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.

I have hearing aids now from an ear infection. I was hospitalised for several days on mega antibiotics and diazepam (it also inflamed the vestibular nerve). I have been told to treat them as a medical emergency.

I took dd2 to a&e a few years back. There was a woman there with her son because the GP had told her he didn't need antibiotics, but she didn't agree with that so turned up at a&e to ask for some. She kicked up such a fuss in the waiting room that she got seen before my 8 year old who had a broken arm

I was in A&E in a cubicle in agony with a bowel blockage waiting for morphine (ultimately resulted in emergency stoma surgery) when a woman was brought in overnight absolutely pissed and totally off her head, abusing the paramedics and hospital staff (who dealt with her with unfailing professionalism) and all I could think was for her noise to stop and to chuck her out.

Still have little sympathy with those who deliberately poison themselves.

My Ddad ended up in A and E several times (first time we suspected he had had a stroke)
It made me laugh (but not actually funny) that the A and E at the Royal Free has a poster on the wall asking if you would recommend it to friends or family. It's not trip advisor! If it's an actual emergency, surely (in normal times) you would just go to the nearest hospital or call an ambulance (which would take you to nearest one?? Not look to see which one had a better rating!

I agree that the problem has got worse since GPS refuse to see people. My Mum was sensible when the pain from an abcess (ignored by GP, who fobbed her off, couldn't get an emergency dentist) was too much to bear and she went to a walk in centre.

I haven't read the full thread, but I do think (as well as the usual time wasters) that the NHS adopts some weird systems which don't help.

My son had a stomach bug and couldn't keep anything down. It went on all day (weekend) and eventually I called 111 as he couldn't even keep down a 2.5ml syringe of water.

We have a great system for our OOH GP which is based at the hospital, so I expected that they would send me there with him to be checked over.

They said that they would send a non emergency ambulance to check him over. I objected and said that it would be quicker to take him into the OOH GP, who would be at the hospital anyway; as he was likely to need an anti-emetic before he became too dehydrated.

They refused and said the algorithm had designated a non emergency ambulance, so that's what we needed. It took four hours to arrive, at 3am and they checked him over and advised to carry on with the syringe (which he couldn't tolerate) and call 111 back at 7am if he hadn't improved.

He didn't - so we were then sent to the OOH GP - who said he was too dehydrated and needed to be admitted to hospital.

He was given a single dose of anti-emetic, which solved the problem, and then spent 24 hours in hospital for fluids.

Complete waste of valuable resources. A non-emergency ambulance was never going to be able to prescribe an anti-emetic for a 4 year old, and I could get him to the hospital and the OOH GP within 10 minutes, for a pre-arranged appointment.

Had we gone earlier, we would have been given a prescription for an anti-emetic and sent home to see if it helped.

Very convoluted system. Had it been a week day, our GP would like have prescribed the anti-emetic (we have a great GP service which telephone triages but always sees patients - even through Covid).

My DH has been stuck in bed for nearly 3 weeks with sciatica. He is in unbearable pain. He's on his second lot of drugs from the GP which aren't working. He's rung 111 which actually managed to get him to speak to a GP instead of a nurse (no offence to any nurse but they just don't have the same clout with this).

He's trying to get up and keep moving but he's frightened as he's fallen twice already. He can't sit or stand and is weeing in a jug. He hasn't had a poo for 10 days as he can't sit on the toilet and the drugs are making him constipated.

We could go to A & E but we haven't so far. I think we probably will do at the weekend as the doctors just fob him off and it's getting worse.

We have two emergency departments at our hospital, both are two small for the town. But an ingrown toe nail and ear infection would have gone to urgent care, the second emergency department. Its like a mini GP surgery. Both are pretty dire, long wait times exct. I remember going into A&E my self during pandemic and this guy stayed with his dad, dispite being told he couldn't. And just shouted litterly shouted about how they had no right to remove him and they should try it. You know right next to a very scared bleeding old woman who's husband had left because he was told to. It was awlful!!

@BG2015

My DH has been stuck in bed for nearly 3 weeks with sciatica. He is in unbearable pain. He's on his second lot of drugs from the GP which aren't working. He's rung 111 which actually managed to get him to speak to a GP instead of a nurse (no offence to any nurse but they just don't have the same clout with this).

He's trying to get up and keep moving but he's frightened as he's fallen twice already. He can't sit or stand and is weeing in a jug. He hasn't had a poo for 10 days as he can't sit on the toilet and the drugs are making him constipated.

We could go to A & E but we haven't so far. I think we probably will do at the weekend as the doctors just fob him off and it's getting worse.

Go to a and e. If he hasn’t pooped for 10 days and has severe back pain that is serious.

Just a few points,
My mother got an ear infection, GP service wouldn't see her, she was more than able to wait until the next day to call back for an appointment they said. Except her ear infection progressed rapidly. Within 3 hours she went to A&E, and didn't leave for almost a week. In that short time she sustained permanent hearing loss, so just because it's an infection doesn't mean it doesn't need quick care.

Also, have you tried to manoeuvre the GP services with an infection during covid? It's abysmal.
DH had ORIF surgery after an accident. All was well, he should have had antibiotics after surgery but they decided not to.
Within a week, instead of pain subsiding it was getting worse, over a couple of days, his arm continued to swell, was getting red, and his arm was 2 degrees warmer than the temperature on his chest.
Not one person would see him face to face, he ended up at A&E because that's the only way he could get a F2F appointment.
At that point, he ended up in hospital for a further 5 days because he had cellulitis.

I agree, it would be more sensible if OOH GP services picked up these sorts of things, so there's not numerous people who require antibiotics waiting for 4 hours +, and pre pandemic they used to here, its just not the way its working now.

OP I'm so sorry. I hope you get seen soon. That is a painful and so stressful thing to be going through.

Ear infections can be really dangerous, though, to be fair. My sister had one when she was little that was left untreated and she was in agony and ended up deaf in one ear. I wish she had been taken to A&E when she screamed in pain in the night and not just given an aspirin!

Ingrowing toenail - that's ridiculous. Though pain does make people not think straight and DS has had one that was really painful.

Sorry this may be a bit intense but just shows you cannot make these judgments.
On tuesday my son in law went to A&E for pain relief as his leg hurt. He had been to the GP 7 times in the last month but was not prescribed anything and told to take paracetamol- he was in total despair.

Today he is in Intensive Care recovering from an above knee amputation - that would have been avoided if he had been seen by a specialist even two weeks ago.

Life changing - but I guess other people in A&E might have seen a comparatively fit man in his 30's complaining of leg pain - the GP surgery certainly did.

@FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop

Oh OP I hope you're ok and get seen soon

As a former NHS worker I can tell you these kind of people usually fall into 2 categories

1. Utterly and completely exhausted trying to get a GP appointment or their hands on pain relief that's stronger than what you can get over the counter.
2. It's something to do. You can usually tell who these people are because they bring an entourage with them.

The most ridiculous I ever saw was a family of 8, complete with picnic, who came to A&E because their DD had a sore elbow there's definitely something about people's fascination with the gore/death - some people seem to love going along to hospitals, even for routine appointments with obscure relatives. I worked on the gynae ward and it wasn't uncommon for a husband, mum, dad, auntie etc to accompany a woman for a routine appointment!

I can never understand people coming on mass and especially bringing kids that aren’t the patient . Ok sometimes there is not an option but if there’s 4 or 5 of you there couldn’t one have stayed at home with the kids

I work in primary care. Used to work in A&E.

It’s a combination of problems - not enough GPs, not enough access to Minor Injury Units, not enough access to emergency dental care, and a population with no self care knowledge.

GPs aren’t an emergency service - nor are they dentists. And they have been seeing patients face to face in most areas but not on demand - they’re triaging and screening access for obvious reasons.

Given that most secondary care services have been bouncing back to GPs and not seeing patients either it’s rich for hospital staff to blame primary care. Ultimately it’s the poor patient that becomes the ping pong ball here.

However if people had a teeny bit of common sense and looked after themselves a bit better they’d be a lot better off. And also didn’t expect everything for free - in ED we had people coming in for pain relief, plasters, indigestion remedies, tampons, Calpol, antihistamines etc that they could buy OTC.

Mum brought son in because he had some of the wound glue (from head injury, treated a few days prior) in his eyebrow.

She justified it as an emergency because he had his school photos in a few days.

Despite relentless advice over the phone (she called to ask how long the wait would be) on how to loosen and remove it, she brought him in - where he swiftly(ish) had his eyebrow shaved off

I went to A&E once with an ear infection, the pain was worse than labour and I couldn't stand upright/vomiting everywhere so I try not to judge why people are in there. However, I know lots of healthcare workers who have seen the most ridiculous cases, eg ambulance for a paper cut (bloodloss and unconsciousness - or shat other people would call fainting).

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.

@LadyOfLittleLeisure

I went to A&E once with an ear infection, the pain was worse than labour and I couldn't stand upright/vomiting everywhere so I try not to judge why people are in there. However, I know lots of healthcare workers who have seen the most ridiculous cases, eg ambulance for a paper cut (bloodloss and unconsciousness - or shat other people would call fainting).

Ahaha * "what" not "shat"

Dsis is another one who had to go to A&E for an ear infection and was then given oramorph and admitted near enough straight away for a week, twice.
She had tried the GP but they wouldn't see her as she hadn't given the antibiotics time to work, three hours later she was on a ward.

Slightly different, but my father was a paramedic for 35 years. He once had a call for a man with chest pains. This was top priority. When he arrived he asked the man when the pains had started... 1962. This was 2017.

Definitely not BU. My relative works in a busy A&E and often comes home frustrated because quite a large portion of people who attend, really didn't need to attend.
I attended a few years ago with appendicitis and the wait was hours, and I remember someone behind me chatting away about how they'd woken up with a crick in their neck, how their GP just told them to take pain relief so they came to A&E. I, of course, haven't seen their medical records to understand the concern, but presumably their GP has. I was thinking "wtf, you've probably slept on it funny, how will they even treat that"... but then a celebrity came in with the same problem as me so I was ok waiting a little bit longer trying to not die long enough to make a bit of eye contact

I used to have a high level voluntary position at our local NHS Trust and sat in on a meeting on A&E use. The stats given were that just over 70% of people in A&E should not be there. The 70% were made up of

People panicking unnecessarily
People who couldn’t get a GP appt
Mentally ill/homeless people
Drunk people
Time wasters
Of course they all have to be dealt with and triaged.

It's the GP service that's failing. YABU.

My dh had to go to a&e one evening as the pain from his ear infection got so bad he actually couldn’t manage! So whilst some conditions seen more trivial and not necessarily life threatening, it doesn’t mean to say the patient isn’t desperate for treatment which is hard to come by once surgeries and pharmacies close.

@Upamountain43

Sorry this may be a bit intense but just shows you cannot make these judgments. On tuesday my son in law went to A&E for pain relief as his leg hurt. He had been to the GP 7 times in the last month but was not prescribed anything and told to take paracetamol- he was in total despair.

Today he is in Intensive Care recovering from an above knee amputation - that would have been avoided if he had been seen by a specialist even two weeks ago.

Life changing - but I guess other people in A&E might have seen a comparatively fit man in his 30's complaining of leg pain - the GP surgery certainly did.

So sorry to hear about your son in law.