To be mad at people going to a&e

[Winebomb]

So I chopped the end of my finger off, blood pumping every where, so went to A&e...

I was "lucky" enough to be sat next to the triage nurse waiting to be seen. And heard every patient going through, the best was;

I have a bad spot on my bum (not infected, just hurt a bit, husband and wife showed up together)
My eye has started itching
My foot hurts a bit, I dropped the shampoo on it in the shower
I got pissed last night and punched a wall, I have a graze on my knuckles

It just goes on..

I mean really, this is an ACCIDENT OR EMERGENCY service, not a god damn mummy service..

AIBU that people just absolutely feel entitled to waste as much public money they can. why else go to hospital for any of these reasons?

Unfortunately the NHS providing care free at the point of delivery has bred a monster in terms of public expectations. I hate the idea of the NHS ending or changing to charge but am reaching the point of seeing no other alternative

I've just watched a programme about ambulances where a man called them out 3 times in one day to get taken home, once from the bookies with no care for the costs involved or for the fact that someone else could be dying while he wasted time. My friend is a GP and has a wealth of stories of appointments taken or visits requested for lack of common sense and ludicrous reasons and of the pressures she is under from people "playing the system". Every bit of the NHS is under pressure

I thank God that my family and I rarely need to call on the NHS but am concerned that, by the time we are older and need it, it will have been ground into the dirt by over-entitled, demanding idiots

These a and e docs and nurses deserve more pay and more holidays.

Kudos to you all

I know what you mean, OP. I once had my arse burst all over my face and I waited three weeks to see a GP who blue lighted me into hospital and cut my fucking head off, I was so poorly. While I was in there everyone else I met just had minor issues like slight smudges of nail polish on the skin of their toes and I thought, as I often do: 1) why isn't everyone as great as me? and 2) it's such a burden having the inside gen on everyone else around me that I know their exact life circumstances.

@IvorHughJarrs did you stop to think of the man's mental health condition? Or the lack of social care that means his problems are medicalised? Or did you just judge based on your own, beige life? You're lucky to not have first hand experience of those issues. You're unlucky to have no empathy.

I remember when I was 11 - arm snapped through. Oth forearm bones, dislocated at elbow and shoulder, knees cut to the bone ..... the woman ahead of me was in for a headache ( I know I know she could've had previous history/stroke/ head trauma ) but 11 year old me was outrageously mad

Batfurger- I too watched the ambulance program and even the paramedics were at thier wits end. This man was knocking random doors asking people to call 999 for him. He refused all medical help they offered and he just kept saying so you won't give me a lift home then? They said no so he would literally knock the next house and ask them to call 999. The ambulance were following him at a snails pace because they kept getting calls for him. He did not care one bit for the time he was wasting.

A couple of people saying to ring 111....

I had a sickness bug for 3 days. Got kidney disease.... I felt ill but i didnt want to go to a&e as it was just a sickness bug but was worried about my kidneys...

Partner rang 111... He spoke to two doctors on there and promised a call back. 4 hours later i had got so ill, he bundled me in the car and we went to a&e.

My kidneys were failing.. And doctors said if i had stayed at home i would of died in a couple of hours

111 rang back 9 hours later....

So waiting on 111 isnt always the answer....

I will go to a&e with a cold or throat infection, temperature, cough, but because i know my kidneys will be slowly failing. But anyone listening to the initial assessment, i would be one of those "you dont need a&e"

Its only going to get worse until we charge for it. Whenever you give something for free, it has no value. Im a staunch £5 to see a GP, £10 to attend a&e. Or even twice that. Those receiving benefits claim it back, and children under 16 free at point of service. The abuse of the NHS drives me potty.

But surely all these people get blocked by the triage nurse or at least eternally put to the end of the queue.

person with an itch in the crease of their elbow

Sadly I believe it. In my nursing career I've seen many patients come in with

• minor issues that they have been having for months or years "sore arm for five years".
• vomited or had diarrhoea once (and no other medical issues).
• a bit sniffly from a cold
• the most minor skin scratches you need a magnifying glass to even see
• to get non urgent follow up blood tests and X-rays but couldn't be bothered to go to gp

OP YADNBU

Oh and my other favourite is when one family member comes in for something reasonable, and other family members come along with them and ask to be seen for their own minor/non existent issues, eg,
piles, cold, sore knee for 2 years, dry skin, etc "since they are there anyway".

Your waiting time at A&E should be directly proportional to the stupidness of the injury. Either that or start charging to be seen.

I dropped a bottle of shampoo on my foot the day before yesterday. I hopped a bit and said 'Ow! Bugger.' I thought that was the normal procedure.

Ive had to go twice this year. Car crash outside the hospital, about 300m from a and e but insisted on taking me in by ambulance. I couldnt stop apologising was so embarrased. Srcond time sent by 111 with suspected kidney infection. Had to go to the a and e of the local eye hospital too.

I took my sister to a and e in Canada this summer

It was a hernia though which some of her intestine had protruded and was becoming strangled and necrotic

She had to have emergency surgery

But I am sure that any numpty overhearing us at triage would have thought we were taking the poss by turning up with a tummy ache

Last time I was in A&E (snapped ankle, foot at a funny angle, I needed to be there) there were so many relatives taking up seats that there weren't enough for the sick to sit down! We ended up having to position my wheelchair in such a way to create a barrier for a poor elderly lady that was upset and embarrassed about being sick in her robe in public. 90% of the people that were in that room did not need to be there. If you can get up and wander off to the shops and have countless fags right outside the front doors then you can wait until the clinic opens in the morning.
We also had a guy in custody. He smirked the whole time and got seen long before the big, burly builder with a very obvious fracture that was crying in pain.
The girl with the infected dermal piercing (!) Was left till last I think.
People treat it like an outing for the family. People turn up because they haven't bothered to try the pharmacy and the GP won't jump to attention because they have a boo boo.
It's crap how entitled people are.

Not forgetting the hand cuffs. This is why you can never find a policeman when you need one, three of them are chained to a fuckwit who is canny enough to demand hospital attention in the hopes of a minute scratch being found he can sue for on the grounds of police brutality

Well if we had waited til the Monday to see a gp my sister would at best have a colostomy bag and at worst be dead

Quite glad that in Canada people don't begrudge anyone medical care

I am wondering how exactly people on this thread are triaging patients without medical training or all the facts

I dread to think what would have happened had she been here

thank God for the Canadian medical system

I think the one time when I thought it was a waste to call an ambulance was with my Dd

She was 13 months and had a bad cold that day. Had been grizzly all day but then it got towards bedtime and she would not stop screaming. Hours and hours it went on and nothing was helping.

In a panic we rang an ambulance who started to take us to an OOH doctor until we spotted she was sucking in air not breathing.

Was immediately whisked to A&E where an x-ray showed one lung completely shadowed with the other lung half done.

Needed to go on oxygen and a nebuliser straight away. Also needed a catheter in her foot and antibiotics.

She was in hospital for 3 days. Over something we thought was a cold. Turned out to be a severe case of bronchitis.

So please don't judge. You just don't know

I walked into A&E once and said to the receptionist I thought I had sun stroke... turns out it was septic shock.

The last 2 times we have been to A&E the time Delays have been awful.
Dh was left in a trolley in a Corridor for hours because they had no beds. He had food poisoning and was eventually seen and admitted to hospital for 3 days.

Ds1 has a broken hand and Sister said the wait was 2-3 hours to see the Doctor. I took him home. Iced his hand and gave him pain relief, which they said they weren't able to do. And returned him, a few hours later, and got told off for having taken him home.

I had crippling headaches for about 3 weeks. After the second week I went to my GP who told me it was a migraine and to take some painkillers and lie in a dark room. I was adamant this was not right but when o went back I was just given the same information.

In the end I was so fed up with not being examined properly and being fobbed off that I went into A and E. They looked into my eyes with a light thing and could see I had a large growth. Didn't leave the hospital for 3 days having scans and lumbar punctures etc.

People listening in would have heard me go on with a headache and judged me for wasting time. Turned out I was very lucky I went when I did and didn't worry about people like you listening in to my private app with the triage nurse.

At the risk of sounding like I'm just inflaming the thread, my mum dropped a bottle on her foot in the shower and broke a bone...

I ended up in A&E a few months ago on a weekend afternoon and there didn't appear to be anyone there who didn't need to be. They warned me the wait was likely to be a couple hours and a nurse practicioner saw me at 1:57.

Bear in mind they will have nurse practitioners and various docs and probably a social worker on site, so just because someone is called from the waiting room before you doesn't mean they were in your queue.

If this is genuine a hospital which is triaging patients within earshot of other patients has massive, massive confidentiality issues. But I actually cannot seriously believe it's true. If they are really doing this when it comes to light heads would roll. Even receptionists are set well back from the seating area to avoid earwigging. If what the OP means is she was sat near the receptionist then what people say in a brief sentence when there is someone (ahem) earwigging and judging is often going to be very different to what is actually wrong with them.