to not understand why arriving at A+E in an ambulance gives you priority regardless to your injury?

[elfsmamma]

We had the pleasure of spending this afternoon in A+E, dp had dislocated his shoulder.

Dp was in lots of pain, he couldn't walk, his arm was hanging down and he was crying, shaking and almost loosing consciousness.

We had to wait for ages, first for an x-ray and then for a Dr to give pain relief and eventually attempt to put the shoulder back in.

People kept saying to me "oh you should have called an ambulance, you would have been seen right away" "poor guy go and tell them he needs to be seen now"

When we eventually went in the lady in the next cubicle had bruised her foot, she had come in by ambulance so been taken directly in. She was happy as could be, chatting to us asking dp ( who couldn't speak easily) what was wrong with him.

Aibu to think that all patients should be judged on pain and severity of injury rather than method of arrival to casualty.

Arriving by ambulance does not mean u or your child will be seen immediately. In an ideal World yes they would, but sadly it is not an ideal World. For example, once we were at A&E for hours when my son, who was about 5 at the time, had split his head open and we were waiting hours. I was doing a fair bit of moaning to myself about the wait until I found out a young lass has just died from a severe asthma attack, it put things into perspective for me.

Obviously it's horrible when u have to go to hospital with your child, but unfortunately they have to deal with patients in order of emergency. Sad but true.

The bloody shift work!

I've never opted out of the WTD, so I shouldn't be working no more than 48hrs per week.

Our working week is Sunday - Saturday.

So many times I've done 12.5 hr shifts (rarely get a break) Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday & Tuesday.
75 fucking hours. Not including the commute. Yes I get my days off towards the end of the week but I'm half dead by then.

Their reasoning is that its over a two week period.

It's had such an impact on my family life and my own health. I'm only 33 and my back is going and my shoulder is on its way out too.

Some days I'm so tired I want to curl up into a ball and sleep.

I am lucky I have a shift. That means i have a set of regular hours that I follow. It took me 7 years in post to get this. Before I had a shift I was on reserve. Reserve means that you go where you are sent and work the hours you are told. Staff on reserve can work up to 70 or 80 miles away from home, start at 0630 finish at 1830, if they dont get a late job. A job at 18.25 means they can finish at 20.30 or thereabouts. They may then be on at 0630 the next morning, they can do this for up to seven days in a row vbefore a day off. They can finish a night shift 1900-0700 at 0900 or so on monday then have to be in 24 hours later after one day off and a totally buggered sleep pattern at 0700 tuesday. They then have a 12 hour shft responding to emergencies on blue lights, oh and they have to work 3 out of 4 weekends, usually on nights.
I feel your pain hotdog, what was it Hunt said about the NHS, cruelty is the norm, twat.

As a rule of thumb, it is not those that are shouting and screaming about the pain you have to worry about. They have a lot of energy and focus to spare if they can scream. It is the quite curled up ones who are turning grey that we go to first. The exception to this being the old dears. If an old person is complaning it is usually serious and they usually apologise. If a 25 yo is moaning, whinging and bitching we usually ignore it.

OP, please be eternally grateful any and every time your loved one is not the priority at a+e.

Having staff recognise your child and remember their name; being told to ignore protocol and just carry them straight into intensive care/high dependency when needed rather than stopping to sign in at reception; being given the 'card' to carry just incase you are out of area and need a+e are all pretty horrendous things to experience.

I would love my child not to be seen as a priority.

48 hrs average per week over 26 weeks can work more by choice