To be shocked that x rays are only possible between 9am and 10pm at an urgent care unit

[ReallyTired]

Last night my daughter badly sprained her ankle at gymnastics. I did not realise how badly she had injured it. She is now on crutches and been ordered to rest it with her leg raised. Dd doesn't get the concept of resting at the age of six, but that is another thread.

Dd woke up at 5.30 sobbing with pain. I took her to the urgent care/ minor injuries unit at our local hospital where she was quickly seen by the nurse at 7am as calpol and ibroprofen was not making her more comfortable. There was only us and an elderly man in the waiting room so we were seen quickly. The nurse ordered an X ray, but there was no radiolographer until 9am. There was an elderly man who had had a fall who was also waiting for an x ray. My daughter was not in a life threatening position, but the elderly man really looked in an awful state.

I feel its ridiculous having a 24 hour urgent care unit if there is no radiographer. The kind of people who visit urgent care/ A and E at 7am aren't time wasters. They are the kind of people whom urgent care is designed for.

isn't minor injuries different to a&e?

YABU poodle is right, minor injuries is different to a&e. You would NBU to have a moan on here about it, but shocked is taking it a bit far.

Our MIU has x rays between 9am and 6pm. Anything more serious needs A and E at the county hosp 40 odd miles away.

Urgent care ain't A and E - you would be referred on/ambulanced to A and E.

Urgent care/minor injuries isn't A&E though. Our local minor injury units are very clear as to when they have x ray available

It's urgent care, not a&e.

If the assessing nurse had thought you couldn't wait until 9 for an x-Ray, you would have been sent to a&e or somewhere with on call radiographers.

You should have gone to A&E

Yabu.

I'm sorry to hear this has happened

This is one reason I find the splitting of these services very confusing.

what's the difference between urgent care and A&E? Minor injuries and urgent care don't sound the same to me so how a unit can cover one and the same is confusing also.

you've made me realise I was lucky, I've broken bones twice but it was during normal working hours! I'm wondering now if regular A&E has access to a radiographer...? So confused.

I would agree with you in principle if A&E has one, then urgent care should have one....but remain baffled by the difference between A&E and urgent care.

I guess ask them if in future you would have been better off in A&E? In fact I will ask my doc next time I go so that I know...!

Hope your daughter feels better asap!

The assessing nurse told me herself that she was unhappy about the radiographer service being cut. She was very apologetic and was left twiddling her thumbs while she waited for the elderly man and my daughter to be x rayed.

The decision is about cost cutting rather than work life balance for the radiographer. What is the point of having a 24 hour urgent care unit if there are not the necessary support services so that the nurse can do her job? The NHS in area are trying very hard to persaude people to use the urgent care unit and not clog up A and E. If they want people to go to urgent care outside office hours then it needs the resources to function. Otherwise the urgent care unit might as well be closed.

I feel that something needs to be done to tackle idiots people who think that urgent care/ A and E is a glorified GP service. It might free up money to pay for a radiographer.

Ds1 once had a chest xray at 3am, when pneumonia was suspected, so a&e will do it if deemed urgent. I actually think it is ok for a minor injuries unit not to be operational 24/7 . Sorry.

Sorry, you said urgent csre not a&e so maybe not unreasonable but assume that they'd transfer if necessary.

ReallyTired "The NHS in area are trying very hard to persaude people to use the urgent care unit and not clog up A and E."

makes me even more confused about the difference. I would also have thought they would transfer but conscious that you may not be a short distance from A&E...?

Round here there's an obvious choice between a walk-in and A&E and the times I had to use A&E, I was seen second (after a heart thing and a lady who had broken her neck) so I know I was right to be in A&E but if there had been an urgent care, I might have been confused.

PS That said, the ambulance made the decision in one case so only in the other would I have to decide....

If the man you saw waiting had needed to be transferred for an urgent x ray then he probably would have been. It's unlikely his situation was that bad if he'd been assessed and was in a waiting room.

There would have been a radiographer available at A&E.

It's a shame that there isn't high quality care around the clock, but the NHS just doesn't have the resources. You have experienced just one of many NHS failings, in the grand scheme of all the shit things about the NHS, there not being a radiographer available 24/7 in a minor injuries unit is not that bad.

A&E is just that, accident and emergency. Radiology is available at all times in hospitals with A&E departments. Minor injuries is for minor injuries, sprains, minor burns etc. and will have radiology available at peak periods. It is not cost effective to have radiographers sat around twiddling their thumbs through the night. Urgent care/walk in centres are for things you would see your gp for when you can't see a gp. If an xray was urgent you'd have been transferred to a different hospital. Yes it's terrible that funding has been cut but it's happening everywhere.

Yabu, two hours isn't excessive for non urgent X-ray, although far from ideal. In life threatening cases the patient would be sent to a bigger hospital with 24 hour radiography.

"Urgent care/walk in centres" - ah, I never equated urgent care with walk in. We have a walk in and I went once when I couldn't get in to see my GP.

more clarification needed on what they can provide, maybe?

YABU. I have a friend who is a radiographer and she works incredibly long hours. It's BU to expect them to be there all night too. Presumably there would be more radiographers if the budget allows, but it doesn't.

Surely its a waste of money to have the minor injuries part of urgent care open during the night. Broken bones are not usually fatal, but the pain is unbelievable. An x ray decides the approach of treatment. Minor injuries often require an x ray and the nurse is stuck without one. Or maybe it would be possible to train a nurse do simple x rays during a quiet periods. Clearly such a professional would require a lot of training and should be paid more.

"YABU. I have a friend who is a radiographer and she works incredibly long hours. It's BU to expect them to be there all night too. Presumably there would be more radiographers if the budget allows, but it doesn't."

There needs to be more radiographers. I'm not suggesting the same radiographer is there both day and night. That would be stupid. The NHS never has a enough money.

It's a three year degree course to become a radiographer, nurses have to do extra training just to be able to order xrays and interpret them. Usually there also has to be a radiology registrar on call to refer to if an xray is ambiguous. I'm sure if there was a possibility of a severe fracture you'd have been sent elsewhere, an xray is diagnostic it doesn't treat the fracture.

Not sure what your argument is here? Your dd had a minor injury, if you had gone to a&e you would probably have waited the equivalent time but before being seen instead of after. There were two people in the waiting room, not enough to possibly justify a radiographer on night shift. It's normal for minor injuries units not to even have x Ray facilities and non-obvious potential fractures would likely get a next morning appointment at a fracture clinic if presented during the night. Not one of the NHS' failings but an appropriate use of resources.

I'm more surprised at a 24hr minor injuries unit...can't say I've heard of that before! Definitely none in my area.