to think that no wonder the NHS A&E depts waiting time is bad, there are so many timewasters.

[CalicoBlue]

I just spent the afternoon (3 hours) in Urgent Care/A&E with DS. I have not been to A&E in over 12 years and was really surprised at all the reasons people were there for. Granted if it had not been the weekend I would have gone to my GP, but my son's condition meant he needed to be seen today.

We were sat very close to the welcome window, so I heard every new person come in. There were so many people there who should not have been. The nurse kept asking people if they had seen their GP, so many said no.

One girl said that she had been there last week had been given antibiotics for a water infection and it had not gone so she wanted to see the doctor again, the nurse said that she should have made an appointment for her doctor and that urgent care was not to come to instead of the GP. There were at least two that had lost prescriptions given by their GP so wanted UC to replace them and would not take no for an answer. It went on an on, another person came in with his father who had an ongoing leg problem, the nurse tried to explain that he needed to see his GP, but he did not have one as he was on holiday and wanted to get his leg sorted before he went home again, they did tell him that they would not see him and he would not get the operation he said he wanted on the NHS.

I estimated that at least one third of the people coming there could have been seen by their GP. There were lots who did need to be seen, and lots of sick kids, but they had to wait so long. I felt quite guilty for being and taking up the doctors time.

you could argue that a concussion from playing rugby is self inflicted...

I think you could argue a large proportion of trips to a and e are "self inflicted" could really reduce waiting times if you started that way.

Rta - shouldn't have got in the car/been driving.

And sports injuries well shouldn't have been playing

Lol, this thread reminds me of my dear gran and her sisters forever bragging about how serious their own complaints were compared to other people's, and how the doctors all gave them strict orders etc. It's a strange kind of one upmanship.

I think there should be a nominal charge for all NHS services, purely to make people believe there is actually a value involved. Here in Scotland, for months now we've been paying 5p every time we use a carrier bag in the shops. And lo and behold a mere 5p charge has put swathes of us off using bags - there's been a dramatic reduction.

I should think most people can afford 5p without too much sacrifice, but simply the principle of parting with cash at all does the trick. So a small, nominal fee would work wonders.

If any of you have been in A&E on a Friday/Saturday night it is blatantly obvious who the drunks /drugged are. Loud, rowdy, arrive in groups. Get them out.

Tedd - if your child/partner/sibling whatever went out had one too many fell and hit their head would you be happy for them to be refused treatment?

What if that bump had led to a bleed on the brain which left untreated would kill them? Would you be happy for that treatment to be refused?

I'm also happy to admit I wasted NHS time once. When DS was a baby we accidentally fed him one spoonful of out of date food. Later on, he cried a bit. We were so worried we took him to the kids casualty.

To be fair, by the time we arrived DS was peacefully asleep and we were placed very low down the list. We waited ages and a very lovely young doctor was kind to us and managed not to laugh out loud as we presented the evidence - an Ella's Kitchen pouch dated last week.

But we didn't take time away from those more in need. We were only seen after waiting a very long time, and when the doctor wasn't needed more urgently. I'm embarrassed we had to see him at all of course, lesson learned.

I think most parents are allowed one 'free pass' daft time wasting appointment.

Aww Morris that's cute! and beats me

chockbic - Sounds frightening, but not an ambulance situation. Sorry but people who don't have health problems I find often think they need more urgent medical intervention, than they do.

You're right I was fortunate enough not to go into sepsis. Or miss the pharmacy closing.

Just left in agony for a few hours, without adequate pain relief. Vomiting each time I moved.

Never had a scan or even asked for a urine sample.

I suppose it depends on what you think is an adequate response. But yes I was fortunate. That time.

I don't know if the medical care you got was okay or not, but it doesn't sound like you did need an ambulance. Ambulances are for those who need immediate medical care.

DD was ill. I asked on here for advice in case I'd missed anything. I had great support from mumsnetters and I am still very grateful. I rang 111. Given OOH appointment. The doctor sent us to hospital. A&E sent us away as they "don't do paediatric care." We had a 45 minute drive to another hospital at 11pm. They were incredible there. Had such great care all evening and through the whole night and next day. The doctor had never seen child with what DD had, so ill. It took a good three weeks before she was properly on the mend. I have forgotten my point now (I'm not well myself today) but it is hard when your child is ill and you don't get the back up and support you need. The look I got from the A&E receptionist at the first hospital was vile yet if she had what was suspected she could have died.

Dd had a nasty looking head injury when she was a toddler. Looked worse than it was and just needed glue. I always remember being escorted straight through by the reception staff holding dd in blood covered rags and all these well looking adults yelling obscenities at us for jumping the queue. Was lunchtime.

I think its clear that the GP system is the root of the problem. Difficult to see how they can simultaneously make it easier for people who need non urgent care to get appointments and so keep them from having to go to A&E, but also to stop the massive amount of time wasters blocking up all the appointments. Public information? Medically trained GP triage?

I'm always very wary of judging people going into A&E. Doctors can't diagnose someone simply by watching them walk in, so what makes us patient patients qualified to do so? We don't know what someone's health conditions could be; there could be legitimate reasons for being more concerned than most would be for seemingly minor things.

It's puzzling and a bit upsetting thinking about this. I've been to A and E with a tooth ache though! It was a Sunday, I couldn't open my mouth and my heart was going mad. My out of hours dentist sent me there. I ended up in hospital on IV anti biotics for 4 days.

Otoh when we went in with MIL who'd had a stroke the Dr was fed up because his previous 2 patients had had a sore back and a splinter in their thumb!

People either can't get appointments with their GP, or have lost faith in them.

It's the GP system that needs an overhaul.

UnderEsther, you are right though. We can't tell just by looking at someone in the waiting room.

A friend of mine ran an A&E dept and she did 2 simple things to improve efficiency. They had a GP there for GP type issues and they had a Dr doing triage as apparently you can't be sent away by a nurse but you can be sent away by a Dr. I don't know why everywhere doesn't do this.

The last time I had comments about "timewasting" it was a serious gynie issue. Sorry I didn't get my fanjo out for other patients to see.

I ended up staying in. It was serious and urgent.

chockbic - We desperately need more GPs, and more out of hours GP care. GPs now do so much that hospitals used to do. They also play a much bigger role in terms of mental health care. There simply are not enough GPs. Nothing wrong with the system, the issue is that there need to be more GPs and GP appointments.

Appologise for not reading the whole thread.

I don't understand why people are saying they go to a and e because they can't get a GP appointment? GPs have to see everyone the same day as requested if there's an urgent appointment required. It's in their contract.

If you're urgent enough to go to a and e to be seen, why not just take an urgent GP appointment? It makes no sense to me

The system certainly doesn't help.

DS has serious asthma. After 5 years of dealing with this I am pretty good at picking up if it's asthma or a chest infection and what is needed. Our GP won't prescribe steroids, he will give simple linctus (ha!) or antibiotics. Everytime this has happened we have ended up in a and e needing steroids a few hours later and often end up being admitted. That could be avoided if the GP took a second to take into account the medical history, look at the many discharge letters he has - or even just listen to me - and give the medication needed before it gets to emergency point.

At our GP you can get an urgent appointment the same day if you know you need it at 8.45. After that no chance.

We are lucky to have a walk in GP in the next town which is very good. They refuse to treat DS but I have been a few times for me and it's much easier than waiting for a GP appointment