AIBU to wonder what the heck is going on in hospitals right now??

[Rinoachicken]

Before I start, I want to make it clear I am NOT blaming the hospital staff in any way.

13 hospitals have declared state of emergencies or whatever it is.

Why is everyone suddenly descending on A&E all over the country all in the same week? Has there been an outbreak of something I don't know about?

I don't get it. A&E is always stretched to the limit, but Why this sudden crisis all over the country?

Am I missing something??

Here, we only have a hugely over stretched minor injuries unit run by one nurse.

You wait for hours only to find she hasn't a clue if your DC has broken anything and won't commit to wether or not you should go to A&E.

Totally useless.

Also it's incredibly difficult to get non emergency GP appointments, which means people don't deal with problems in a timely manner.

Things become emergencies that simply shouldn't.

I work for the NHS (pharmacy) its not just the hospitals that are facing cuts gps, surgeries, walk ins and local pharmacies are too. In July the local GP surgery lost three full time receptionists (now running on two full time one part time) alongside two nurses and one GP. Although it may seem trivial its had an impact even trying to get through on the telephone to make an appointment! In turn we (pharmacy) get the phone call and some patients need to see a doctor asap, with social cut backs the housebound and elderly cannot physically get out to make that appointment so are left with either keep trying to phone through or make there own arrangements to a walk in. (Usually it ends up in a ambulance ride to hospital as some dont have the money or support network to arrange transport) Its an awful state of affairs, we've had to cut back on pharmacy deliveries as the costs are mounting up thus leaving patients who've missed their delivery slot finding other ways to collect their medication. (Often myself or colleagues drop off medication in our own time) I honestly don't know what the answer is, i think everyone who works in the nhs no matter what the cut back or the staff shortage just tries to keep their heads above water. :( awful mess.

I don't understand why people keep referring to flu. Flu is neither an accident nor an emergency.

I have only skimmed this post but it is especially close to heart as a family member was one of those people over Christmas.

My feeling is that the 111 number has done no one any favours nor the huge areas they now cover with "super hospitals". The same with not being able to get routine gp appointments that day/week.

Having rung the number and waited 45 minutes and no call back we were left with no choice but to ring 999. (The person involved had a similar problem a few years ago which resulted in emergency procedure which had it not been performed that day they probably wouldn't have been here.)

The first response paramedic had to come from a town just over an hour away. Once he had given some pain relief it took nearly 2 hours to get an ambulance due to more pressing emergencies.

Once in the hospital they were seen easily within the 4 hour period and had a scan but then had to wait a further 10 hours on a trolley in a treatment corridor. There were at least 8 other people in line. 2 of which were there the same amount of time at least.

Speaking to the a&e sister who was amazing this has been going on for ages. My relative actually had a bed on the ward after 5 hours but had to wait a further 4 hours for a doctor to assess to send them there. Then a further hour as the ward wouldn't take them without extra monitoring.

This is apparently not unusual that a&e beds are taken up with people who need to be on wards. I think we were told something like 8 of the 15/16 people there (at 1am) were waiting for beds!

Once the family member is able to we will be making a formal complaint. Not to be a pain, not to complain about the amazing nurses but as requested by the a&e sister. It probably won't help or make any changes but the fantastic nhs staff we encountered will know we tried for them.

26point2miles my DS had a similar experience at a traffic incident. When the response car arrived they said they hadn't prioritised the call because a first aider was on the scene (he has FPOS) -injuries not as bad as your DD witnessed though.
Part of the problem with ambulances is that crews have to stay with their patients at A and E until they can hand them over, which can literally be hours, keeping the crew out of action for new calls. Apparently our A and E is trialling a new scheme where there is a senior paramedic in A and E who will oversee up to 6 patients until they can be handed over to hospital staff, so the crews can get back on the road.

Pausing, I know that perhaps I should have specifically mentioned the country's massive financial deficit specifically (it's all sort of rolled into one huge mess in my head), but that is what I actually was referring to, sorry

My newborn DS was readmitted at 2 days old due to jaundice at end of November. Community MW told us to go to A&E who would sort everything out. To my mind that was nuts - we all knew what the problem was but it seemed like the only was to get a bed in paediatrics was through A&E. Similarly, my mum was admitted last week due to problems with her gall bladder which required removal. Again, told by gp to go to A&E, even though it was clear what needed doing.

It seems like A&E has become a catch all for everything. Nothing but sympathy for a&E staff, who were all great.

Growing population, reduced funding, closure of a&e's.
The usual government cock up.

It is a really bad year this year in terms of respiratory illnesses. Christmas was a really busy period with a lot of sick patients, much more than usual.

111 seems to vary across the country. Down here it's really good. Last time I used it was when DH had suspected shingles and I was actually calling for advice re baby DS exposure to it. (This was a weekend). 111 diagnosed the shingles and sent a prescription to a chemist bear us which we picked up later that afternoon.

I do think that the public need re-educating regarding where to go for what and when.

Unless you are very young or elderly or have some other underlying medical issues, flu and other winter bugs are a 'medicate at home/pharmacy' thing and then GP if not clearing up. Not A&E!

A combination of:

winter, growing ageing population, difficulty in seeing GP

but fuckwits who don't seem to realise what A&E is actually for must shoulder a large part of the blame. I never used to believe this but I'm starting to wonder if some sort of 'time wasting' penalty needs to be applied. The police do it so why not the medical services?

It's all the folks on here who tell people to go to A&E at e drop of a hat.

Is it really any different from normal? This time 3 years ago my dad was admitted with an infection related to his catheter. He was very frail with complex health issues including Parkinson's and dementia. He was woken at 3.00am and put in a regular taxi to go home because they needed his bed. The first my mum knew about it was when the local postie knocked on the door at 5.30 having found dad wandering in the street confused and extremely cold.

And I swear it's that nasal flu jab shedding to older folks who won't get the jab.

GPs are already putting in 10 to 12 hour days so they are certainly not 'getting out of doing overtime '
I would say that the vast majority of GPs are working at full capacity. There is a limit to the number of patients that can be seen safely and the intensity of the work load is such that it isn't possible to do 12 hrs as a day time GP and then continue into an out of hours shift.
We need a huge increase in funding for general practice so that we can employ more doctors and expand our premises and that's not going to happen. Sorry but this situation is just going to get worse

GPs are already putting in 10 to 12 hour days so they are certainly not 'getting out of doing overtime '
I would say that the vast majority of GPs are working at full capacity. There is a limit to the number of patients that can be seen safely and the intensity of the work load is such that it isn't possible to do 12 hrs as a day time GP and then continue into an out of hours shift.
We need a huge increase in funding for general practice so that we can employ more doctors and expand our premises and that's not going to happen. Sorry but this situation is just going to get worse

Why don't GPs operate on a shift system?

(Genuine question as I'm wondering!)

If they appointments were more available over a larger timeframe, then there wouldn't be the 'trying to cram all the appointments into x hours) as they would be more spread out?

Or am I being dumb?

Nhs worker here and no matter what time of the year we as a department are always short staffed and have staff sickness to deal with.

AL is difficult to take and it comes this time of year where there is 2.5 months left to take AL and that means we are even more short of staff.

Its us ourselves causing it ! I had dp in a&e this week ....(he had a reason to be there his throat was swollen and the dangly bit at the back was in his mouth he was choking on it and couldnt breathe). There were people sitting in the waiting room complaining that they had been there for 7 hours or more constantly giving staff grief....kids that were running round the waiting room wild with bad coughs (the gps were all opened this day) dp was taken through straight away and i cant fault the treatment but as i watched other people from the waiting room.leave the majority left with a box of painkillers or a tubi grip....infact one woman who was complaining of the wait had hurt her foot 3 days before (so why the emergency then) and she was walking around the waiting room perfectly fine and she left with a wee support strap thing (wasting her time and the hospitals time...a pharmacist could have looked at this and sorted her out with something !)

Its also.bad management of long term conditions from gps. I have a long term medical condition which leads to severe pain only manageable by strong iv pain relief and usually end up admitted to hospital taking up a bed to get pain relief because my gp wont perscribe anything strong enough so i can manage the pain at home which i would much rather do ! I know when im about to have a flare up and i always attend the gp and i get turned away with little or nothing this usually goes on for a couple of weeks until i end up incredibly ill.or unconcious and therefore admitted ...and it doesnt need to reach them stages !

Budget cuts throughout the entire NHS. Mostly affected by cutting staff. I left my permanent nursing post over a year ago due to my family circumstances and now only work when I have childcare, through the NHS staff bank. I usually go back into my old ward to cover my own vacancy as its not yet been filled... or advertised. Patients go through a&e, then usually onto a surgical/medical receiving ward for assessment, then onto the appropriate ward for their illness/condition. If the latter wards are short staffed then they sometimes cannot cope with taking in more patients. So the receiving wards get jammed, meaning a&e have nowhere to transfer patients to, and nowhere to assess new people. I've seen so many inappropriate admissions too which can be treated at home. But I do agree that it's always been this way, but coz 1 hospital called it others have followed.

there is a crisis in GP recruitment. Most medical students plan to be anything but a GP.