To think that the NHS cause part of the problem with the A&E?

[LadyRainicorn]

I got bashed in the face across my eye with a float at the pool earlier today. I have a banging headache that isn't shifting (tried a nap and mild painkillers) so used the symptom checker to double on things I need to watch out for in case I've properly damaged myself (probably haven't but nice to think errrrrr horrtible head eeeerrrrrr phew at least xyz isnt happening, then I'd need assistance). Bloody thing says I should go to A&E. It ALWAYS says go to feckin A&E. I think it's cos I ssid I was irritable. Of course I'm fucking irritable MY HEAD REALLY FUCKING HURTS. Plus I'm doing a cake decorating 3yr old birthday activity thing. And it went well. Hah.

But anyway. Everytime I fancy checking out things on NHS choices it says A&E. Bloody 111 called an ambulance on me before. AIBU?

When you say you had an arm and a leg jerk, do you mean like you jumped in fright? Bit confused by what you mean.

I wouldn't worry too much - a float's unlikely to do much damage in itself, but if the headache was really quite severe (unable to focus on much else) I'd call NHS, but more for reassurance than anything else. Do you tend to get headaches a lot?

Ah, 111. Once upon a time we had NHS Direct, which was staffed by a mixture of about 50% call ops and 50% experienced nurses (with dual trained midwives and psychiatric nurses too). Now, NHSD was not perfect by any means, but it was popular with the public. The nurses at NHSD were assisted by algorithmic software that directed you along a certain path to make sure you asked every relevant question. This software was rather twitchy and risk adverse; it used to recommend A&E for all kinds of things. Being an experienced nurse, you could roll your eyes and swear under your breath at this overexcitable software, and then override the decision to something more sensible using your own clinical judgement.
Now, the Tory government did their usual thing and said: 'how can we make this service cheaper and more crappy?'. They did this by getting rid of the vast majority of nurses, and replacing them with call ops with 3 weeks experience of working the software. Now, the call ops did their best. They had no clinical knowledge or experience of any sort though, and the overexcitable software now could not be overruled, as that would be potentially dangerous now that the nurses had all gone. This is why 111 tends to panic when dealing with anything outside the comfort zone of the software, and why it tries to send everyone to A&E.
This has contributed to A&E having to deal with a lot of people who perhaps would be better going somewhere else. It would be a lot quicker both for those people and also hard pressed A&E staff.
That's how bad, penny pinching government decisions contribute to the increasing burden on parts of the NHS.

Shouldnthavesaid I have chronic migraines. This is why I'm on a neurologist's list. There's some arguement about whether I'm experiencing hynagogic jerks or myoclonic jerks which is why I'm waiting for my appointment to come through to see him again. It doesn't help that I tried to explain what was happening to me while the migraines were not sorted out and were pretty much constant. I think I might be having infrequent absences as well, just got to get the balls to go to the gp and talk about them.

RandomNPC now do I like your post because it talks sense or because it reinforces my worldview??

Rita I did seek advice! That's how I ended up in A+E. All they did was give him a drink and check in on us a couple of times to check he was still ok. I could have done that at home. If he'd had any other symptoms then maybe the trip would have been justified but since he didn't and was otherwise completely fine it was a total waste of time and resources. It wasn't a serious bump, he just fell over.

While better safe than sorry isn't a bad thing it was an overreaction in this case.

If there was a 'like' button on Mumsnet I'd be 'liking' random NPC's post.

111 is shocking. I was in a huge amount of pain last night. I'd taken aspirin, co-codamol, and ibuprofen and it wasn't even touching the sides. dh rang them at 9pm and we still haven't had a call back! Luckily my gp surgery give you 24hr telephone access to drs so we rang them and got told to get to a&e for stronger pain relief. But 111 is appalling!! I'm now waiting on an appointment with the gp to get them to prescribe said drugs so we can keep them in the house and save all this unnecessary ringing round and travelling up to hospital.

I agree, they're so risk averse that you may as well just go to A&E if you're going to call 111.

That being said, I heard a program on Radio 4 just after the bad hospital stats were released earlier this month. The 111 calls resulted in a lower hospital referrals that I would have guessed - but I can't remember what it was.

We called 111 in December because my husband took a view that my 9 year old possibly had appendicitis. I was convinced he didn't. During the call my son's condition improved noticeably, and they still told me that I should visit the GP within 12 hours.

But the advice they gave you was spot on. Vomiting after a head injury is a red flag symptom for a serious brain injury. If you,'d been to A&E when he had the accident they'd have sent you home with a list of things to watch out for and they would have told you to bring him straight back if he was sick or drowsy.

In your case you think it's an overreaction because the vomiting turned out to be unrelated, but the phone operator can't see the child to examine them properly. A doctor who can see the child can make a more thorough assessment of how the child seems and in the case of a potential head injury A&E is the right place to do that.

YADNBU. Every time I see articles about the A&E crisis I get really annoyed, especially when the patients are blamed for going there with inappropriate ailments. What do they expect when many people can't get a GP appointment, and 111 tells them to go to A&E at the drop of the hat?

My gp isn't too bad. I can ring up and fight for an emergency appointment at 8 every morning and you can ask to speak to the duty doctor over the phone whenever. My main bugbear is being asked by the doctor to see them again a month, but only being able to book two weeks in advance for routine appointments but I do understandwhy they do that.