To think I've just wasted 5 hours in A&E

[Littlelanecountrygirl]

DD hurt her finger at school yesterday. This morning it was swollen and v painful.

Dutifully head to minor injuries where they X-ray it expecting they'll just strap it up. Radiographer and nurse both say it can't be strapped and needs a cast. It's the fifth metacarpal in her hand not her finger. Hand swollen and can't bend little finger anymore.

Turn up at A&E which is like a war zone. No seats, no floor space standing room only. See the nurse after 30 mins she agrees it needs a cast, wait for doctor.

4 hrs and 10 minutes later the doctor calls us in. Abruptly accuses DD of punching something and that she has a boxers fracture. DD repeated that she didn't punch anything, injury was at school when she collided with a friend in PE. Doctor says well ok then (eye rolls at her) manipulates her finger round (DD has tears now) and then says

Oh we can just strap that .

Two bits of tape around her finger, not even a splint. DD crying in pain still and a £6 parking ticket later we finally leave.

Surely we could have just had it strapped in minor injuries 4 hours earlier?!

I have had this OP.

Was by the GP that I definitely needed to attend A&E. I get to A&E and the doctor I see has a go at me for abusing the service!! I told him I'd been sent by the GP and he was flabbergasted and still not very apologetic.

Quite right

That's why I said free at the point of use. And actually the ops child has presumably paid zero tax or ni her life so it's free in every sense for her

Have you got an appointment for fracture clinic?
I would have thought that the MI unit would have sent you to A&E for a doctor's opinion. Why didn't they plaster it there?
And why didn't you raise your concerns with the last doctor you saw?
Far better to come home and "fume" on an internet forum.

Minor injuries are generally staffed by advanced practitioner nurses. Whilst they are highly trained and in many cases much more experienced than many junior doctors,mthe you have a tight remit of what they can and cannot treat.

If they had strapped the hand and then you'd found out a few weeks later it should have been in a cast you would rightly have been annoyed and upset. They correctly referred the injury for assessment by a doctor. Is there a follow up planned in a fracture clinic?

Be glad we have such a brilliant set of people providing this service. Nobody wants to go to A&E or expects it to be very speedy but we are so bloody fortune to have it.

Any practitioner in minor injuries will have the appropriate training as well as working to protocols with that trust, as previous comment has said usually these types of fractures and in children normally get referred to fracture clinic or orthopaedics to get opinion re need for surgery, casting etc. It is abit annoying if it turns out not to be needed though, at least the little girl is ok thats the main thing x

I am so sick of people accessing their free at the point of use healthcare and then bitching about it.

? But it's still paid for from taxes!!? Why shouldn't I want my taxes to be spent wisely?

No, you haven't just wasted five hours.

You've waited your turn for an experienced assessment and management plan for a potentially disabling injury.

Jesus, some people

Hand injuries wrongly treated, can have long term impacts. So not surprised they sent you to A&E to be sure.

Practically everyone: You can still breathe! Why are you wasting valuable resources when we're so overstretched?!

OP: Am I right to be annoyed that I've just wasted hours in A&E for something that could have been done in the MIU?

Practically everyone: Omg! You are so BU! Just be grateful it's free even if the doc did talk to you like shit!

Minor injuries thought a cast was needed and appropriately referred you. If they had any doubt as to cast vs strapping then of course they should refer.

Someone else maybe with more experience disagreed and hopefully made the right call that only strapping is needed.

I disagree that we have no right to complain about anything because the NHS is free. It isn't free btw, it's 'free at the point of care'. We pay a lot of tax for it.

I SAID it was free at the point of use! This will be the third time I've said that actually

The thing is Phoenix what is the actual complaint?

The posters DD got treated adequately and in a timely manner according to their injury.

5 hours? And?

Not you, northern, someone else referred to it as a free health service. This thread is moving fast

When it takes that long to get seen and the waiting room is so full that usually means one of two things. (Or possibly both)

A) the unit is short of doctors and nurses
B) the are some seriously ill patient(s) on the other side of the doors.

I am so sick of people accessing their free at the point of use healthcare and then bitching about it.

I'd like the rules to this please. My Mum had an emergency op for gallstones a few years back. (free at the point of need and all that). It went wrong and she spent a month in ICU trying not to die and then a further two months in hospital recovering. She will need constant reparative surgeries for the rest of her life as clinically speaking, she shouldn't be alive. She's recently seen her consultant again and was complaining that she needs another op. Is this filed under 'bitching about it' or 'fair enough that's understandable'?

Experienced assessment and management plan

It's two bits of tape around a finger

I'm not sure why anyone thinks I wanted a cast? Over the moon it only needs a strap. But we are conscious of not wasting A&E time which it seems like we did today. The fracture clinic is on Thursday.

My amazon prime is free at the point of service. It doesn't mean I don't pay for it every month.

It is more cost and overall time efficient to have minor injuries filtering out the 'easy injuries' and referring the more complex to A&E.

Essentially you were referred for a 'second opinion'.

The NHS follows a utilitarian system - the greatest good for the greatest number.

There's a sign in the car body repair shop I've been to:

If you want good and fast it will not be cheap.
If you want good and cheap (NHS imo thought I suppose you won't know if it's good til the injury heals) it will not be fast.
And if you want cheap and fast it will not be good.

My BIL went to a private A&E for an ankle X-ray and strapping - no fracture/follow up/extras - it cost £275.

Re why is A&E so crowded.

Children's A&E-two footballing kids, a gymnast and a dancer all with suspected fractures. All at a&E instead of minor injuries and ignoring the huge sign which says unless you have an open fracture please go to minor injuries for an X-ray. No seats because everyone seems to bring their mum their dad and Joan from next door.

My DP (an even-tempered woman in late middle age) got one of these fractures by tripping over a cardboard box at work and "punching" it as she fell!

BumWad I dont think the OP is narked at being treated adequately.

She's understandably narked at the doc accusing her DD of lying.

Yes he's probably knackered and been doing a long shift. I understand that all too well. I once had a HDU doc fail to put an arterial line in me twice and said "sorry I'm tired" then went on to tell me they'd done three back to back HDU shifts and it was affecting them. I get it. I really do. But the OP can feel narked if she wants to.

Have my sympathies OP I have spent a lot of time in A&E with DD1 who has ASD and was very clumsy in her younger days - but sometimes this is just something that you need to go through. Sometimes paediatric fractures need to be assessed by a specialist for the best treatment option.

Better to sit it out than be called back the next day after the consultant reviewed the decisions at the morning meeting - this happened to us with DD's elbow fracture

I sympathise. We waited ages at a&e after my dd got knocked over at nursery and had obviously hurt herself. We were eventually seen by a doctor who dismissed my concerns over a fracture and bluntly informed me that it would be a popped elbow and nothing more.

She then proceeded to twist and pull dds arm, telling me to hold her still, whilst she tried to un-pop the elbow. Dd was screaming and sobbing in pain. I was sobbing too. Eventually the doctor decided that the arm wasn't playing ball and sent us for a x-ray. Dd was practically inconsolable. It was awful.

We finally got the x-ray done and results back and it turned out that dd had a fracture.

That doctor was so sure of herself and she was completely wrong and subjected my three year old dd to an agonising ordeal for absolutely no reason. Why the fuck she didn't just do the x-ray first I'll never know. Dds arm was fractured and the doctor was bending it this way and that. No wonder dd was screaming. I wish I'd been more insistent about the x-ray first. Makes me feel sick to think about it now.

Of course we can complain about the NHS. We deserve a decent health servicevwith the tax we pay, and I'm happy our family pay tax to help people who can't work and pay their share too.

I was refused a referral because I didn't need surgery, I ended up having surgery. Before that a Physio ignored a very obvious sign of what was wrong leading to years and ££££ spent on private treatment, and finally that surgery. We've been messed around like crazy with DD's SEN and now DH's GP is dicking about and not prescribing medication as requested by a top consultant in his field. On a trip to A&E with DD we were given advice and told to go back the following week for a check up, we returned and had completely contradictory advice and treated like idiots for following the first Drs advice. Putting Drs etc on a pedestal is actually pretty dangerous, they are human and make mistakes.