A&E usage down 40%

[rabbitsnose]

Apart from the people in need that are maybe staying away because they're scared of catching coronavirus, doesn't this prove that A&E has been used in the past by people who didn't really need to be there?

I know mums not taken children due to fear that should have and colleagues who told me of child deaths who gone too late. Please mmtters go to hospital if worried x

I keep seeing messages from consultants of our local hospitals pleading for parents to take their children BEFORE it's absolutely critical.

Let's hope no one pretends all A&E patients were time wasters and use that excuse to reduce funding or resources... It's obviously far from the truth.

magnolia but that's exactly what I've been told to do. If it's not covid-19 related do not make contact. I've other serious conditions I'm stuck coping with alone and I'm not alone in that. I'm not the only person in my healthboard with a phone that blocks Unknown calls - every single one of us is now without medical care except via ambulance assuming they too don't need to phone you back.

How many others were subject to the same conversation I was about being unfair and putting everyone's life at risk at the surgery by attending? - an appointment the GP said was necessary (severe depression and mini strokes that supposed must be monitored), that my medical care must continue and it's now abandoned.

I'm not saying covid-19 isn't serious.

BUT

There's no way I'm going to reach out for help after a GP has had a go at me for putting their life in danger by attending an appointment they insisted I must attend regularly. It cost a fortune to see my GP each month, clearly unnecessarily.

I think of the time I have taken my children to A&E. Each time they would have been fine (same outcome) if I hadn’t taken them. However, I didn’t know that at the time. I didn’t know that it was a sprain and not a break or that my son was fine and didn’t have internal injuries after a fall or that they head injury would be ok in the longer term.

Now I would be far rather to wait it out at home to see if they were ok rather than taking them to A&E as a precaution. I never perceived myself as someone who rushed them in for anything, but I did get things checked out when I was worried about if it was a break or not for example. Now I would wait a lot longer to see if there was swelling or improvement by the next day.

Not life or death things, but I would potentially leave my child in pain than rush them to A&E.

My friend and I was talking about this today, I'm a nurse and she is a paramedic. Front line staff are being amazing however there is concerns over triage and where ambulances are being sent, and also routine appointments being cancelled. We get told daily the amount of deaths due to civic -19, however it would be interesting to see the statistics on deaths from heart attacks, Strokes, clots, seizures, miscarriages and pregnancy loss and also the effect on cancer patients awaiting operations.

Our GP surgery are telling asthma patients to go there if they have an asthma attack during opening hours as they have the equipment to give oxygen and do monitoring. As it's a designated corona free surgery (patients suspected of it/with it are being directed elsewhere) they are perhaps safer than A&E at the moment, at least in the public's mind.

@Indella I called my triage team for reduced movement and bleeding. I got told they would normally see me but because of the outbreak are reducing face to face contact and call back if things got worse and there where serious signs of loosing the baby. I don't feel there is generalised advice for routine procedures.

type2 diabetes numbers have increased because of the change in method of measuring & the lowering of the boundary where someone is considered to have it
Type 2 diabetes is more likely to occur with age (clue we have an aging population)
Type 2 diabetes can occur because of inherited tendency, which is why is occurs more frequently in some ethnic groups
There may links with radiotherapy or other treatments
etc stop blaming people for heart disease, diabetes strokes & cancer its a sweeping inaccurate generalization.
as pp states many people attending a & e are alcohol or drug related or caused by people who had been attacked by people who come under this category or drove while under the influence or caused an accident to another person etc
sports injuries whether dc or adults (including gym accidents)
& traffic or work related accidents
or dc being run over whilst crossing roads or riding bikes
or fights outside of families including knifing etc
otherwise many people who may need treatment are frightened or cant bloody well get there because of decrease in public transport
No I cant understand why there is a decrease
& lets not forget care homes are probably scared witless about sending in any of the people they care for

BROGLY
all of the above are choice

Poor mental health is a choice?

Diabetes is a choice? You know there are two types, don't you?

Drug abuse and alcohol abuse are far more complex than "choice" and saying it's a choice demonstrates your poor understanding of the wider issues involved.

sorry should of put type 2 diabetes majority of this caused by life style and can be reversed
as for drug and alcohol abuse yes in most case there is initially a choice for the majority .
people make poor choice and leave then in a situation that impacts on there mental health again result of bad choices

Like anything there is always exceptions and people do turn to drug/acholol to escape situations and these would be the people who could get the help they needed .

It's such a worry. I work in an acute hospital and it has been very quiet. Thankfully we haven't been inundated with coronavirus. But we all know there are lots of people very sick at home who aren't receiving the care they need.

I've diabetes type 2 and I'm sick of being told its lifestyle choice. Same goes for my Ehlers danlos which I also had no say in.

Seriously.

I've diabetes 2 because of being misprescribed steroids for months, for what was more likely a stroke than the Bell's palsy they said it must have been (over five years ago and I still don't have full use of my face, was refused any tests at all just had my face poked at), well above safe limits by an idiot junior dr who prescribed using Wikipedia because it was "with the times instead of some silly book" - his words when I told him NOT to use Wikipedia - almost three times the amount it should have been shitting down various organs that didn't recover properly. That combined with my genetic illness and other genetic factors meant I had no chance.

YET I still get blamed for it because I'm overweight (medical reasons for that which are ignored) and too ill to cook for myself anymore (aging ignored as its better to accuse me of being lazy as I was so stupid to give myself diabetes 2 which is treated like a joke - ive had seizures from poor blood sugar, admitted to hospital due to it too, nearly died but as it "just" type 2 it doesn't matter). The course I was sent on saw me hospitalised with severe hypoglaecemia as the diet was very bad for me.

I'm not alone either. Many, many things can cause a swollen droopy face but the assumption then, perhaps not now, was Bell's palsy and steroids prescribed. I know if three people with diabetes because of misdiagnosis, one had dental problems, two others had strokes.

Of the family members who had it, and this is type 2; three died, two have had multiple limbs amputated. All told it was their fault. One ended their life because of being blamed.

"Shutting down various organs" not shitting!!

Here in Shropshire there is further work being done to eliminate the surplus population by moving urgent care away from the two hospitals with A and E units. (which are on the edge even in normal times, and under long-standing threat of reducing to one A and E)

These two services are usually co-located for good reason. Now they are an hour apart, so going to the wrong one could be life-threatening. And it has not been well publicised. Done for good reasons to preserve resources but not at all thought through.

But we live with one of the worst hospital trusts in the country so not much difference really.

A huge reduction will be due to pubs and clubs being closed. On night A&E deal with huge amounts of both direct effects of alcohol consumption and indirect (fights/accidents)

It would be interesting after this is over to see data on what the changes in A&E were. I wonder if Friday and Saturday nights have been completely transformed in hospitals. Must be fewer sporting injuries and presumably fewer accidents outside the home and car crashes too. So I don't think we can assume that the 40% reduction is all down to time wasters.

Surely people who should be going aren't going.

As another poster said the home is where the majority of accidents occur particularly for young children & the elderly. 6000 people die each yr as a result of home accidents so you think there would be more.

We have seen an increase in our region of paediatric deaths due to sepsis presenting too late at hospital and several children needing ITU care due to very late presentation of appendicitis. We have also seen a massive decrease in the number of children being diagnosed with brain tumours and other types of childhood cancers. Those children must be out there, unless covid-19 cures cancer , late presentation for those children likely means very limited chance of successful treatment. It's a terrifying trend and children are dying because of this pandemic not because of COVID-19.

I’m pretty sure I broke my big toe 3 weeks ago but haven’t been to a&e (even though advised by my GP last week because pain not dying down) mainly because I don’t want to bother anyone and I’m scared of catching CV. But a broken big toe obviously isn’t life threatening so perhaps I would go if it were! I would feel like a fraud if I went which I know is silly.

I heard a woman on the radio whose husband had been coughing up blood for 2 days. He'd already been treated by the GP for stomach problems and with this new development the GP had advised him to go immediately to A&E. He hadn't gone because he was terrified of getting Coronavirus. The radio presenter was incredulous and kept telling the woman she should take him immediately. I wonder if they went - I got the impression they weren't going to....

I think as a nation we have started to rely on A&E as an equivalent to a GP visit when a GP appointment can't be given immediately

or at all. I can log onto my GP appointment system and there is nothing for six weeks, even with a nurse practitioner. You either have to hope for a same day appointment or telephone call. I can understand why people get desperate and go to A&E. Getting an appointment out of hours is nearly impossible.

Years ago when it was easier to get an appointment, I phoned my GP when my ds was ill. He was 10 months old and it was the first time he had been ill. Receptionist said no appointments. It was a Friday. So I said what do I do, he needs to be seen. She says sorry can't help, all appointments gone. So I said so my only option is A&E. She says "if you like". And then just before I put the phone down "well you could phone after 12 noon as we have afternoon slots too".

It took my threat to waste A&E time for her to bother to tell me there was an afternoon surgery. I phoned back, got an appointment with a nurse and the necessary medication.

People are attention seekers but I'd prefer it if they looked at peoples' records and if you've not been near the GP for a while, think that maybe there's a reason why you're calling.

"We have also seen a massive decrease in the number of children being diagnosed with brain tumours and other types of childhood cancers"

Head of charity Blood Cancer UK was on SKY today talking about this. The symptoms of blood cancer are fairly non-specific and she was concerned that people aren't taking a child that seems 'off' to the doctors as they might have done before - especially important as it often takes 3+ visits to GP before referral/diagnosis, and the earlier spotted the better the outcome