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 ....

I think YABU but I do get the logic behind your thinking,
Either way, hope your DD is ok and gets to work soon. :)

Thing is the outcome could’ve been that DD needs further treatment and can’t go to work today, then she’s bumped everyone else for no reason

Cross posted. Glad all is good.

why didn't you take her to an optician. that would have been more appropriate (and quicker)

When I’ve had lens problems, I’ve been to the optician, who can examine the eye and give drops. My previous optician said to close the eye and massage it from the socket downwards. That can push the bits of lens down to the lower eyelid, making it easier to get out.

I think I have to admit to BU. It seems that a system to prioritise frontline NHS staff whilst they are in duty would require too much nuance and process and be difficult to implement in a fair and transparent way.
I hope that no one has come to any harm at hospital x due to being one man down and I’m sure the patients facing increased waiting times there will understand.
Thanks again for all your responses!

Glad she got seen OP. Of course YANBU - it makes perfect sense to patch up the people who might be saving lives later on that day, even if 30 miles away. I don't mean treat her eye whilst someone bleeds to death on a trolley, I mean just common sense to get her seen ASAP. Don't take any notice of those moaning on here, I am sure they'd want your DD to treat them ASAP (you've got poster on here saying she could simply have popped to an optician who clearly have no clue and you've already said hospital told her the optician would not be appropriate).

I imagine that hospital Y can't really be too worried about hospital X, you sort of deal with the hand you're dealt at the time so as to speak, but I do think you were right to use the hospital with the eye casualty instead of driving her to work. I would have panicked and flapped about and made the wrong decision so I admire you getting it sorted out and glad your DD is able to get to work - good for her (and good for all those she will care for today).

I agree with those who said take her to her own dept. They'd likely have treated her faster so they could get her back on the floor.

Many years ago when I worked in the NHS there was a general unwritten rule that staff were seen straight away. Not prioritised over greater need, obvs, but they wouldn't be made to wait in a queue behind 100 other non- urgent patients.

As you say, getting staff back to work meant patients ultimately got seen more quickly.

I'd have driven her to her own hospital.

All they can do is manipulate the bit of contact lens out or flush with saline and then check for a scratch on the eyeball whereby they give you ointment to put in. Her own hospital could do that and she'd be back on shift quicker.

If you wanted to be really kind between you, you and someone else could get her car to her workplace.

YABU.

If I didn’t turn up to work for hours on end over something that can be sorted out in 5 mins at the opticians I’d be on a disciplinary.

So in Asda the off duty cashiers go first?
In the beauticians the off duty beauticians fo first?
Priority to hairdressers to get their hair done?

Car fixed first if you're a mechanic?
Police out to police colleagues first?

Brilliant system, would be great to have a perk !

I think for patients already triaged and deemed able to wait for a few hours, a hospital should have two queues, a default one and another for people willing to bung them a set amount of money to be seen sooner, say £100. They could take patients alternately from each queue, but presumably the £100 queue would be a lot shorter.

(I also have a plan for how GP's should be able to charge for 50% of appointments. I reckon it would only take a small overlay of market forces to convert a one-size-fits-all system into one that is more responsive to different peoples priorities.)

No, they shouldn't get priority. How do you know what responsibilities the other attendees might have? Or how urgent their care might be?

I kind of agree with OP, but it would need to be formalised and delineated.

Maybe if this was a known stated perk of having an NHS job, you get bumped up a priority level. Then it could become acceptable. Heaven knows they don't have many perks as NHS staff.

I hope that no one has come to any harm at hospital x due to being one man down and I’m sure the patients facing increased waiting times there will understand.

What if someone was harmed because they prioritised your dd?

Either way one hospital was one man down. The one you went to for dd to be seen was seeing dd. If they prioritised dd, then someone else could be harmed.

The above statement I have quoted seems very passive aggressive and like you dont actually think you are BU.

I can't believe you went to A&E for a torn contact lens, especially with your daughter being a doctor. Any optician could have removed in 30 seconds and checked for an abrasion. It just involves putting in the yellow dye that she'd get during any contact lens check up.

I think I have to admit to BU....

Do you? Really? I think I might be more inclined to believe you if you’d stopped right there and hadn’t continued with the vastly insincere and supercilious follow on dripping with passive aggressive sarcasm.
Fact is, Hyacinth, your A & E Dr. DD isn’t that special it seems and not that astute either. She couldn’t figure out that going to an optician would have been quicker in the first instance or have you drive her to her own place of work where she could have more discreetly ‘line-jumped’?

The business about the car being left and the 30 mile distance is a red herring as in it was no one else’s problem and would have inconvenienced no one but her. That could have been resolved later if it were truly that important for her not to keep her prospective patients waiting.Taxis and Ubers exist as do other modes of public transport, and friends wIlling to give a lift.

How bloody ridiculous. Of course, normally people should wait their turn. But this is an A&E doctor, whose lateness to her own shift was going to cause massive queues at another hospital.
FFS, there are exceptions to be made and this would be one of them, in my book.

I’m a professional in a very busy job - not front line medical care
But if I turned up hours late because my lense tore my boss / colleagues would not be impressed.
It has happened me twice - a couple of minutes at the opticians sorted it.
The second time I went on to work With the piece still in and got out to boots city centre optician at a quieter moment
As others have said if there’s an abrasion and a visit to the eye hospital is needed then the optician will refer.
So I think this is less about whether your DD should have been seen as a priority (that’s a no btw) and more about whether she should have been there in the first place

I agree with you actually. It makes much more sense from a system perspective to get the Dr up and running so she can be working in A&E. Her own hospital may well have prioritised her but the other one doesn’t really have an incentive to do so.

Glad to hear you recognise that you're being a bit unreasonable. Have to admit, I'd be really bloody cross if after sitting for hours in an A&E someone waltzed in declaring "I'm a doctor. I need to go first as I have a very important job".

I've rocked up at opticians before with torn contact lenses, was seen within a few minutes and opticians took out torn lens.

@QuantumEntanglement

I think I might be more inclined to believe you if you’d stopped right there and hadn’t continued with the vastly insincere and supercilious follow on dripping with passive aggressive sarcasm.

This. I had to re-read the OP's last post a couple of times to check they really weren't being as passive aggressive and decidedly NOT believing they were BU as their words suggested they were.

But nope, they were just being passive aggressive, sarcy and deeply patronising. Not impressed, no wonder they think their daughter should jump the queue.

Glad to hear you recognise that you're being a bit unreasonable.

I don't think she's being unreasonable.

"I need to go first as I have a very important job".
But that wasn't what she would have said. If she hadn't been due on duty, she would have expected to wait her turn. But her delay there meant longer delays fro many others down the road.