To think this is why our A and E are failing?!

[DaisyLilyFlower]

Currently in A and E with suspected ectopic pregnancy (told to come here from 111) and current wait is around 4 hours, already been here two.

I’ve been sat by triage next to the reception desk, so not deliberately being nosy but in the last hour two patients have come in with

One with an ear infection
And another with a ingrown toenail

Cannot believe it! Reception asked them both if they’d been to see GP or rang 111, tried overnight pharmacy etc and both said no!
I do not doubt that both of those conditions are extremely painful, but I sort of can’t believe that people turn up to A and E without trying other methods first?

I’m probably just being wingy as I’m in pain and the wait is long and ABU, but I guess my question is,

What’s the worst thing you’ve seen at a and e?

Also Name change as don’t want this linked to my other posts but reg poster.

@Diorissimo1985

I agree with you OP - neither of those conditions is a genuine middle-of-the-night emergency!

Ear infections can be. I went to the out of hours dr once with an ear infection and dr was on the phone to the hospital saying I needed to be admitted for IV abx. I declined admission and was warned I was risking deafness and possibly death......GP was horrified I refused to go and said I needed admitting urgently.

A&E isn't the right place for you - in the nicest possible way. 111 are wrong to have sent you there. You need to be seen at the Early Pregnancy Unit. Speaking as someone who has had an ectopic.

Also speaking as someone who has had an ectopic - ‘in the nicest possible way’ yes you do get sent to A and E. You need to be monitored and assessed ASAP to rule out the chance of an imminent rupture which would be life threatening. If it’s ruled out you can go home with a plan on how to move forward - but you are told to go straight back to A and E if you feel unwell or experience more serious pain.

Worst I saw (well actually I’ve only been in once for me) was when I was lying on a trolley waiting for them to find me a bed - it took all day).

So many people coming in, dying they were, dying!
‘You have a cold - take an aspirin and go to bed’
‘Gimme an aspirin’

Accident? Emergency? Noooloo.

And the other times I have been with other people there has always been at least one pair of drunk/tipsy people who make a huge fuss, act like toddlers in the zoo, wander in and out for a cigarette or snack then loudly flounce out when they get bored or take the huff when someone goes straight through (dripping blood or with an obvious wound).

I don’t k ow how the staff do it.

[quote JustPoppingToWaitrose]@81Byerley Was that in the U.K., or overseas?[/quote]
UK!

I used to work frontline in the NHS.

You'd have someone booked in for a chest X-Ray. I would go to get them for the X-Ray, only to not find the patient anywhere.
Asked the reception/nurses where the patient was? "Oh they've gone out for a cigarette" 🤦🏻‍♀️

There are obviously some people who do need to go to AE and it's better to get things checked than leave it. I appreciate how difficult it is to get a GP appointment.

I was in the waiting room with a suspected dislocated shoulder, also near the reception desk, in the time I was waiting I saw:

Someone whose daughter was tired and they wanted her checked out
Someone whose son had stapled his finger (it wasn't stuck in his finger)
Someone with a sore throat

I had to move at that point as I was getting the absolute rage!

Oh and should mention that was 2019

111 is a big part of the problem. I've had to ring it a few times as where I live its the only way to access out of hours GP appointments (111 refer you).

7 times out of 8, 111 have sent me to a&e. Of those 7 times, they have sent ambulances 4 times. It's the problem of having people doing telephone triage using basically a flow chart/tick box system - it is unlikely to be accurate so has to tend to more cautious than less.

However sadly I would say that a&e (and the NHS more widely) suffers from poor provision on weekends in particular. DD has been seriously ill twice with the same respiratory condition. The first time, she was admitted on a weekend, not seen by anyone senior and deteriorated and ended up in intensive care. The second time with exact same symptoms but on a weekday, there were far more senior doctors on duty, she was seen by one more quickly and more often so they spotted the signs of deterioration and got treatment started immediately.

I've had the exact same experience myself going in with miscarriage complications on two separate occasions. Weekend : far fewer senior doctors on rota, poor treatment. Weekday: much better.

@WrongWayApricot

My neighbour told me his a & e story a few years ago. He had twisted his ankle and 3 days later thought he should get it x rayed. I was sympathetic but I feel if you've walked on it for 3 days it's probably not an emergency. Although I did know someone that broke their ankle and didn't know until later in the evening, so I could be wrong.

Ear infections can be really bad though so I wouldn't think that was strange or time wasting. And the ingrown toe might have been stubbed today and got really bad?

Hmmm. I sprained my ankle a few years ago. Didn't know how, as it just started hurting one fine day when I was out walking. It hurt quite a bit. A month later it was still hurting quite a bit, so I finally went to a doctor, who said I needed an X ray. I said that was silly as it was obviously a really bad sprain. I'd been walking and working on it for a month, hadn't really rested it enough. But I went for the X-ray at A&E. Broken ankle with complications of a broken tibial tendon.

Hmmm, should I or should I not mention ta this point that I am also a medical doctor???? !!!!

For someone who has a high pain threshold (I do) and with just the right kind of fracture (it was) it is entirely possible to go for a very long time without treating a fractured ankle. I did feel kind of stupid until I met my physio six weeks later - she had managed to walk around on a broken leg for two weeks without realising it....

@Pinkblueberry

A&E isn't the right place for you - in the nicest possible way. 111 are wrong to have sent you there. You need to be seen at the Early Pregnancy Unit. Speaking as someone who has had an ectopic.

Also speaking as someone who has had an ectopic - ‘in the nicest possible way’ yes you do get sent to A and E. You need to be monitored and assessed ASAP to rule out the chance of an imminent rupture which would be life threatening. If it’s ruled out you can go home with a plan on how to move forward - but you are told to go straight back to A and E if you feel unwell or experience more serious pain.

On both mine I was told to go straight to the early pregnancy unit. Both by GPs One was caught in time and one was rupturing and I was in agonising pain. The second one I didn’t even know I was pregnant just thought it was endo pain and bleeding and was after hard core painkillers. GP did a urine pregnancy test and sent me straight to EPU.

@Gladimnotcampinginthisweather

My most puzzling experience in A and E was seeing a woman sitting quietly while her child (probably about 6 or 7) ran round playing aeroplanes, trying to engage with anyone who would smile at him. She didn't try to stop him so I assumed she was feeling too ill. I was really surprised when they were called and he was the patient. Every now and then I wonder what could have been wrong with him that warranted an evening trip to A and E.

Sounds like my nephew recently. He'd been sent by 111 as he kept having nose bleeds (he's three and they were pretty heavy) and his face/nose area smelled really bad. GP had given him antibiotics twice before but refused to see him in person to check up his nose and it was getting worse.

He looked okay in himself, was playing and such but was quite poorly with it. The doc pulled a lump of sponge out of his nose and said if it had been left for much longer, he was at risk of sepsis.

Could have been avoided if the GP had just seen him in person and checked his nose.

My most puzzling experience in A and E was seeing a woman sitting quietly while her child (probably about 6 or 7) ran round playing aeroplanes, trying to engage with anyone who would smile at him. She didn't try to stop him so I assumed she was feeling too ill. I was really surprised when they were called and he was the patient. Every now and then I wonder what could have been wrong with him that warranted an evening trip to A and E

Could have been tiny bits of Lego up the nose - like my dd3 (twice)

@Frazzledfranny EPU isn’t 24/7 or isn’t in my trust and nor is the GP, so if you have any red flag symptoms out of hours you absolutely should visit a&e.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/ectopic-pregnancy/

@Pinkblueberry
Thank you - I have seen it a few times. An ectopic can be life threatening and cannot always wait for office hours.

I used to work for London ambulance
We got called to attend a broken fingernail once 🤦‍♀️

I have also probably been 'that person' in A&E before. Once after being sent there by urgent care for a suspected broken wrist as they didn't have anyone to do an X-ray on a Sunday. The doctor who saw me treated me like a complete waste of space because it was 'clearly' not broken and I shouldn't have been sent. He also assumed I had hurt it while drunk because I was young and it was early sunday morning so I got a lecture on drinking and wasting NHS time as a consequence. Had he bothered to ask i'd have told him that actually I had been in a bar but had drank nothing stronger than a lime and soda all night when an abusive ex had seen me and attacked me. Thankfully the nurse who strapped it up was lovely and gave me the courage to report it to the police
My second trip to A+E as an adult was also entirely preventable, I had been unable to get a GP appointment all week for a urine infection, eventually after getting so ill I couldn't stand I got an out of hours appointment where the doctor took one look at me and arranged to have me admitted to hospital but I had to sit in A+E for 2 hours while they sorted the admission. If you had heard the nurses you would have heard I was there for urine infection actually it was an acute kidney infection which left me in hospital for 10 days hooked up to IV antibiotics and fluids. If the GP had just seen me earlier it never would've got that bad

I was working nightshift a couple of weeks ago and a 17 year old self presented with their mum in tow for a spot on his face requesting acne cream. It was absolutely baffling.

Although, because it's so difficult to get a GP appointment, a lot of people are just going to A&E which is understandable. We've recently had a lot of people referred from their GP to the hospital when it could have been something that the GP would normally have dealt with at a clinic but for whatever reason, they were sent up to hospital.

I really hope you're okay and you're not waiting too long

When I was young, some fifty years ago, we went to A & E for a lot of minor things and we were attended without a long wait. Now you are supposed to triage yourself before going.

The other thing is that triage does send time-wasters to the back of the queue, so they should have no effect on genuine emergencies.

Is it? Why is it considered dangerous?

I had an ear infection last year. I was prescribed a spray. It didn't go away. I went to the walk in Centre and they told me that I was being ridiculous and to take painkillers and man-up!

I started to get flu-type symptoms and woke up with a band of swelling across my throat. Rang 111 and they said it was 'probably flu' and to go to bed. My husband rang the GP who spoke to me over the phone and instructed him to get me to A&E asap.

I was diagnosed with sepsis, steming from the ear infection that caused a 3 inch blood clot in my jugular vein and brain and was a couple of hours away from a stroke had they not given me the right treatment. I spent 13 days in hospital off my head on morphine with multiple interventions.

If I get an ear infection again I have to go to A&E.

@Moondust001 you were referred to a & e by a doctor... I was under the impression that this thread was about people that had not been referred to a & e, at least that's what OP said. Obviously people should go to a & e if they have been referred. The a & e department were not pleased to see my neighbour's twisted ankle and didn't x-ray him, they told him to go to the pharmacy. I'm surprised at how many people read my post as me saying people shouldn't be treated at all. I was saying that personally I would, like you, go through the other non-emergency channels first. If I couldn't do that then of course I would go to a & e...

I took someone to A&E recently and was told non-ambulance patients have to phone 111 now and are triaged & given time to attend.

[quote DinoHat]@Frazzledfranny EPU isn’t 24/7 or isn’t in my trust and nor is the GP, so if you have any red flag symptoms out of hours you absolutely should visit a&e.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/ectopic-pregnancy/

@Pinkblueberry
Thank you - I have seen it a few times. An ectopic can be life threatening and cannot always wait for office hours.[/quote]
Your experience isn’t the same experience that every one will have. Not every one goes to A&E for an eptopic.

I was never seen once by A&E or assessed there. Even when mine had ruptured. It was straight to the EPU from there I was taken to theatre. I guess every trust is different.

And of course you go to A&E if your in pain and the EPU is closed 🥴

Thought I’d come on with an update, had emergency surgery at half 7 this morning to remove the left tube 😞 thanks to everyone for their well wishes, now recovering but unable to sleep on the Gynae ward but loving the oramorph!

For those suggesting I should’ve gone to EPU, I live in a town where there isn’t an EPU and out nearest would be about 30 miles so A and E was the best option at the time.

I realise my judgement may have been cloudy this morning in a fit of pain and apologies to anyone who was offended.

Accident, even a suspected dislocation or fracture, or emergency, i.e. Requiring urgent attention, life threatening etc. The clue is in the title. So not piles (honestly), sciatica, chronic condition, cancer..
Could be mental health or physical, could be something got suddenly much worse or new symptoms.

Daisy
Sorry to hear it was that bad.
Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Sorry for your loss op, very scary, hope you have lots of support