To wonder if this is part of the reason a&e is massively overstretched.

[flanjabelle]

I have been sent to a&e twice for myself and twice for dd in the last couple of months. Each time I have contacted a gp or 111 (asking for an out of hours gp appointment) first, and then been sent to a&e. Each time I have left a&e feeling that it was completely unnecessary to go to a&e and that we had wasted their time and resources.

For example, Friday I had a severe head ache come on. It was worse Saturday morning, Saturday evening I was exhausted and slurring my words slightly, yesterday morning it was excruciating so I called 111 to see if I could see a doctor as I don't usually suffer with migraines and I couldn't stop the pain with normal painkillers.

111 wanted to call me an ambulance, but I refused. I asked for a doctors appointment and was told that I couldn't have one and that I had to report to a&e within the hour to be seen.

I obviously did, as I needed help from someone. I spent most of the day in a&e, ended up having a ct scan, blood tests and painkillers and was moved to an assessment ward.

I was on the assessment ward for two hours before seeing the doctors who told me it was just a severe migraine and there was really no need for me to be there at all. I was sent away with aspirin and triptans and made to feel very silly. I never wantEd to go to a&e!

The last time I was sent to a&e was because the gp decided I had appendicitis even though the pain was no where near the appendix and was following on from food poisoning. I had gastritis. Again, it could have easily been dealt with by the gp, but I got sent to a&e.

I hate feeling like I'm wasting their time, there may well have been people who desperately needed their help and were delayed because of me. I have followed the steps that you are supposed to each time, but end up being an a&e time waster. I have more examples, but this is long enough, sorry!

It has lots of information about hospital use due to alcohol

Though it is an underestimate as it won't record many injuries due to alcohol e.g. all the broken ankles that turn up at A&E on a Sat/Sun morning from PFO*s the night before.

*Pissed, fell over

Why did you go to the GP about the stomach pains? Could you have waited a few more days to see if it improved on its own?

That's an excellent point. If you knew it was just left over from food poisoning, why did you make a god appointment in the first place?

The doctors only told you that you didn't need to stay once they had established that you did not have a more serious condition.

Yes agreed. You had symptoms that could have been something life threatening and you were right to go in and get checked.

A&E checked you out and ordered a CT scam so they were obviously worried enough about you!

Turns it you were fine, 'good news, it's nothing serious, you don't need to be in A&e for a headache so you can go home'. Ideal.

I agree that in the case of your migraine you needed to be checked out in hospital. I agree though that 111 does send people to A&E totally unnecessarily. I fell over once and had a really weird bump on my elbow. Rang 111 who said it could be broken and I needed an x-Ray. As it was the weekend A&E was the only place that would do it, which seemed a total waste of everyone's time and resources.

Sorry to clarify about the stomach pain, it was 5 days after the vomiting had stopped and I still couldn't eat anything and was getting weaker and weaker. Every time I tried to eat the pain was excruciating and I felt very very full despite being completely empty. I thought it was something to do with the food poisoning but I didn't know what to do because I couldn't eat at all.

OK, perhaps my issue here is being made to feel like a time waster when I have just followed the directions of the gp or 111.

I have been made to feel like that on quite a few occasions now. Even by the gp when I was told by the pharmacist to get dd seen for a chesty cough, I did and was told it was just a virus and that she didn't need to see a doctor. I had just popped to the pharmacy to see if there was a cough mixture to help her a bit and was told to take her to the gp.

With the 'appendicitis', it was the consultant i saw who told me the symptoms did not point to appendicitis at all and she couldn't understand why I had been sent there. It's not me pretending to have medical training, this is what the consultant at the hospital told me!

Happy to admit iabu if you all think I should have been there, I just wish they didn't make you feel so shitty about it!

I wonder if the doctors are frustrated with people being sent there when it's not necessary and it came across as they were frustrated with me.

Ok those symptoms don't like appendicitis but it does sound bad enough to justify being sent for further investigation.

That occasion with the gp I was told I was 'an anxious mother' despite following the advice of the pharmacist. All I wanted was a flipping cough mixture! I told the gp I had been told to come by the pharmacist, but he was really not happy with me bringing dd.

OK, perhaps my issue here is being made to feel like a time waster when I have just followed the directions of the gp or 111.

I think so.

The pain was enough for you to need to see someone. That someone though you needed more investigation. Appendicitis could have been just one of the things he thought it could have been.

The feeling full when not eaten, was and pain when eating were the symptoms my aunt went to the doctor with. It was stomach cancer.

I think the problem here is OP that you are overthinking this. A&E sees a lot of people who are they to rule out something bad. Sometimes they walk in, sometimes they are sent. The appropriate pathways were followed in both your examples. What you need to do is be a bit more assertive about your situation. You went to get checked out, you were, you're ok so you left. That's a good result and nothing to be made to feel embarrassed over.

Round here, people tend to go to a&e because the appointments system at the GPs surgeries is insane. Phone up desperate and get an appointment next week.
I think the NHS needs to be pulled back to being a basic emergency service, so that it can function. It's overloaded because its trying to stretch too far with not enough resources and those very badly managed.
And frontline staff get to deal with the consequences.
You were ill, you did as advised.

just wish they didn't make you feel so shitty about it

Agree with that 100%. It is rude and unprofessional. Also, many hospital doctors don't have a clue how hard it is trying to rule out serious conditions like stroke and an acute abdomen (serious abdo problems including appendicitis) in the community, without access to any tests. I say that as someone who was a hospital doctor myself for nearly a decade. It is easy to say in retrospect that it doesn't sound like a stroke or appendicitis, but I bet they didn't say that until they had done blood tests, scans etc etc - none of which are available (urgently) to GPs or 111.

80sMm saved me answering.

If an adult wants to call 111 for a headache or tummy ache then they must be taken seriously.

If the visits weren't necessary they could have turned you away from A&E after a 10 min basic examination and no further investigations. They are perfectly within their rights to so - that's what GPs have to base their decisions on.

How clever of them to know it wasn't a necessary visit after a CT scan. I'd say 90% of hospital investigations are plumb normal or as close to. It doesn't stop them being carried out - you have to cast the net wide if you want to pick up subtle presentations or rare diseases.

The retrospectoscope is a fine instrument.

My DM recently had a terrible headache with slurring. We thought it was likely a migraine (as did she) but I couldn't shake this niggling feeling that she needed to be seen so nagged her into seeing her GP. She was sent to A&E where it was revealed that she'd had a small stroke. Luckily she has fully recovered now but her blood pressure was sky high so she could have had a big stroke at any time.
They were right to send you for the headache and slurring.

Has your headache gone, because the symptoms sound like those for a brain haemorrhage? If it persists, go to your doctor and ask to be referred again; it took my GP, a lumber puncture and an angiogram to discover mine, after A & E diagnosed it as a tension headache.
You weren't wasting their time; it sounds as though they have wasted yours.

Sometimes doctors in A & E can be a bit out of order in what they say to people but I think it is likely the stress of meeting targets etc. I was in A & E on the advice of my GP when tramadol didn't really help my stomach pain and I was vomiting. They did all sorts of tests and the Dr wanted to discharge me with paracetamol and codeine. I said I wasn't willing to be discharged until the pain was under better control. The Dr actually said to me "you just want to be admitted don't you!" And that I couldn't possibly be in that much pain as my pulse wasn't high enough. I was scanned the next day and diagnosed with gall stones. I had surgery 3 days later and my gall bladder was badly inflamed and stuck to the liver.

I still feel annoyed at his attitude. It turns out that if gallstones aren't totally blocking the bile duct then the problem doesn't always show up on the blood tests that they do.

Op I think that it was right to go to A and E with headache.

And reiterate what Goblin said.

SIL is currently in hospital after having a stroke caused by an aneurism, she had a bad migraine and had managed to drive herself to hospital on the way home from work.
There's a little more to it than that but don't want to out myself to anyone that might know me on here.
She's in a serious but stable condition ATM it's just sheer luck that she's still alive.

Don't ever think that you are wasting time by going to A and E.

The headache is still there but it isn't anywhere near as bad as it has been for the last three days. I can function today, I could barely move without crying out yesterday. I am usually pretty good with pain, but the only way I can describe it is like being hit in the head with an axe and a spike pushed between my temples. Not pleasant, but I have seen my mum suffer with migraines and she has had similar, and has also slurred her speech etc too.

Op, my aunt had a migraine just like the one you describe, except that she was also suffering with numbness and lack of movement down one side as well as slurred speech. Everyone thought it was probably a stroke until after she had a CT scan.
Her doctor said that it was better that she'd come in and it be a false alarm than not come in and it not be.

I agree.
I've called 111 a few times for me and my ds and I think they need more options. They're not qualified to make the call so end up calling ambulances and sending people to a+e.
Out of hours gp would often be more appropriate but that would cost money. And need more staffing.
I suppose at least if you are in a+e and you keel over they'll move you up the waiting list (hopefully ).

It'd be really cheap if the only people at a+e were the ones who really were having a heart attack/stroke/had a broken bone etc. But you can only know for sure after scans/tests - which are mostly not available elsewhere

Seriously OP, you are not a time waster, and that headache you still have needs further investigation and sorting out. I am on your behalf that you've been made to feel bad about this. The health service is overstretched but that's not doze to people like you! Get another GP appointment and ask for a referral for the headache.

Dp ended up in A &E because after visiting the doctors surgery on at least 8 occassions he was so unwell he went there and was finally diagnosed with cancer. If the first doctor who saw him had done their job right things could have been a lot different. What would people hazard a guess at if a man in his 60s with a family history of bowel cancer who was constipated, had blood in faeces when he was able to go to the toilet had a bloated stomach and had pain in his lower tummy area and loss of appetite. Would anyones thoughts think hernia, or the need to eat more fibre or writing several prescriptions for laxatives.

He for one should never have been there if he had been diagnosed correctly in the first place. We are now expected to go to A&E daily because on leaving the hospital after his op the wards in the hospital were only able to supply 2 days of dressings, the dressings which have to be changed daily are expected to be supplied by the district nurse who is supposed to visit daily and change the dressing. She doesn't turn up as there is no dressings. so you end up using more costly out of hours services. The doctors surgery don't have any appointments for 1 month. So the only alternative is to go back to A&E. If the ward had given him enough dressings to last it would have saved a huge amount of time money and stress all round.