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?

I am slightly ashamed to admit that I have been to A&E twice with migraine.

In my defence, I had been vomiting 3-4 times an hour for over 24 hours and my BP was through the floor. Rand 111 who insisted on sending an ambulance. At A&E, they injected me with anti-emetics and put me on a drip for a couple of hours to rehydrate me.

If I could be allowed to inject myself with anti-emetics, I wouldn't have had to go, but the GP says this can't be done.

I think more walk-in centres are needed. We have a fantastic minor injuries unit where I live, they even have a radiographer so can deal with fractures, as long as they aren't displaced. I reckon they save loads of trips to A&E.

It doesn't help when walk in centres refuse to see certain types of problems and send you round to a&e when you know full well all it needs is the once over by a nurse or Dr!!

Conversely I've been rushed into a&e and into majors with a suspected stroke on more than one occasion that turned out to be a migraine.

Swings and roundabouts really

My mum is one of these people it drives me insane. She will not listen to me when I tell her she's being an idiot.

She took my 15 year old brother in to a&e a while ago because he slept funny and had a stiff neck when he woke up. If my DC have been ill for longer than a few days she will demand that I take them to a&e (obviously I don't )

I wish there were some way of filtering out these idiots before they walked through the doors.

if you could just see the gp for 'urgent but not life threatening stuff' that would help.
our gp doesn't do wound care, will not take bloods, not see strains/sprains, don't refer unless you have gone to them with the same problem at least 3 times... I sometimes wonder what they do do as it's impossible to get an appointment in person. they do phone appointments with a 2 week wait.

I've been to A&E twice - once with DD who dislocated her kneecap and cracked her ankle bone, once with a stroke.

On neither occasion did I notice, nor give two hoots about, anyone else, my only thought was that the NHS was bloody fabulous.

(having spent a childhood in Africa where "so-and-sos granny used to be a nurse 25 years ago, she'd best have a look at it, we are 9 hours from the nearest hospital"!)

Not in the UK so not the NHS but years back I was in a paeds a&be with one of the children who was having a bad asthma attack which was not responding to her inhalers. She was taken straight in from triage.

A nurse had to shield me from abuse from an irate father for skipping the queue. She said very loudly "I have told you before it goes in order of need. When your child has been triaged with sneezing and a runny nose you might be waiting here for days."

He sat back down but I couldn't understand why he stayed at all.

I'm in a country where we get charged (not a lot, about 30 euros for an A&E visit) which probably does help cut down on the pointless visits but long waits for the GP (in my area anyway, though that should have changed now as they've set new appointment rules) mean that people often end up going to A&E (which is a combined out of hours/A&E in my town) for things that aren't emergencies but can't wait two weeks for a GP appointment. I even took DD once for a bloody splinter but she was violently stopping me from looking at it and it was dirty so I was worried about infection - called the nurse line and they said to bring her straight in and not to worry about it as they do this a lot, quick ten minute job and we were out (thankfully no charge if you just see a nurse)

I feel lucky to live in France where rapid access to healthcare is considered a given. You go directly to your specialist (paediatrician for your DC, sports doctor for running injury, etc) without having to go through GP or A&E.

Those of you berating people for going to A&E might like to turn your bile to your government and ask for money to be diverted from needless wars in the Middle East and into your country's social security network.

The last time I sat in a and e I had a serious kidney infextion was in absolute agony had called the out of hours and was told to take ibuprofen but couldn't cope with the pain.

I was severely dehydrated by morning managed to get to doctors and was told to go straight to a and e as they had no appointments and I looked ill 😷

I would like to see charges at the point of contacting the NHS. Probably something like £50 for a GP appointment, and £300-£500 each for an ambulance call-out and/or A&E visit. Even if non-working people were exempt, it should help cut the amount of time-wasting.

Yes, some people would probably die as a result of making a wrong decision about whether to incur the cost, but people die every day of the week as a result of wrong decisions they make, not sure why this should be different. Particularly as the ultimate consequence of allowing some people to consume resources unreasonably is that reasonable people will die due to lack or resources left over to deal with them.

After ringing out of hours service I was told to take my teenage son to children's A&E, around 2am. He had a heavy cold but was wheezing and struggling for breath. A&E was empty and they were expecting us. The nurse asked my son what was wrong and he explained, mentioning that he had a cold and sore throat as well as his chest hurting. Another nurse was writing up his notes and asked the first nurse what my son was there for. The first nurse said in a flat, sarcastic tone "sore throat". He was seen by the doctor and the first nurse came back along with his prescription of 2x inhalers and a course of steroids. I said "funny prescription for a sore throat?"

Firesuit, that would be cripplingly expensive for anyone with poor health or chronic issues. My DH has only been to the GP a couple of times over four years because he has the good luck to be healthy. OTOH, I have several conditions I have no control over that mean I'm in at least once or twice a month, like, for example, migraines that leave me vomiting constantly for several days a month and menstrual issues such as heavy, eight-week long periods. If I were on low pay and couldn't access medical help due to the cost I wouldn't be healthy enough to work or live a normal life. I would far rather be healthy than wasting my time sitting in waiting rooms.

A lot of people who go to the GP and A&E unnecessarily are probably suffering from mental health conditions that they need help with. I know an elderly lady who is seriously mentally ill and constantly phones the fire brigade and the police due to imaginary emergencies. She needs medication and a better care package, not charges or fines.

1. A shampoo bottle would break bones in the feet of at least three members of my family.
2. Dd had convulsions a twenty years ago, got rushed through A&E (chicken pox, high temperature) to be told by a nurse that this was normal for chicken pox, fortunately saw someone with a brain after kicking up a fuss.
3. You really don't know the affect that something has on folk, no matter what you hear. I've heard people complaining about people laughing and seeming fine in A&E, but you have no idea what's happened.

I would like to see charges at the point of contacting the NHS. Probably something like £50 for a GP appointment, and £300-£500 each for an ambulance call-out and/or A&E visit. Even if non-working people were exempt, it should help cut the amount of time-wasting.
Dd has brittle asthma. Do you know what that is?

My DH went into A&E once with what had seemed like a spot on his bum but became very painful. It turned out to be an abscess and he was admitted into hospital for 2 nights to have it removed. He was then signed off work for 4 weeks because he couldn't sit down.

Sometimes you really don't know the back story. (I'm sure there are some who are taking the piss as well though.)

Mrs - I could get up, and I was vaping outside and pacing because it's the only way I coped with the pain. Was up and walking and probably looked like nothing was wrong. I drove myself to a&e

I had absolutely fantastic care off a&e and the neurosurgery ward. Took a bag of stuff in for the nurses afterwards because they were so lovely, I didn't need much help but they did stuff like make me hot chocolate at 3am when I couldn't sleep

Yes, some people would probably die as a result of making a wrong decision about whether to incur the cost, but people die every day of the week as a result of wrong decisions they make, not sure why this should be different

Thank god you are not in charge of the nhs!
No one should die because they can't afford to pay for an ambulance.

We already pay to access the nhs via taxation. It is only free at the point of delivery, whoch is not the same as actually free.

Anyway OP, mind your own business

It is the OP's business though, as it is mine, and yours and everyone else's.

The NHS and Social Care systems in the country are getting massively clogged up by a combination of medical care getting better and everyone's expectations being higher, and a shortage of money which clearly cannot meet the needs (probably, IMO also effected by some huge inefficiencies and no-one ever speaking to the people on the frontline about how situations could be managed better).
So, entitled people then clogging up the system even further does become everybody's business. As tax payers, as voters, and as service users.

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.
I don't know where Op was, obviously, but this is the case in my A&E (newly built hospital too). We had to go a few months ago and first got triagage my a Nurse in a kiosk on the door - just speaking through a little window so anyone behind or in front could have heard. Then we were allowed to move on to book in at Reception, where again, the Receptionist was behind a think screen, so, once we sat down, we could have picked up details from everyone coming in behind us had we been interested.

By Christmas every ED in England will be required to provide co-located (ie physically within the ED) primary care for urgent conditions. This will mean streaming appropriate patients before they book in at A&E (obviously those who are very sick will be taken right through but they are a minority). Each trust is responsible for designing how this will work for them (and there is minimal funding to support this) but it is likely to mean that patients attending with urgent but not emergency conditions will be streamed by a senior nurse who is specially trained for the role to see a primary care doctor (GP) or nurse practitioner. This may well be an appointment system so you could be sent away to come back later. Patients may also be redirected to their own GP or other services such as pharmacy, dentist etc. It won't be optional, you can't just insist to be seen in ED; quite rightly as you wouldn't be seen by the dentist for constipation just because you want to!
I'm not sure that the logistics are in place for this but the intention is to allow EDs to focus on what we are trained to do: looking after emergencies and letting primary care see those patients who fall in their area of expertise. This particularly applies to unwell children, the vast majority of whom are not particularly sick so should be seen by a GP who are the experts in this field.
For info www.nationalhealthexecutive.com/Health-Care-News/integrated-streaming-service-to-be-introduced-in-all-hospitals-by-christmas

That's good wall0ps
Here we have a sort of appointment system for the emergency doctor, you call up and describe your symptoms to the nurse and they decide whether you should come straight in or then they give you a time to come wait (so you won't necessarily be seen at that time but usually don't end up waiting for longer than an hour or so because people are spread out over the day)

Had to go to a&e due to my eyes being sore on gp phone advice, turned out to be corneal ulcers which required drops every 2 hours for 3 days otherwise I could have gone blind.

Also had to go to have a boil lanced as gp don't do that was under an armpit and poor nurse was there squeezing green pus out for over an hour!! Had lots of trainee docs come and watch as it was really disgusting and huge!

Never been there for a knife injury and had a couple of nasty ones

A lot of people don't like making a fuss and it's not until they are seen that the true nature of the issue comes out so YABU

Of course it's bullshit to go to A&E for some of the reasons people go. It's also bullshit some of the things people go to their GP for. And call ambulances for. But there are a lot of people out there who don't have much (if any) common sense and see it as a convenient fall back when using their brains is too difficult. The problem is how to weed out those people from those in genuine need of help. Even using 111 as a referral is no good because the most egregious abusers of the system know the key words to say to get an ambulance sent such as "chest pain" (paramedic arrives and it's an ingrown toenail).

wall0ps in theory it sounds good, but do you know what will happen with those having a mental health crisis, gp referral system is not always helpful in such situations.