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?

Educated...I ,I've in s Outland,maybe different here,
Op...if you aren't medical,how come you have seen dressings? What access do you have?

I'm actually surprised at how many people say YABU to be honest. You did your best to locate appropriate treatment. Advice you should have been able to rely on was crap and you found yourself needing treatment in an emergency. I think it's rubbish they weren't willing to change it tbh in those specific circumstances. I was in A&E recently with my DH and a suspected broken ankle. The porters were in a side room/ staff room area eating pizza which had just been delivered. A Dr came out and asked for a sample to be rushed to a lab, he explained it couldn't sit or wait and had to be taken immediately. The porters assured him it would be. They then chucked it on a table after the Dr went back into the treatment rooms, loudly laughing at the DR and saying that it would have to wait til the pizza was finished. 20 mins later it was still sitting. I pointed this out to a triage nurse who just shrugged her shoulders. There were a lot of jobs worths in A&E that night.

You aren't charged for treatment as a temp resident and A&E and walk in centre treatment is free for everyone.

Treatment in A&E is free for everyone in Scotland too.

OP didn't register as a temp resident at a GP either way so would make no difference.

This thread is hilarious. I gave up half way down page 5 when people were still not getting the original facts straight despite them being explained several times.

How did the OP cost the NHS £250? The nurses and other staff would have been at work being paid regardless of whether they did or did not change the dressing. She actually cost them the price of the dressing and the phone call they made.

The GP wasn't right to give you out of date information, but you are bu to moan in your 2nd para where you commented the GP "flatly refused to help or see" yourself on the Saturday. GP surgeries aren't open as a matter of course on a Saturday these days. If you expected the GP to see you, I'm really rather surprised!

I really think that some people on mn read the thread title, do eeny meeny to choose an answer and stick to it no matter what.

Yadnbu op you did everything you could to make sure you would have provision to get your dressing changed.

Yes AIBU seems to have become "Slate me regardless of the facts"

I thought they might refer me to district nurses or OOH, Weegie. Got stonewalled though. Thanks to those who've seen my POV. TBH I was wondering whether I WBU to complain, rather than to seek treatment for A&E in the first place - it never occurred to me that THAT was the part that could have been unreasonable! (In my particular circs, going straight to A&E would have been)

Amber my daughter has been seen for dressing wounds (where an actual HCP was required as opposed to me doing it) by both district nursing teams and same depts in different hospitals. In about 5 different areas of the UK all times it was arranged in advance due to holidays.

But A&E don't refer to OOH or district nurses - why would you expect them to?

A&E are there for accidents and emergencies - nothing else.

I know you did your best OP but there's no point fuming at A&E about this. Fume at the GP who gave you out of date information by all means - but you could have saved yourself a lot of hassle if you'd just checked it yourself on the internet.

olaga, but you can't make arrangements in regard to walk in centres, you can only find out where to go, short of getting an appointment [which isn't possible at a walk in] nothing is set in stone, so an individual can't really ensure anything that relies on others.

When I took DD to our local walk-in centre I found it on the internet, rang ahead just to make sure it was appropriate to go there and got information about their busy times to avoid.

Not exactly difficult!

Sock, yes but your daughters circs were very different to the OPs, someone in the OPs position would be highly unlikely to get the same treatment.

I know things like that can be possible, I know dialysis patients can get 2 dialysis appointments in another area to accomodate holidays.

Everybody's circumstances are different but it does show its possible.

How did the OP cost the NHS £250? The nurses and other staff would have been at work being paid regardless of whether they did or did not change the dressing. She actually cost them the price of the dressing and the phone call they made.

I think GPs get charged if their patients visit A&E but I thought that was during GP opening hours? Although OP wasn't registered with a GP, so I'm not sure if anyone would be charged at all.

A&E do indeed send patients to OOH where appropriate - I don't know where someone has got the idea that they don't.

It is not the OP's fault that she was given the wrong information. It is not the OP's fault that OOH care can be politely described as patchy at best. The NHS has started to notice this but it is very far from sorting it out.

YANBU.

'I know dialysis patients can get 2 dialysis appointments in another area to accomodate holidays.'

Only if there is NHS capacity. You can have more then two actually - I regularly deal with bookings for a week or a fortnight - but it's dependent on NHS space or your Trust being prpeared to pay private unit fees. This means that for popular areas you need to book months in advance and some areas are very had to get. Dialysis in North Devon or the West Coast of Scotland is not easy to find. You also run the risk of your dialysis being cancelled at the last minute due to NHS capacity issues.

A&E do indeed send patients to OOH where appropriate - I don't know where someone has got the idea that they don't.

They will tell you to go to the OOH service provided by your GP. It won't happen if you're not in your local area.

If you really are a frontline HCP you should bloody well know better, and yes, of course YABU! I wouldn't change a dressing that required packing, simply because I'm not trained to do it and I'd be worried about getting it wrong and making it worse. All the hissy fit foot stamping in the world wouldn't have made a difference. You shouldn't have travelled.

YANBU. The GP was for not allowing you to have it done at their clinic. Why can't a different GP clinic pick up the slack?

Why can't a different GP clinic pick up the slack?

They're not employed by the NHS. GPs are self-employed. They're not going to provide a service they don't get paid for.

Crashdoll, even if a GP gets charged if a patient attends A&E, that is not a cost, it is funds being moved from one part of the NHS to another.

Olgaga, surely if GPs did this it would be swings and roundabouts? less work if your patient went elsewhere and to compensate you treat someone elses?

A&E have definitely sent us on to an OOH that wasn't ours before. (Birmingham/Solihull so different trusts but geographically close obviously)

I assume they charge your GP after the fact as per usual.