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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to hate a and e?

271 replies

Fuckingforriner · 22/04/2014 15:53

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.

OP posts:
Titsalinabumsquash · 22/04/2014 17:47

Huh, we don't have a walk in around these parts at all.

I've been to A&E loads of times in extreme pain. Not everyone can tolerate otc pain relief and sorry but severe pain is something that A&E can manage for you, no one should be left unable to function due to pain.

NurseyWursey · 22/04/2014 17:49

And fab sorry but we can think of the worst case scenario for any ailment. It doesn't mean we go to emergency services. My grandad had a scab on his finger, turned out to be skin cancer.

shouldnthavesaid · 22/04/2014 17:50

I'm sorry. I've been a bit rude I think - I've had a shit day, four job rejections, scammed in the street due to my stupidity and not feeling fab myself.

Hope you feel better soon OP, sorry Flowers

Titsalinabumsquash · 22/04/2014 17:50

Getting an appointment is like trying to extract blood from a stone at my GP surgery. The out of,hours surgery is the same and it's only open until 11 after that you get told to go to.... Guess where? A&E!

MrsLindor · 22/04/2014 17:52

The out of hours GP service will be taking over at 6pm.

Rosa · 22/04/2014 17:52

If A+E said to go in then you have done the right thing. Hope you get seen soon

Friedbrain · 22/04/2014 17:52

chip

shoulder

wow!

just wow!

NoodleOodle · 22/04/2014 17:55

Not a guardian of A&E but the op assessed their ear ache as needing GP treatment, not hospital, hence making a GP appointment. It's only because they missed the GP that they're now trying hospital, well they didn't state that it got worse. Therefore the op should be trying to see a GP. If they honestly believed they need hospital, surely that would have been their first port of call?

stayanotherday · 22/04/2014 18:01

Hope you're seen soon op, it's not nice. Are there magazines in the waiting area your daughter could look at the pictures? Or could she count the change in your purse to keep her busy something like that?

SolomanDaisy · 22/04/2014 18:02

Is this one of those posts UKIP pay people to post to make us hate foreigners and their use of the NHS?

stayanotherday · 22/04/2014 18:04

Hope you're okay shouldnt, that's horrible. Hope you ask for feedback, report to police then treat yourself in some way.

stayanotherday · 22/04/2014 18:04

Hope you're okay shouldnt, that's horrible. Hope you ask for feedback, report to police then treat yourself in some way.

Sallystyle · 22/04/2014 18:08

She was told to go into A&E and she is following those instructions.

People need to stop having a problem with the OP when she was advised to go in. She was given that advice and depending on the length of the pain and how bad it is it may well turn out that she needed to be seen there. I assume that whoever she spoke to on the phone would have sent her to the OOH if that was what they thought was best.

Anyone in unbelievable pain deserves to be seen if that is what they were advised to do.

sharonthewaspandthewineywall · 22/04/2014 18:13

I am a nurse yes. No idea whats so nasty about suggesting a walk in centre is more appropriate use of resources than a&e. Has nobody seen the posters advising appropriate treatment options for more minor conditions? Are all of the NHS cunts then, for advising people of the options?

shouldnthavesaid · 22/04/2014 18:17

stay I don't think I can report, as I think it was my own fault. A guy on the street asked me to change 2 50p coins for a pound, so he could catch the bus. Then he asked me to do the same for 20ps, then more pound coins, then a five pound note. He was going so fast and laughing at me - because I turned round so he couldn't access my purse, and kept telling me I had nothing to be scared of. I got confused with all the changing and I think I've lost two or three pound, not much but I don't have that money to waste. I should never have been so stupid as to engage but I was alone, and I was scared he'd take my handbag or hit me.

Am currently gorging on chocolate and away to have a nap I think or something..

Bathsheba · 22/04/2014 18:18

The OP is in Jersey so may not have the same options available.

I'm in a major Scottish City and as far as I'm aware we don't have walk in clinics up here - there are certainly none I know of. We do have our own version of 111 and we do have out of hours centres that you have to go through NHS24 to access (ours is closely linked with A&E - they share the same reception and waiting room )...

Sorry, back to my point - not everywhere has Walk In Clinics - we also don't have PALS up here, another standard MN place to go

stayanotherday · 22/04/2014 18:32

That's awful shouldn't, not your fault. Yes it could have been worse but horrible experience and it was your money. I find speaking different languages to them throws them, works with drunks as well!

QueenStromba · 22/04/2014 18:43

This is why I love my local hospital. They've rolled A&E, minor injuries and walk in centre into one so you get triaged as you walk in the door and then wait to be seen by the relevant section. The result is short waiting times, no angst about whether you've gone to the right place and no wasting A&E's time for things that could be sorted by minor injuries or walk in centre. It's a genius idea and I've no idea why all hospitals don't do it.

SpiderNugent · 22/04/2014 18:45

Lol, if in doubt, play the race card

it cant possibly be because you are obnoxious and your kid is a pain in the arse to other sick people

Forgettable · 22/04/2014 18:55

No walk ins here, no OOHs GP service; one has to ring nhs wotsit number, wait hours for a callback that invariably says either see your GP in three days or get thee to A and E 45 miles away

OP I hope you have been seen

SacreBlue · 22/04/2014 18:55

I love A&E. Not because I want to be there, or enjoyed the wait, or the drunks, or the people abusing the staff, but because I was very grateful to be seen, and treated, on the few occasions I or my child needed to be there.

I was particularly grateful to all the staff who - without exception - were bloody lovely to me especially when I was in pain and/or rather scared. I may have been lucky of course, and know others may not have had such good treatment, but still, I think it's not unreasonable to be appreciative of A&E.

Sirzy · 22/04/2014 18:58

I have to agree scare blue. I hate having to go but they really are lifesavers. And the stick the staff have to put up with even if our local peads a and e is shocking.

stayanotherday · 22/04/2014 19:01

I agree, it's awful they're glad to treat somebody genuine.

lyndie · 22/04/2014 19:08

Thread has moved on a bit but don't accept that from your GP! (and I am one so I should know!).

Next time ring the GP, say 'I'm in a lot of pain and would like to speak to the duty doctor please,' if they say no ask for the practice manager, if they refuse then go to the surgery! The duty doc might not even know you've phoned, but it sounds like getting past the receptionist is the problem here.

KitKat1985 · 22/04/2014 19:19

No, I suspect the nurse was pissed off at you because earache is not an emergency, especially if you've had it for days. Take some painkillers, and make a GP appointment / phone the NHS helpline. It is people like you that are contributing to the crisis in A&E units. And I work in the NHS and I promise you it's probably one of the multi-cultural organisations in the country for staffing mix, so please don't play the 'I'm a foreigner' card.