wound hadn't been dressed and had become infected then that could be an emergency?

Salmotrutta · 21/04/2013 16:01

I don't think you were unreasonable.

You had been told by a local doctor that there was a walk-in.

You naturally enough would believe a local doctor and assume that a local doctor would know the services in his/her local area.

You were left with no choice really, and, considering the sorts of things that some people pitch up to A&E with I don't think asking for a wound dressing to be changed is such a criminal act.

I also don't think you should have to put your life on hold because of wound dressings.

AmberLeaf · 21/04/2013 16:01

Exit re open wounds;

If there is a wound that has had infection in it, it is healed from the 'inside out' as if you were to close a wound with infection, it would soon be in a bad way.

It can take a long time though in some cases.

AmberLeaf · 21/04/2013 16:03

There are so many things you can do and rocking up to a&e is never going to be one of them

She didn't really do that though did she?

She went to where she had wrongly been informed a walk in centre would be.

IneedAsockamnesty · 21/04/2013 16:04

No what she did was go there due to error ( granted not hers) but them demand to be seen by them

FasterStronger · 21/04/2013 16:06

I am sure there was a walkin centre open within 2 hours from your location. after all you could drive for 2 hours for a family event etc.

you just type your postcode in, and out comes a list. easy.

www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSservices/Emergencyandurgentcareservices/pages/Walk-incentresSummary.aspx

MintyyAeroEgg · 21/04/2013 16:06

Sockreturningpixie - what should she have done?

AmberLeaf · 21/04/2013 16:07

If I had been in that position and knowing I needed the change done, I think I would have done the same.

Point is, the dressing needed changing and there wasn't any other option [assuming this wasn't a town with another walk in centre a few miles away?]

saintlyjimjams · 21/04/2013 16:08

Can't believe all the people saying YABU. Not the NHS at its best.

Original poster
HarderToKidnap · 21/04/2013 16:08

But what option did I have by that point sock? Also I didn't demand to be seen by them, truthfully I expected them to say "you need OOH, down the corridoor on the right" type of thing. Sorry, i respect the work of A&E greatly but wouldn't risk my own health to avoid causing a fuss and I don't the think the HCPs in A&E would want me to either, really.

OP posts:
Original poster
HarderToKidnap · 21/04/2013 16:10

That's a good idea Faster, I didn't do that actually. Although as that website told me about the walk-in I was supposedly in, possibly I wouldn't have trusted it anyway!

OP posts:
recall · 21/04/2013 16:12

YANBU

Very worrying that GP is not aware of walk in centre being closed.

If I had found myself in your situation, rather than being rude to the A&E staff, I would have phoned NHS Direct, and asked them for their advice.

AmberLeaf · 21/04/2013 16:12

FasterStronger

Ive just used that search tool and surprisingly it has given me incorrect information relating to walk in centres in my area.

I originally said OP should have googled first, but will concede even that doesn't guarantee anything!

IneedAsockamnesty · 21/04/2013 16:14

Any other walk in service.

Or any other gp

Or if it really was impossible to do any of those a private clinic or hospital.

Or just done it before she left.

TheHerringScreams · 21/04/2013 16:15

YANBU.

You asked the local GP and was given incorrect information which you followed- as most people would do.

You then ended up needing to have your dressing changed....with nowhere to go. You went to A&E as a last resort.

They were great to do it, when really they could have instead pointed you in the right direction to another clinic or something, but you did, ultimately, go as a last resort only. So YANBU.

Don't complain as the changing dressing was beyond what they would do but call the GP back to inform them that you were sent to the wrong place, so the GP knows the information is incorrect, but I don't think you need to do anything else.

onedev · 21/04/2013 16:16

I don't think YABU & would complain about the general attitude of 'sod off, we can't help!' as that's really worrying. How much more would you have cost the NHS if it had ended up infected & you had to be treated as an Emergency??

Good luck & hope it heals soon.

AmberLeaf · 21/04/2013 16:16

GP on a saturday? not all surgeries are open at the weekend, I know mine isn't.

Other walk in service? if there are any and where would she reliably find one?

Original poster
HarderToKidnap · 21/04/2013 16:17

Anyway, I won't complain, I think you've helped me to see that WBU! Might drop the GP a line though.

OP posts:
edam · 21/04/2013 16:19

Faster, that does indeed look like a good idea but when I worked with a team of researchers who looked at this, they discovered much of the information about walk-in centres is wrong, out of date, or the service provided varies hugely according to which day/time of day it is/which members of staff are on duty. So even if it says X is available, you may turn up and find there's no-one qualified and trained to do it/the equipment isn't available.

NHS OOHRs is a real mess and needs sorting out. That is not the fault of patients. Even simple things, like signposting - the researchers that I worked with had taken photos at each location to show how difficult it was to find out where the hell you are supposed to go and which service you are supposed to use.

Sallystyle · 21/04/2013 16:21

Awfully strange responses here. People bored and not reading her OP properly?

OP didn't set off to got to the A&E, she was told that she could go into a clinic where she was. The only thing she is 'guilty' of is not double checking before she left, which is hardly selfish or a crime of the century. She trusted the GP and by the time she found out there was no walk in clinic she had no other options.

Hardly selfish, entitled or any of the other names she has been told she is.

And really, she should be ashamed of herself? ashamed for given the wrong information and asking A&E to help her after there were no other options?

IneedAsockamnesty · 21/04/2013 16:21

We are only talking 2 hours away from where she normally is,its not rocket science just because one gp got it wrong does not mean every pharmacy or info service will.