Should she have got priority treatment over other non-urgent patients?

[Rabbitradar]

DD is an SHO (dr) in A&E in city X. She was off duty yesterday and so came home and stayed here last night in city Y which is 30 miles from city X. She was due on shift at 10am this morning. Unfortunately one of her contact lenses tore in her eye and despite several attempts a piece of contact lens remained in her eye causing blurred vision and mild pain.
She could not drive due to blurred vision so I drove her to eye casualty in city Y.
Waiting room packed (9am) and average wait time 4 hours.
DD didn’t ask for priority treatment - and wouldn’t dream of expecting to be seen before anybody requiring urgent treatment. She did ask what the waiting time was and explained she was due on shift in A&E at hospital X.

However, to me it seems nuts that she is spending the morning sat in a waiting room with lots of other non-urgent casualties (and doubtless some urgent ones too) whilst 30 miles down the road at hospital X the waiting room in A&E will be backing up further as they are 1 Dr down.

AIBU to think that in some circumstances -like these - it would be sensible for NHS staff to get priority treatment?

Please note I am not suggesting that any other patient’s treatment is compromised just that other non-urgent patients have to wait a bit longer ....

@lionsandwhales

To be fair, OP did say “non urgent”.

Bet if you'd not have known she was a dr there would be no issue. You probably wouldn't have been aware and I'm sure of there had been a huge emergency the Dr in question would have had to wait anyway . To play devils advocate what about the patients if they'd been in danger at the drs in questions job and she'd have been late? Life works in aroundabout way ....

I think the situation the OP describes is different to what MAFIL refers to.

MAFIL's situation is obviously going to impact many patients over weeks / months and I'm surprised their line manager hasn't had the common sense to bump them up the list. That I wouldn't have a problem with.

But I do have an issue with what the OP describes, which is in response to acute, unplanned need, as it creates a two - tier system where anyone (or is it just medical professionals) with in the NHS gets preferential treatment, which in some circumstances lead to an NHS worker's life being prioritised over anyone else's. It is also hugely open to abuse as a nurse / doctor coukd just say they're due to start a shift to jump the queue.

@Sb74 it’s not just about more money and more staff but of course both are desperately needed. The NHS needs to be more efficient - every pound has to count in improving patient outcomes - and to do more with less - which is where innovation comes in. Trusts - some better at it than others - routinely trial different Quality Improvement Projects which have strict and well defined criteria for trialling innovative processes and/or kit. And then cost benefit criteria which must be met for small ‘trials’ to be expanded and then even rolled out across the trust.
It’s all data driven and the NHS is only just getting to grips with this.
So - for example - suppose a trust identified that it is performing least best in meeting NICE guidelines for hip surgery. And it does a root cause analysis and the root cause is that they have 2 orthopaedic surgeons on sick leave waiting for hand surgery ( no shit, Sherlock!) . What is the most efficient way to address this? Is it to bump them up the waiting list? Is it to pay for them to have surgery privately? Remember trusts get financial penalties for missing targets in some circumstances.
You have to take the emotion out of it and look at the data, trial it and see. That’s one way you get evidence-based progress.
So yes I’d like to see a trust identifying a QIP based around prioritising NHS staff for treatment and empirically measuring the effect on patient outcomes. Who knows, maybe it’s being done already? @MAFIL’s situation sounds like a prime candidate?

What is this "common sense" of which you speak Babyname ?!
My feelings about my line manager were probably written all over my face at a recent sickness absence review when she said " You have been off quite a while now...is there anything we can do to help get you back into the workplace?" I replied "Err, get my operation done maybe?" and she laughed.

The answer is no.

She should have gone to her own A&E (driven by you) supposedly for her shift and one of her colleagues would have seen her immediately so she could go back on duty asap (emergencies not withstanding).

That's what I did when I was doing an A&E shift and my earring back disappeared into my ear.

I'm really not sure why you went to a different A&E but I haven't read the whole thread. (And I'm not going to)

@felicis - I’ve been waiting for you to turn up. A thread should always have a poster turn up 10 pages in without having RTFT and offering an incisive opinion. But hats off to you for declaring!

She should have gone to her own AE she probably would have been seen straight away by a colleague and then into work if ok.
She's saving lives - there aren't other doctors to step in just like that.

Agree with Felicis actually - that's reality

@FelicisNox and @mindfulmam - fair enough.

And still nobody answered my questions about firefighters?

@strawberrieshortcake if you're that bothered, fire coverage is engineered at a county level. If a station didn't have the personnel to maintain minimum levels, it would be ensured that there was sufficient coverage nearby. There is, in theory, no difference to the response time between this scenario and retained stations. This is unlikely to reach that level anyway unless several people are also absent, as despite there having been cuts, most stations have enough to be surplus to safe and legal engine numbers; and overtime is popular. Depending on the ailment, I would be surprised if most would be fit for duty following a trip to A&E anyway.

On the other hand you have a singular doctor, who cannot be 'replaced' for those few hours (even a hideously expensive locum would need more notice), which means that people are left waiting longer.

Ok. These words should never appear in a sentence. Non urgent and A&E. She should know that. Why didn't you call 111, get an out of hours appointment and have it dealt with within the hour? Why was A&E full of people who didn't need emergency care?

@Tetraread
Please re read the last sentence of your first paragraph: ‘I would be surprised if most would be fit for duty after a trip to A&E anyway’

This exact logic can be applied to doctors too? Many reasons a person may go to A&E I.e a broken leg, an infection etc. Would make a doctor not fit for duty.

So again why would doctors they be prioritised over firefighters if they most likely won’t be able to work afterwards anyway?

OP’s daughter was a special case where she went in for a very minor issue taht didn’t affect her work. Maybe A&E cases mean the patient won’t be fit for work immediately after so I’m struggling to see your point.

I suspect you’ll come back with a response that also doesn’t answer my question so my final comment is that triage based on occupation is completely idiotic and I’m glad it is not used in the NHS.

@strawberrieshortcake your question was about a theoretical FF being late for a shift essentially, the answer was basically it's not ideal but it wouldn't cause issues; unlike an A&E doctor being late. Glad you're going to

Stop posting about them! People's opinions differ and that's life, but to keep going on about something incorrectly is teedious.

There are a fair few things that are not "urgent" in the sense of life threatening but do need seeing urgently - and A&E is the only place they can be dealt with. E.g.

Foreign body in eye outside optician opening hours - needs a slit lamp, dark room etc which doesn't seem to exist at most MIUs.

"Minor" cut requiring stitch up or checking for glass.

Minor breaks.

Irritatingly for all concerned - vomiting that doesn't stop leading to dehydration as can't keep down water. My DC1 seems to be prone to this - can only stop with the anti-emetics which you can't get otc.

Depending on circumstances the top 3 would all allow a quick return to work (non dominant hand...)

Thanks OP. I know all about the NHS as I work with them every day but thanks for the lecture!! What you’re suggesting is tip of the iceberg stuff. There’s a massive disconnect between primary and secondary care. Patient pathways are not established effectively in many areas. NICE guidelines are not adopted by some CCGs therefore equity is an issue. Primary Care is currently going through a massive change as PCNs which is causing more flux. I realise you think you know it all OP because your DD is an SHO but the NHS is a complicated beast and nothing is straightforward to implement.

There are so many other areas in the NHS that need addressing that you

Sent too early, your QIP idea would never get off the ground because it would be very hard to audit it and understand the benefits for one. I understand your point but never going to happen.

Common sense, not that common.

Exactly the same thing happened to me. I did exactly the same as Peaseblossom22. I was in and out in less than half an hour. It meant then, that I was able to return to work. So in all, it turned out that I was only an hour later than I would have normally have been.

@IAmNotAWitch ain’t that the truth

I really think that a triage nurse could have advised your Dd to go to an optician and saved a lot of trouble all round.