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 took my son to A&E as he was in agony. Very painful stomach aches. Total drama from him. Turns out all he needed was to undo his trousers (I had asked him to do so ahead of going there and he assured me he had).

I took my daughter who was vomiting and complaining of what she described as being a "mild" tummy ache (but had raised temp). She had a burst appendix... People may have raised eyebrows at overhearing my discussion with the triage nurse when I arrived at A&E with my daughter and they would have been v concerned about hearing my son's story.

He needed to fart, she nearly died.

Mollie85 I am so glad that I don't live there. I have a chronic condition and regularly have to go to the GP. They won't prescribe my medication if I don't. Paying £48.50 each time would cost me a lot of money.

Since moving to the US we now get charged for a visit to the ER (A&E) it costs $25 a visit,

Since moving here we have become a lot more invested in our healthcare and we now fix a lot more at home. DH cut the palm of his hand with a kitchen knife it was deep, about 2" long. We treated that at home.

A&E is the symptom of underfunded social and mental health care, with a gp system under pressure. Yes there are malingerers but people also end up there because they don't have interventions or options that would keep them out of a&e :( A friend with medical training happened to be first on the scene of a woman setting herself on fire. She'd bounced between several services including a&e, police and mental health before making a sadly successful attempt on her life.

There used to be a couple of walk in centres in my city, they've closed most of them which just puts more pressure back in other services. Demand doesn't go away just because you cut services..

Kursk I would also treat that myself.

Agree re: treating cuts at home as long as the bleeding stops within half an hour. Keeping it dry and clean is the key to help it heal. If it's not started to heal up within a day you may need to get some stitches to help seal up the cut

The other issue with hands is whether you may have severed a tendon or not

Some people are time wasters, some people aren't. There's no way of knowing which is which without at least some medical training.

A lot of time wasters seem to me to be people that don't know what is an emergency and what isn't. An example would be a thread on another forum where a 3 year old had had a bang to the head and developed a nose bleed soon after. 111 had sent paramedics who assessed. His nose bled again and he was sent to A&E where he was sent home with head injury advice. Nose started bleeding again so mum rushes back to A&E where she posts and complains about the 3 hour wait. Hundreds of responses bemoaning how a kid should be seen first with a head injury. I asked what the blood looked like, Mum replies big clot then a trickle. Told her not to worry he's probably just dislodged the clot. Mum sheepishly replies Oh didn't think of that....

Mum in this case was seriously worried that her son had some horrible brain injury that the medics had missed. Everyone has pointed out all the little spots that are abcesses etc.. This is why I think first aid training in schools would save the NHS a great deal of money in the long run. Invest in educating people what to do and when to worry. Poster campaigns don't cut it when it's 3am and your 12 week old is breathing funny or you can't tell how much liquid your sick child has kept down and are unsure of the signs of dehydration because you're delerious with tiredness.

Pisses me off because in our hospital when a+e gets too busy they take the doctors from the kids a+e and kids end up waiting hours and hours. Especially on a Friday or Saturday night.

Louise, only if someone requires more urgent attention, e.g. they're dying. Hence triage. If your child needs attention rapidly, they'll get it, if not, they'll have to sit and wait, just like all the other folk that aren't actually dying.

I wouldn't say a+e full of people with the flu virus trump's a child coughing up blood but we still had to wait 6 hours. I know it was full of people with flu because they put a notice in the local paper and Facebook Twitter asking people to not go to a+e for flu as a+e was overcrowded

Agree 100% the two times I have taken loved ones to A&E the amount of people there who appear to just be in for something trivial is astounding.

The one time I went to the A and E (needed stitches in leg) I was also shocked at the things I heard in the waiting room.

My GP has a great video/cartoon that they play in the waiting room about A&E

It's dead catchy though and you end up with an earwig all day.

Basically if it's not an emergency, don't go to A&E.
I think when you get there and check in with the nurse on the desk, they should decide whether you are to be admitted or referred to a walk in centre or just a GP.

I once had a cyst on my groin. It was possible an infected hair follicle but it was a hug lump. The skin was being stretched so thinly over it that it was so painful! I couldn't wear any knickers so walked around in just a skirt (too scared to bend over or sit down). I brushed past a table and the pain was so intense I passed out and when I woke up an ambulance had arrived for me. I tried to refuse to get in (I certainly didn't need it!) but they said they may as well take me in as they were there. While in A&E it was basically a bunch of drunk people, people who'd been in a fight, people who twisted an ankle etc and I was annoyed. I kept trying to leave but they insisted I stay as I had passed out. Basically they looked at it and said that it would pop on its own so not to worry. What an absolute waste of time and money!!

I wouldn't say a+e full of people with the flu virus trump's a child coughing up blood but we still had to wait 6 hours. I know it was full of people with flu because they put a notice in the local paper and Facebook Twitter asking people to not go to a+e for flu as a+e was overcrowded
Neither would I. I can guarantee that unless someone was in respiratory failure they were not the people being dealt with before your child. You don't know who was being dealt with, but your child was triaged when you went in and was deemed to be safe for a period, had the situation changed it would have been dealt with.

I wouldn't say a+e full of people with the flu virus trump's a child coughing up blood but we still had to wait 6 hours. I know it was full of people with flu because they put a notice in the local paper and Facebook Twitter asking people to not go to a+e for flu as a+e was overcrowded

Some people have to go to A&E with the flu virus if they have Underlying Health Issues. They don't want to be there any more than you do. Trust me, I speak from experience.

A mum brought her child to school with the flu once, because she didn't want them to miss Santa. A classmate of theirs caught it and spent their Christmas in Intensive care, with the flu. That's how serious it can be sometimes.

Cigars- As a four year old, I wedged a bit of Lego up my nose while my fourteen year old sister was babysitting me. She hauled me to my aunt next door, who wasn't sure what to do. Luckily, I sobbed so hard at the idea of a button hook in my nose that it popped out.
I'm in the United States, and have to pay $ 100 for a visit to the hospital emergency room. If admitted to hospital, the payment is refunded.