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.

@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 now! Don't wait any longer.

@AMillionMilesAway

While I don't disagree that people abuse A+E, I find it odd that the receptionist asks why they are here. Surely that's the job of the nurse who initially sees you and decides how urgent it is?

Because they need to filter time wasters before the nurse spends her valuable time even looking at them.

I’ve been sat in A&E for hours with a fractured wrist. Dd1 got stung on the lips by a wasp and her mouth was swelling up - she went through immediately.

I think you're right to a degree.

I have a few friends who work A&E and when Covid first hit, she said it was unbelievable, for the first time in her career A&E was basically empty - people were scared to come in with half the tat they usually do and only those who genuinely needed treatment were coming in.

Now it's a free for all again

People go to A&E because it’s too difficult to get through to GP.
The problem in this country is they you are made feel like your issue isn’t big enough and is a waste of time. Not by the doctors as they have always been lovely, but receptionists and threads like this on Mumsnet. So by the time people search help it has become a big problem.

In Germany & Austria you are encouraged to go for routine check ups and have to see a doctor if you are off work sick for more than one day.

I can sympathise with the ear infection if it’s the middle of the night and they’re in agony, they really can be agonising and can come on suddenly.

The ingrown toenail is obviously ludicrous, you can usually dig them out yourself.

Things have improved at our trust, sort off.
You walk in take a ticket.
Triaged at the desk. Nurse takes down details and then decides wether gp services (in a&e) Or minors.
You then go to reception, here yet again you are asked why you are attending.
We have as well a new service, can take longer , but you see a specialist same day. And then referred onwards.

Back in March I injured my arm at work. Carried on due to staff pressures and not wanting to let anyone down. Did self referral to physio.
Sent to A&E by my boss as pain 6 weeks later no better.
Had X-ray - NAD
Got told off that I hadn't been to my gP.
I had , by email and told to take pain killers.
Fast forward to mid April, the injury was aggravated.
So now been off work 7 weeks.
I have trapped the ulna nerve. It's bloody painful.
Had 5 physio sessions which have helped , but arm still useless.
Despite 6 email and telephone appointments, I am yet to see my gp f2f
I have managed to get them to do a referral to ultrasound.
Got occy health today , for assessment if I'm fit for work. Over the phone. How can they assess my capabilities over the phone? I have no grip in my dominate arm/hand and can't even carry a mug, keep dropping stuff.
Followed by physio f2f
Followed by tomorrow a HR meeting on why I'm off.
The gp will only see me f2f if the pain continues 🤔

Sorry pissed off nurse having a rant.

When we relocated to I was amazed to discover there was no Walk In centre only A&E. after 5 years I found out there is one in the next town a whole 4 miles away 🙄

I guess the attitude of where I live is very much that they are 2 separate places although they completely merge together and it's hard to work out where the very multi directional boundary line is.

I rang 111 Monday at 11am to be told a nurse would phone back within 2 hours. I am still waiting, fortunately DD has recovered. She could do with seeing a face to face GP but there are only ever emergency appointments and it's no longer that.

Adding myself to the list of people who didn’t go to a&e for a fracture because they didn’t think it was hurting enough to be broken. Id actually fractured my humerus and had a hairline fracture in my shoulder ball. If you’d seen me walk in the next day with a “sore arm” you might also have thought I didn’t need to be there. Not everyone in a lot of pain is outwardly screaming in agony. I think it took me 24 hours to realise I had done something serious because I was in shock.

When I worked in a practice we did some in depth analysis of our patients going to A&E. Many of the people we spoke to had not contacted us prior to going to A&E with very minor issues.

Several had called us in the morning, were offered an appointment that day but had gone to A&E anyway. They seemed to prefer to go and wait in A&E for 2-3 hours rather than wait 4 hours, come to us and be seen within 10 minutes of arriving. I know that's not true of all practices but the way we ran our on the day service meant people rarely waited very long.

There are so many factors and it's reaching crisis point at the moment because so many people have put things off during lock down. (Understandable)

I know GPs get a bad rep on here and in the media and I fully agree that there are some practices that are either very short of clinicians or just badly managed. However, there are plenty more who are doing absilutely everything they can to get patients sorted in the best way possible. I don't think there's been enough media coverage of just how much they've done by running massive vaccine clinics and still providing a decent service to their patients day to day. I get so angry when I see people posting on social media tha they have all been shut for a year.

Most of the people I know who work in primary care are working their arses off and have almost just had enough now.

Sorry for the waffle - I know this was about A&E but I sometimes feel the need to defend Practices!!!

I injured myself, rusty nail right in to the foot.
Rang 111 and they insisted I had to go to A&E. I knew it probably wasn't that bad so we did a bit of back and forth on the phone, with me increasingly like Kevin the teenager Do I have toooo? and the phone handler simply insisting that I indeed had to.
Got there, got the grumpiest of doctors on the planet. She really was a nasty abrupt cow and she basically threw me out for time wasting. I was sooo fucking mad. What a complete waste of everyone's time.

@Diorissimo1985

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

I'm guessing then that you've never had excruciating ear pain?

I think not being able to get GP appointments has a big thing to do with it. If you feel rough and call doctors but can't get through for several days then you probably get desperate. Especially if you're in pain. But still, people should be phoning 111 to book an emergency appointment really.

So many people with bad backs and muscle pains.

A good friend was told off for going to A and E with back pains so paid for a private MRI.

It was cancer and she died four months later.

As a side note though I had a nasty bite. Went to pharmacy to ask for help was told to go to a and e. Rang 111 to get out of hours gp appointment. Was told to go to a and e. I didn’t go as I refused to go somewhere like a and e for an infected bite. Waited until I could see a go

@frazzledfranny it’s not so much time wasters as red flags such as chest pains

You'd have judged me a few years ago as I went to A&E with stomach ache. It's a good job I did, I had pancreatitis.

An ear infection can be really dangerous if left untreated.

It's just all so broken and creaking and falling apart and it's a terrible shame.

I've recently had a brilliant experience with the whole system (well, brilliant apart from feeling like absolute dogshit obviously). Woke up with excruciating pain in the middle of the night, eventually called 111 as a bit desperate, was called back very quickly by a nurse. An ambulance was sent, which I was a bit embarrassed about. They said it could be up to four hours as they'd obviously go to life-threatening emergencies first. In the end it was only about 40 minutes so I was very lucky. Paramedics decided to take me in, initially were going to go to the urgent care centre at the hospital which is adjacent to A&E and treats minor injuries and illnesses, but pain got considerably worse on the way (I blame the speed bumps) and they took me to A&E. I was assessed pretty quickly, given some serious pain relief (thank you sweet morphine) and got a scan within the hour. Turns out I had kidney stones. Given lovely painkillers and other drugs to take home, and was back in my own bed about five hours after it all started, told to come straight back if severe pain returned or couldn't wee.

Four days later, in massive pain, can't wee, but hesitant to go back to hospital because... well, I was worried about being a time waster, I suppose. Called my GP surgery. GP called me back within 30 minutes. Talked everything through and she said she'd call me back in an hour to see how I was, which she did and she had already called the urology department at the hospital for advice. Sent me back up to A&E.

They have a nurse at the door now to do the temp checks/give you a mask/triage and she was wonderful and got me sorted so quickly. More morphine very soon after, a couple more scans and tests, turns out I have an infection too so sent home with antibiotics.

Just got the letter for a follow up appointment in three weeks.

It just all worked like a dream - it was so stressful but made so much easier by a system that seems to be joined up. And also, throughout all of this, everyone was SO kind and lovely. It's honestly the best experience I've ever had with the NHS and for it to happen after the absolutely miserable year that's just passed seems pretty astonishing to me.

My (very convoluted) point is that if we have access to good GP services and systems are connected, we just end up with less people at A&E for minor things.

@spamm

I've only been to A&E once for me (knee wound from falling on road) and once for my DS at 18 months (sent by ambulance from local hospital, which only had minor injury unit) for bronchiolitis.

However, I remember an ear infection one night many years ago when I was about 26 or 27. I sat in bed crying all night and trying to figure out how to relieve the pain and pressure. I remember melting vicks in hot water, trying to clear my sinuses. If I could have got to A&E, I would have, anything to help relieve.

Put a wet piece of kitchen roll in a paper cup, heat in the microwave and then place it over the ear. The steam will help immensely. Tip from a air hostess in the 90s.

The main problem is lack of access to GPs. If you can’t see a dr for something minor, it can turn into something major. I remember years ago, hearing about a guy who had an ingrowing toenail. He ended up with his leg amputated above the knee.

A pp said that the receptionists are there to weed out time wasters, however they’re not medical and they can be quite dismissive. I took my DD to a&e on a Sunday night a couple of years ago. She’d had antibiotics from gp on the Friday, but we were told if it’s worse go to a&e. Receptionist seemed to think we were wasting her time, however DD ended up having emergency surgery.

I went to A&E because of a temperature that I couldn't shift. Couldn't get a GP appointment and felt awful. I'm sure most people wouldn't go to A&E for that but I was admitted and spent a week in hospital with suspected hepatitis and pneumonia. (It was neither in the end thankfully).

If you stop giving people access to GPs, where are people meant to go?

DH went into A&E back along during lockdown having fallen off his bike and having a nasty gash above his eye (which he absolutely should have paid for treatment for as it was his own twattish fault for not having a helmet on as he was "just nipping up the road to the shops") The nurse practitioner who saw him was utterly lovely but did say that throughout the pandemic GPs have been, in her words, appalling, and many, many people who should have been seen by their GP ended up at A&E because GPs just wouldn't see people.

So no, YANBU and I hope you feel much better very soon. I'm sorry for your situation.

Like all of the NHS A&E departments are failing because this government has cut funding to the bone.

I don't believe you NC for this...

@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.

That could have been mine. Vomiting all day, even tiny amounts of water were coming up, very lethargic, saw GP in the morning, told to call again at 4pm if he hadn't improved, Second time she sent him to A&E. Very excited about visit to A&E. Nurse did blood test, twice, his blood sugar was so low he should have been barely able to move, yet he was bouncing around like Jack in the box, She repeated as she though the machine was broken.

A drip was required to get his sugar and fluid levels up.

You really can't judge.

@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.

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.