in thinking that some/alot of people go to A and E without a good reason

[ghostspirit]

im just wathing 24 hours in a&e and a mum took her child to hospital because he has hayfever. also i see loads of posters at bus stops it says things like have a back ache, see your GP do not do to a&e. seen a few other similar things. is this because there are a lot of people going to hospital when they don't need to or is it just a general thing to make people more aware.

This is my worry MrsH that the system is so stretched. I do think for a baby you go with your gut and I would have gone to a&e with persistently high temp. Sometimes the parents I see are feeling very cross with the hoops that they have been through (111) to be seen. As parents we do get anxious when our children are ill - baby symptom checker on the nhs choices website is a fab place to go for unwell under fives. There is also a booklet that be picked up from HV that gives scores for various symptoms and indicates what can be done to help where to take sick child. Today I had three dnas on a Friday when someone might have been told there were no more appointments till next week.

Okay, some of the posts here are making me shudder. Twits who call an ambulance for a broken nail are one thing, but sometimes you should call an ambulance. Not for yourself. For the other fuckers on the road. If you are in severe, severe pain, hemorrhaging from limbs or in shock, do you really think you're a safe driver? Think about the cost to the emergency services of clearing up a major traffic accident, hmm?

I wonder if alot of the misuse comes from the belief that healthcare is 'free' in this country. I certainly think this encourages a sense of entitlement and that if people actually understood the true cost of an appointment at GP or AE they would use the system more appropriately and this would eliminate a huge number of DNA appointments.

Agree about education but I think it works both ways. l realised I had never thought through what counted as needing either 999 or ambulance. Twice now I've been in an ambulance to hospital, thankfully DCs fine now & my delay didn't matter but l was def in the camp of not wasting their time & HCPs ended up calling on our behalf, so l do think education is about publicising what does constitute an emergency as well as what does not.

my son has been in the children hospital all week, he was blue- lighted in the early hours. When he arrived the wait was 10 hours and the waiting room packed (4am) obviously he was taken straight to resus so not a ten hour wait. A child was seen just after he arrived with a "sore eye" the staff weren't happy and they'd waited ten hours.

at the adult A&E I use they filter people into a separate clinic who don't really need A&E and they are seen quickly. it means that there's never long waits for either service. i think more hospitals should do it.

i went in to labour really fast. was just me and my son in the house and i paniced and called for an ambulance. babys head was born as they came up the path. paramedic see to baby cut cord make sure she was ok and wrapo her up. then i realised i was on all 4s with my butt on show and there were 4 paramedics plus a trainee all seeing the site of my big butt.

There were 2 ambulances though when i asked why they said they had to have one for me and one for baby incase something went wrong with one/both of us seemed bit mad. did make me feel bad though.

I've called an ambulance twice for DH - he ran through a glass door and had lacerations on his face and hands, nasty cut on his knee (needed 8 stitches) and was in shock (first time I've seen someone turn green!). I was 34 weeks pregnant, it was 11pm and I had a 3 year old and 20 month old upstairs asleep. Second time was when he was writhing in agony with what turned out to be gallstones. By now I had a 6 week old baby along with the other two.

Have been sent by ambulance from GPs as DD2 was having difficulty breathing and SATS of 88% - this was after OOH Dr refused to come and see her the night before (making me think I was being OTT) but wanted me to drag all 3 children to them at 11pm on a Sunday night! (I was a single parent at that time.)

Called a few times for my mother - nasty falls, odd behaviour - but, where possible, we took her in ourselves. One time the paramedic implied we were wasting her time but then my mother did something very odd and she agreed that we'd done the right thing.

Our GP practice is fantastic - I can get non emergency appointments within a week and they have a turn up session from 11o'clock for emergencies (I think you have to ring in advance but I'm not sure).

My sister (who worked for the NHS as a secretary) once dragged me to A&E with an infected cuticle, I was so embarrassed until I ended up in a sling to keep my finger elevated, after an x-Ray to check the infection hadn't gone to the bone and having it lanced.

We have never managed a home visit and have had terrible experiences with 111 not even calling us back. We have a DD who at the time was 3 1/2 and was having seizures with high temp. I just wanted a Doctor to check her throat as we were coping at home.

We always go to hospital now as preventive treatment is never available, ie getting an app before the seizures start.

We have also called an ambulance numerous times but after waiting 30 mins (15 for ambulance to turn up and 15 before they set off for hospital) we wont do that again. We would rather drive as fast as legally poss.

Plus side is we go to a CAU now and not A & E

I agree some people go to the gp when they dont need to or go to a&e instead of the GP. I had to go when I sliced my finger over the weekend, it was almost to the bone and had been bleeding for two hours and still wasn't stopping. It was the weekend so GP was shut and ooh said they'd only send me to a&e as I was pregnant they don't do stitches/tetanus and we have no minor injuries.

The time before that was when DH had meningitis over a bank holiday weekend.

I've only called an ambulance twice - once when I thought my mum had had a stroke but turned out to be the only hypo she ever had, and when she started having a seizure.

I admit to seeing the GP when it wasn't serious, always for the DCs when they were under 2 years old and had coughs which were making them sick several times an hour and the first time dd1 had a viral rash which I'd never heard of. The GP/nurse has always said they'd rather see babies/toddlers and it turn out to be a virus than for parents to hesitate and miss a chest infection/croup/bronchiolotis that needs treatment.

For myself I usually leave it too long and need stronger/longer antibiotics.

I do bank shifts in A&E occasionally. I love making the frequent fliers wait for hours on end and then stick a few needles in them.

While that sounds good in theory windchime, what about the people who go backwards and forwards to a and e because the doctors can't find what's wrong?

I went to a walk in centre with severe abdominal pain and vomiting, it had gone on for a few days (I assumed stomach bug) but then the pain got a lot worse and I couldn't lie down, or stand up straight, just shuffle in a hunched over position. Walk in sent me to hospital, thinking it was my appendix. I was admitted, kept in for a few days while they ran tests and gave me morphine and ABs, then discharged without finding the root cause. And given a talking to about 'everyone gets stomach aches sometimes'.

5 days later, I was back in a and e. Re admitted, given more painkillers and more tests run. It helps that I lost 5kg or so between admissions. Turns out I have Crohn's disease.

But I can just imagine after nothing being found and being discharged the first time, that doctors might have decided I was drug seeking and sent me away on subsequent visits.

Oh- and I was lucky. A lot of people with Crohn's become seriously ill and spend years traipsing backwards and forwards getting different tests run before it is diagnosed.

DS is an a and e regular, so often we are there and there are people who really don't need to be there - if your child can scoot around a and e then really his ankle isn't that bad!

On numerous occasions people have complained that DS has been taken in before their child - that would be because he is struggling to breath!

I do think the problem stems from the trouble getting GP appointments in some areas but that isn't helped by people's need to seek medical attention for the smallest thing rather than just going when it's actually needed.

Windchime is talking bollocks. We can not make people 'wait for hours' we have a 2 and 4 hour target to meet and therefore people are seen in time or priority order. Gone are the days where you could put people to the back of the que. No member of bank/agency staff would have any say in who was seen next!!

We certainly do not stick needles in people who don't need them.

MY DS is hyposensitive due to his ASD. He appears well until serious.

I have a regular scenario where I take him to the GP for a complaint of earache which I know must be serious due to the fact he mentions it to be sent away with nothing but a 'come back if it gets worse' talk and 'hmm, it looks a little pink but we don't give antibiotics nowadays'. I explain he doesn't present typically but am ignored.

Without a doubt he will overnight become seriously dehydrated through vomiting and merit a visit to A&E where he will be seen quickly and I'd be told that I have a very sick little boy, that his infection is toxic to him, and given antibiotics immediately without even having to go to a pharmacy.

GPs need to listen more to patients to avoid A&E scenarios.

Thankfully, my DS suffers these kinds of things much more rarely now.

If you don't take your child to a and e and doctors deem you should have done, you will be investigated for child neglect.

MrsDeVere that is so true. I have a relative who went to A&E with a swollen arm and turned out to have cancer of the lymph glands, hence the swelling. And another relative who was thought to have a migraine, but thankfully the Dr decided on a brain scan just to be sure. It's fortunate he did, as the migraine was actually a brain haemorrage. I remember telling a friend about that and they said 'and when you think of all the people who waste time coming to A&E when it really is just a migraine, and all the money wasted on scanning them when it turns out to be nothing'. But they sort of missed the point really that until the tests are done, no one really knows if that headache is a migraine or something serious. If it had been the former, my relative would have come home feeling a bit silly, and guilty for wasting time.

When I took DS2 in for a facial injury that had to be glued, we waited to be admitted and everyone has to queue and tell their story. There was one sore leg that had been hurting for a few days, and a baby that the receptionist said he knew was perfectly fine (coughing for a few days) but had to admit just in case. We waited four hours.

I've called/had called on my behalf 999 7 times this year. 5 resulted in ambulance trips to a&e.

My diagnosis? migraine

I'm sure many many people would say 'wtf!' To that but when helpful people see someone having what the perceive to be a stroke despite my protestations and showing of my medical Id bracelet they call an ambulance. I end up in majors having the usual neuro tests and then yet another CT scan and once it's subsided sent home having had a lovely floaty trip on morphine.

I called it for myself when I had massive chest pains and couldn't catch my breath - I'm asthmatic so didn't want to risk it!

I've also been in a&e with my foot half hanging off (skin intact but hanging at a weird angle) triage nurse with her X-ray vision said tubigrip and crutches and go home with a flea in my ear. 3 years later my foots still not right, after investigations turns out Id torn all my ankle ligaments

Then there's the incident when my dc was a baby and had a temp of 41 I took her into a&e and got shoved out the way by a hulking great rugby player with a broken nose. Never mess with a worried mum. Rugby players aren't as solid as they look. Turned out DC was showing all the signs for meningitis and ended up being admitted with an infection of unknown origin. Never been so terrified in my life!

Roasting sorry, my post must have sounded a bit offensive to you and I didn't mean it to. It's not that I think people are wasting time if they turn out to 'only' have a migraine, because yours sound horrendous. It was more that we are all sort of 'trained' to be a bit embarassed or ashamed if the ailment turns out to 'just' be a migraine or whatever, when realistically no one knows for sure until the tests are done.

Thing is a normal migraine can be excruciating and if you've had one for more than 72 hours neurologists advise going to a&e because there is a high chance you could end up in status migrainous aka permanent migraine

Plus the pain is like no other and often your prescription pain relief may not cut it - I have some hardcore meds that I'm sure an addict would love to get hold of - but sometimes it's not enough. I need the heavy stuff only a&e can provide as do other migraineurs

But yes I agree rocking up with a manageable migraine having taken no pain relief is stupid

treacle I'm glad of your post tbh as it shows you cannot be too careful with head pain

Migraine increases your chance of stroke, many migraines mimic haemorrhages. You cannot be too careful. Often the only difference is migraine aura creeps on stroke is sudden