to hate a and e?

[Fuckingforriner]

I'm waiting at the a and e in at the moment and I hate it.
I have a toddler who loves to scream all the time and I have everyone looking at me as if I can stop the toddler from screaming.

I've got an earache since Friday and when I tried to get to my GP today I was offered a telephone appointment. My phone rang three times and they hanged up as I was picking up the phone.

I'm in a lot of pain and when I get to the reception I found a rude woman who happen to be a nurse. I might be wrong but I noticed she was friendlier to other patients, maybe she didn't like my face, but I can't help thinking it's because I'm a fucking foreigner.

Actually I feel sorry for the OP. Bad ear ache is utterly miserable and if her own GPs are being difficult about advising her then for her own sanity she has to do something. Having a toddler that won't stop screaming in a crowded waiting room won't help either least of all her ear ache.

The attitude of her GPs underline why A&Es keep getting crowded with people who've not had accidents and are not emergencies.

All of that said though OP I would leave now, find yourself a friendly pharmacist and ask for the strongest pain killers they can provide without prescription. If you wait in A&E you'll be there for hours and keep getting pushed down the list by people who are triaged as having a higher priority than you (which will be most of them sorry). At the end of it all you'll be told to take pain killers!! Get home, take pain killers, put a hotwater bottle or warm flannel next to your ear, cuddle up with a blanket and feel sorry for yourself. Go and see your GP tomorrow.

I hope you feel better soon. YANBU A&E is horrible place to wait especially when you probably don't need to be there

Give the woman a break will you? She's probably not in the right place I agree but she's in agony with earache, sat in a&e with a fractious toddler. I'd give her a bloody medal for that, not a hard time. I think there is every chance she would far rather be elsewhere but has gone there in utter desperation. I went to a&e with a bloody tooth abcess a couple of years ago (after being bounced repeatedly between dentist who could prescribe strong antibiotics because I was pregnant and gp who wouldn't prescribe them because it was toothache I got very fucked off and went to a&e and begged) they were very very lovely, prescribed me the strong antibiotics I needed which sorted the infection and some decent painkillers so I could actually eat for the first time inside a week. No it was not the right place, but it got the job done and probably cost the nhs less than the repeated fruitless visits to my gp and dentist had.

Unless you suspect that you have an infection that's spread beyond the ear, I agree with the others that you probably shouldn't be at A&E at all. Could you not get an emergency appointment with a GP, not even by sitting and waiting for a missed appointment or one at the end of the day? I would check with the practice manager if the receptionist isn't helpful.

Oh, and to the op,no, yanbu, a&e with a toddler is ime an accurate representation of the 7th level of hell.
Go to the vending machine and buy some bribery chocolate for the toddler and give her your phone to play with while you wait.

If i turned up there with either of my DC and I knew you were there with earache Id be giving you fucking funny looks too.

Honestly - take some meds, get an appointment at GP's. if your could get yourself to A&E you can get yourself to the GP's in person, they might have fit you in.

And i w old judge you for siting fiddling on your phone whilest your toddler is screaming...what is wrong with them?

nobody is denying the OP being in agony, just saying this is an inappropriate use of a&e. Walk in centres are great, a lot of people arent aware of them though

But Twatty at least you tried other options. She's said that she's taken paracetomal and tried ringing the GP, and next step is A&E. Why didn't she try a pharmacist, MI clinic, walk in clinic, different painkillers etc, or wait til out of hours services kick in in 90 mins?

It just annoys me - most A&Es are full with seriously ill and seriously injured patients and don't need to be dealing with an ear ache!

I do think the GP SURGERY needs to take the heat for some of this situation. There was no reason why the doctor could not have called the OP back even if it meant putting her at the bottom of the list.

But I think common sense would dictate that you try 111 before you try a&e or a pharmacist. There will be an ooh/walk in service available to you OP.

The nearest walk in centre is 1:30 min journey. I said it before but it seems no one bothered to read: I Called the hospital before coming to a and e and THEY 've asked me to come here.

And yes, being a foreigner it's part of my identity as I have been so 'kindly' reminded so many times.

Do they not still have those scary posters around (like they did last time I came home from forrinland) with the people going to A and E with a sore throat and then the bloke dropping down stone dead with a heart attack because sore throat woman was in front of him?

I bet it's teeth anyway. It was when I had rotten earache. Was a tooth abscess.

Well if they've had the courtesy to offer to treat you the very least you can do is a) not whinge and b) quieten your child down, and preferably organise someone (DP etc) to take her home, as like PPs have said you'll find yourself having a long wait yet.

Can you take codeine OP? Paracetamol and codeine are available over the counter and will help until you get to see your GP. I suggest you either go and sit in your GP, or go to a local walk in centre. If you tell us what area you are in I could direct you to one. I would imagine you will have a shorter wait there than in A&E.

Is your toddler still screaming?

What has being a foreigner got to do with your ears? Are you seriously suggesting that because you're foreign they are making you wait? Not that perhaps they have more urgent cases to deal with?

Maybe it's that chip you're carrying around making your ears hurt.

Actually, the a&e in my local town is predominantly filled with piss heads and drug addicts. While technically some of these people have had accidents (although how you accidentally imbibe 14 double vodkas in the space of 3 hours before throwing up all over yourself, shitting your pants and staggering into a&e to have the graze on your knee looked at is beyond me, yes that really did happen last time I was in there, and yes I over heard it all because she was shouting and had to repeat herself about 50 times because she was drunk and couldn't remember what she had said the sentence before) now that is what I call time wasting. No excuse for self inflicted stupidity.

Ok well if they said you should come in then fair enough BUT the fact that you have a screaming toddler with you isn't a&e's fault, so yes yabu to hate a&e. It's not a perfect system but it is an amazing one that saves lives regardless of who you are or how much money you have. We are blessed to have it and those who whinge about it will miss it when it's gone.

Unless you spoke to a medical proffessional on the phone I don't see how they would advice either way tbh!

You should have phoned 111 and taken their advice. A and e is not the answer to you missing a phone call from the GP.

But you can't now complain about having to wait. Just be thankful you are well enough to be in a position to wait!

a and e hates you too.

Surely there must be a walk in centre near you. I know they told you to come down but I really wouldn't have with an ear ache. Just wait till 18.30 to phone 111 for ooh gp. I've got really bad pains but will wait till ooh open then if the gp suggests A&E then I will go.

So is mine in the evenings, but still besides the point. Just because one idiot rocks up pissed it doesn't mean that the rest of us should wonder in too with minor ailments.

Imagine maybe 4 doctors to A&E that might serve up to 200,000. You've got a child with severe abdo pain, old lady having an MI, man with 3 fractures to his leg, woman with repeated fits, child with possible meningitis, older man who fell downstairs, 3 stabbings, a road traffic accident and an OD. Plus 4 drunk guys who are fighting, a drunk lady with 4 friends who can't stop giggling, and a lady who's come in with an irritable child and a sore ear (not the OP necessarily).

Wee child keeps screaming in pain, mum's distressed. Drunk guy 1 socks the other. Drunk lady vomits everywhere. Man with the leg needs more morphine. Lady with fits has another. MI patient worsens. New patient arrives. Another's blue lighted in. Who's going to sort out the ear ache in that lot?

I'm not a doctor nor nurse but due to my mum's illness have been in A&E over 30, if not more, times unfortunately and 9am or 1am they are full to bursting, and don't need minor patients coming in.

I stand corrected if it turns out, God forbid, she has an infection of the mastoid bone etc, but I do doubt it.

Can HCPs from A&E give medical advice on the phone? Anyone know?

If you was in your home country would you have went to A&e over an ear ache.