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 ....

This used to happen in the A and E at the hospital I worked at if staff members got injured during the course of a shift A and E would try and prioritise them unless of course there was an urgent case

If we were giving out a and e waiting times on the basis of importance of job to knock effect elsewhere (including knock on effect on NHS services) we’d be putting bus and train drivers at the front of the queue.

@CallmeAngelina thank you for your comments.

Other PPs - nhs advice is to contact eye casualty if you suspect a corneal abrasion and you are a contact lens wearer. Of course DD had some Lens fragment in her eye too. The ophthalmic specialist nurse told my daughter that an optician was not the right option and she should stay and see a dr.

I think the AIBU depends on the point of view:

My DD’s POV ( if she weren’t conscientious): hey great I get to sit down for four hours drinking coffee and chatting to my mum and then only have to work 8 hours instead of 12.
I hasten to add this was not how she felt - she just wanted to get to work and not let anyone down.

Patients at eye casualty in hospital Y: we’ve been waiting 3 hours and now we have to wait 3 hours and 10 minutes because that patient (DD) has been prioritised just because she is a dr. How unfair. Agree this would look bad and this is why I declared IIABU amongst others. They wouldn’t have known actually that she was a dr.
Note DD did not expect or ask for priority treatment. It’s me who just thought it was nuts. I did not of course voice anything!

Patients in A&E at hospital X: we’ve been waiting hours with sick children or elderly parents etc and the average waiting time has now gone up from 6 hours to 8 hours. We’ve asked at the desk why and they say it’s staff shortages.
If they were told the reason why (one of drs is sat in eye casualty with 4 hour wait) do you think they would think this reasonable?

And thank you @DishingOutDone

Why didn't you take her to her own A&E?

If they needed her to work they can decide themselves?

Otherwise her suffering is the same as everyone elses. It s based on need and clearly her need was no more or no less than others who were waiting.

Yes I could have driven her there - 30 miles is not that far. But as I explained upthread she would have had to leave her car here which would have meant her getting taxis to and from work for the next 4 days. But yes maybe in hindsight I should have done so.
Even at her hospital they are strictly fair about queues, so would probably not have been seen any quicker (who knows) but it wouldn’t have mattered because she would have been able to keep working whilst waiting to be seen.
So yes perhaps that would have been better.

It s based on need and clearly her need was no more or no less than others who were waiting.
You have no idea of the need of others waiting. Lots of people go to A&E for very minor things, and some are there with not much else going on for them today. Waiting, whilst not the best way to spend a Saturday in my opinion, might not be too much of an inconvenience to some.

What about me on a minimum wage job where I won't get paid for missing time and might possibly get fired?
What about my kid sitting in nursery whose Mum might be out of a job because of your VIP dd?
Get real OP.

So all these optometrists who treat corneal abrasions all the time in opticians are acting against NHS advice? Why are they not getting sued? Why does the AOP advise people they can just see their own optometrist for a corneal abrasion?

When I was a medical SHO I had to wait 4 hours in A&E with a chest infection. It was my own hospital. They knew I was a staff member but didn’t prioritise me.

However when I got a needlestick injury on the job, I was sent down to A&E and was seen immediately.

So whether NHS staff get priority depends on the context. I think it was fair that I got priority in the second situation and not the first.

What about me on a minimum wage job where I won't get paid for missing time and might possibly get fired?
Oh, don't be so dramatic! If you were to be fired for having to go to A&E, it would be the fault of your bastard employers, not the OP's dd being ahead of you in a long queue.

Look, we've all sat in A&E, beadily watching the sliding doors to see who's entering and whether they "look" more seriously injured than ourselves and might therefore push us down the queue.
But I'd far rather an NHS professional was seen before me if it meant they could get back to work more quickly to reduce waiting times (don't see it matters if it is a different hospital), than the drunk bloke who was whisked away to be seen quickly (after stubbing his toe on a kerb coming out of the pub), because he was effing and blinding loudly in the waiting room.

The local hospitals have an arrangement whereby doctors and nurses who need non-urgent treatment get prioritised but then work the rest of that day’s shift in the hospital where they are being seen.

No idea, but would have made more sense for you to drive her to where she worked where her colleagues would know her and might decide to prioritise her.

I was about to suggest the same thing.

Of course she should have been seen first, ultimately it would mean others were waiting for less time,albeit in the other hospital

The ophthalmic specialist nurse told my daughter that an optician was not the right option and she should stay and see a dr.

The ophthalmic specialist nurse clearly doesn't know what's she's talking about! You do not need to go to A & E to remove a torn lens, even if you suspect an abrasion.

I’d have driven her to work, she’d definitely have got priority there.

You don’t need eye casualty to remove a piece of contact lens. The local optician did mine very easily.

When DD checked in she asked nurse about optician instead but nurse said she should be seen by dr to check for corneal abrasion.

Ridiculous. The optician can check for corneal abrasion. It doesn’t need a doctor. I’m surprised that your doctor daughter seems to have made such a drama out of a very minor incident. I would expect her to have known better.

No- you are BU. How on earth could they prioritise people based on their job rather than severity of injury? What about fire fighters?- should they be seen before doctors? or police men on duty- where do they fit in the hierarchy of "deserving occupations". What about an orthopaedic surgeon?- should they be prioritised over an A&E doctor? they should be in the operating theatre after all repairing people's hips. You cannot prioritise anyone in a medical situation any other way than severity of injury.

@beautiful if my fathers hip operation got cancelled or delayed because the Ortho dr was waiting downstairs in A&E behind loads of non urgent cases I would not be happy

What about me on a minimum wage job where I won't get paid for missing time and might possibly get fired?

By would you rather wait an extra five minutes or an extra two hours?

It doesn’t apply in the OPs case, but for an on duty ED doctor being treated in their own department, then being seen over the other non-urgent cases seems to be the logical workflow solution. It probably doesn’t happen because it’s the NHS.

Although I’m totally with the poster who reckons not being seen is a chance for a break.

@rabbitradar so would I, but my point is- HOW do you prioritise. I'd also be pretty pissed off if my house was on fire and the guy driving the fire truck was stuck in A&E behind your ortho doctor! Or, if the police had to delay investigating my burglary because the sergeant was waiting at A&E behind the fireman who was waiting behind the ortho doctor.

What? My DD always gets priority and I'm the doctor, not her. Surely if she said she was a doctor when she came in she should've been prioritised?

Interesting how many eye specialists on here who have been able to judge the severity and complexity of the dd's condition over the medium of MN without seeing her, and are able to over-rule the professional who actually saw her and said she should go to A&E.

Not to mention those who still keep on about her supposedly wanting preferential treatment "because she is a doctor." That is NOT WHAT THE OP WAS SAYING. Doctors "per se" should wait their turn. This was someone who should have been treating other patients at the time, but couldn't because she was sat in a queue somewhere else. Can people really not tell the difference in the circumstances?