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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think that nearby doctors should help in a potential emergency

159 replies

Gwenhwyfar · 05/08/2017 22:24

Woman bleeding from the head, but still conscious and walking around just outside an infirmary. Someone goes in to ask for a doctor while we're waiting for the ambulance to arrive and is told one will be along. 15 minutes later security guard comes out saying no doctors are available - they are there but not 'available'. The infirmary doesn't deal with urgent cases, so why couldn't a doctor/nurse leave the routine appointment to see to an emergency? Ambulance arrived in the end. I know the infirmary doctors are not A&E doctors, but surely any medical help could have been useful and don't they have a responsibility to help people even outside their scheduled work?

OP posts:

Florriesma · 05/08/2017 22:27

Err no. Still conscious and walking gives you the answer needed.
Had woman been collapsed on the street then yes people would have come running with equipment.

FruitCider · 05/08/2017 22:28

I wouldn't call someone bleeding from the head who is conscious walking around and talking coherently a medical emergency I'm afraid.

Migraleve · 05/08/2017 22:29

Walking wounded. Fine to wait for ambulance.

PlayOnWurtz · 05/08/2017 22:29

Sounds like she just needed some basic first aid and a lift to a&e or minor injuries. Do a first aid course.

KurriKurri · 05/08/2017 22:45

hat does the infirmary deal with - not being an a and e doesn't mean that cases are routine or that people don't have serious conditions. Maybe none of them felt they should abandon the patients they were dealing with to sort out someone who was not that badly hurt and would be fine waiting for an ambulance to take her to the appropriate health care facility. If an ambulance was on its way there was little point in going to the woman - what could they have done in the short time between a doctor coming out to her and the ambulance arriving?

I've been in a hospital appointment (not a and e) and an urgent call went out (someone suddenly taken very ill) and my consultant and the other docs along the corridor all left their patients and ran to help with the emergency. I imagine they know when something is urgent and when it is not.

KurriKurri · 05/08/2017 22:46

what not hat.

Original poster

Gwenhwyfar · 05/08/2017 22:51

"I wouldn't call someone bleeding from the head who is conscious walking around and talking coherently a medical emergency I'm afraid."

Ok. I didn't know that because I'm not medically trained and didn't know that a bang to the head is not serious unless the person is unconscious.

OP posts:

Original poster

Gwenhwyfar · 05/08/2017 22:52

"Sounds like she just needed some basic first aid and a lift to a&e or minor injuries."

She got basic first aid from the police who also could have taken her to A&E (there was a car and a van), but they obviously thought she needed an ambulance.

OP posts:

Migraleve · 05/08/2017 22:54

She got basic first aid from the police who also could have taken her to A&E (there was a car and a van), but they obviously thought she needed an ambulance.

Do you really not understand how the emergency services work? The police don't do lifts to hospital.

FadedRed · 05/08/2017 22:55

Go to the Red Cross website and download the (free) First Aid app, then you will know what to do next time.

Witchend · 05/08/2017 22:56

Also doctors are much more reluctant to go and help now that a few times people have come forward to help, done their best, and been sued. Even if the suer doesn't win it makes doctors wary about potentially putting themselves in that stressful position.

Yes, in a genuine emergency for most automaton will kick in and they'll do what they can, but in the situation you describe I wouldn't expect them to.

BeepBeepMOVE · 05/08/2017 22:56

That sounds like a waste of an ambo, surely she could have got a cab if she was up and walking? Only a wound needing stitches.

ArchieStar · 05/08/2017 22:57

OP, are you on about an incident in a place beginning with H?

ArchieStar · 05/08/2017 22:58

Posted too soon.

Not classed as an emergency as PPs have said so no, they won't come out. They would have had she been unconscious or showed clear signs of concussion

Original poster

Gwenhwyfar · 05/08/2017 23:03

Kurri the infirmary deals with the following:

clinic services, genitourinary medicine and rehabilitation. There remain 119 beds for stroke, orthopaedic and rehabilitation treatment.Community mental health team, Addicition Unit, Community Drug and Alcohol team, Methodone and needle exchange clinic.

OP posts:

Madasahattersteaparty1749 · 05/08/2017 23:06

A bit of a weird anomaly GPs may not be first aid certificated despite substantial training so can't help outside their workplace. All the gps I know would but they potentially open themselves up to malpractice suits etc and can't volunteer at school etc events. It is absolutely stupid in my opinion.

Hulder · 05/08/2017 23:07

Depends on what the injury is and what the doctor is doing.

Conscious, aware person with bang to head and a bit of bleeding - not an emergency. Prob didn't need an ambulance really - bearing in mind one of my patients who absolutely did need one waited over 10 hours for one recently.

Doctors in infirmary are all busy doing their jobs, which do not necessarily involve training in how to deal with person with bleeding from head wound. Am sure all the patients waiting to see them in clinic would have been delighted to wait too

If you did that outside my place of work I would be a) too busy to deal with you and b) mystified as to what to do with it anyway. I am not a doctor of bleeding head wounds.

Toysaurus · 05/08/2017 23:12

Police have done lifts to hospital in some situations. Depends how serious the lady's head injury was even though she was up. My friend is a retired paramedic and said it can be surprising how serious the kind of injuries that may appear minor can be.

But the type of clinic you've put there doesn't sound like they are equip to deal with first aid incidents.

KurriKurri · 05/08/2017 23:14

Sounds as if the infirmary would not have had the appropriate staff or equipment to deal with a head wound. I imagine they felt the woman would be better off waiting for an ambulance.

RainbowPastel · 05/08/2017 23:15

My doctors is at a busy junction where there are always accidents. They always run out to help.

Original poster

Gwenhwyfar · 05/08/2017 23:17

"The police don't do lifts to hospital."

No, I didn't know that. Seems I'm supposed to know everything about the police and do first aid myself so I can heal people in the street. I doubt a quick first aid course would be enough to teach me to stick people's heads.

OP posts:

Migraleve · 05/08/2017 23:18

Police have done lifts to hospital in some situations

Indeed. However they don't do it as standard and it is ridiculous for the OP to suggest it should have been done in this situation.

Mumoftwoyoungkids · 05/08/2017 23:19

My best friend is a doctor. Many years ago she was working in A&E. We went out one night but she left early because she had to be in early the next day as she was doing a first aid course. I was a bit confused as she'd just done 5 years at medical school and was that not enough?

Apparently it was a new initiative in her department as there was concern that all the training doctors had revolved around the machines and drugs available in the hospital rather than basic first aid.

At that point I was very smug and couldn't help hoping that there would be a sudden collapse and a "is there a doctor in the house?" call. She may have her distinction in Clinical medicine but I - me! - I had my guide first aid badge! smug

Migraleve · 05/08/2017 23:20

No, I didn't know that. Seems I'm supposed to know everything about the police

You don't need to know everything but it's pretty basic stuff that an ambulance and not a police car takes injured people to hospital.

Original poster

Gwenhwyfar · 05/08/2017 23:20

"Am sure all the patients waiting to see them in clinic would have been delighted to wait too hmm"

If you've got a routine appointment at a clinic, you would resent your doctor being late because she/he was helping at a car accident??? Seems unlikely to me.

OP posts:

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