What exactly is A&E for?

[AccidentallyOnPurpose]

Inspired by a current thread , but this has been bugging me for a while.

No matter how serious the situation or symptoms, there are always plenty of people telling OP she's a time waster, she's fine,her kid is fine etc. To stop being so silly and just wait for the GP or ask a pharmacist. If they're feeling particularly generous maybe ring 111 but God forbid they take it seriously and send an ambulance. Then you're the reason an old person is lying on the floor for hours waiting for help and a father of 4 died of a heart attack.

Fainting, bleeding, high fevers, sudden or continuous increased pain etc none of them are good enough. I'm surprised no one suggested to put a wet paper towel on it. It works in schools.

So what exactly is the A&E department for ?

I think every town needs a minor injuries centre and then A and E could just be for serious accidents and life threatening emergencies. It will never happen though.

I went to ED with severe abdominal pain, which was accompanied by intermittent nausea. Abdominal pain is never on the list of things you should go to ED with and I only ended up there because the walk in centre which I was trying to go to was closed and the ED was right next door.

I turned out to have acute pancreatis caused by gallstones in my bile duct, was admitted to hospital, and was in for over 2 weeks including a couple of days on a morphine pump for pain relief. If I'd done what all the "where to get medical treatment" posts I see on social media say you should for abdominal pain, I would have booked an appointment with my GP, possibly for days in the future, would have waited in agony at home, and would likely have been quite seriously ill by the time I got to the appointment.

It was the GP that suggested A&E for me for a "quick in". I was a "good ,brave girl" and asked for the referral instead .

I actually said people who have been referred already. If your GP tells you to go to A&E you should go.

Took dd to a&e because she literally couldn't breathe. As in baby going grey struggling for every breath.

I once got taken there (blue light) with pregnancy complications, haeomorraging. The paramedics threshold for taking me in was the fact that I lost a mug full of blood (about 1/2 pint) in a few minutes and showed no sign of it letting up.

Our is for broken bones and anything that looks like it might need stitches too. We don't have a minor injuries unit or any walk in centres either.

We don't have 111 or walk in centers here .
Dh frequently has ended up in A&E with heart problems, Dd a few times. Ds has had to go to get stitched .( work related) I have went a few times with broken bones.

Once I had a break for 7 weeks before going to a&e. No one took me seriously and I thought it was just a hurt . As a result it didn't heal properly and I later required surgery. But I never go now as would feel guilty. I have had several falls and had concussion and knew it but had no means of getting medical help. ( my family didn’t think it was needed)

Every situation is different and people are affected differently, so whilst one might need help for something another might not be too bad at home.

Although the consensus on MN seems to be split down the middle of either anything and everything, including if you can't get a drs appointment for two weeks or don't go unless you've just been given the last rites.

A lot of people rush to A&E, for very minor problems,and for some reasons, don't try and deal with them at home. I have witnessed this many times.

I got sent to A&E when DD punched me in the eye (she’s 2, it was an A of the department’s title). Was there for fucking hours as well as they called my name, I answered but was round the corner, so they deleted me from the list and denied all knowledge til they did a register at 4am

A and e do get it wrong as well. My son went with pains in his chest and struggling to breathe. Left him sitting in a packed wIting room for 9 hours after giving him a chest x-ray and sent him home saying he should have gone to his doctors as it was only muscular
Phoned him up 3 hours later as the senior doctor had relooked at his chest x-ray..
He had a collapsed lung..he could have died.

Also diagnosed my husband incorrectly with gall stones and told him he was a time waster..he had secondary liver cancer..he died not long after

So where you you go with a broken arm or a dislocation? They are often not unexplained and certainly not usually life threatening but I would sure go to A&E with either of those.

Depends what else you have nearby as we would go to Minor Injuries who carry out X-rays and put on a cast with a follow up, outpatients, appointment at hospital at a later date.

Re: what A&E is for....

If the NHS wasn’t chronically underfunded and had adequate numbers of walk in urgent care and minor injuries centres, sited IN communities, and if psychiatric hospitals were funded adequately to retain walk in emergency rooms (you wouldn’t believe what % of A&E presentations are actually acute psych cases rather physical illness or injury) then yeah, sure.

Also if more hospital trusts used the model at a lot of major London hospitals (A&E triage is done by an experienced senior doctor, which means they can very very quickly make the final decision)

Then yes. Sure.

As it is, A&E is probably the last routinely available “walk in” service- which you can access without having to persuade a gatekeeper you need it (and rightly so) - people end up there because of failures in community care. If they could walk into their GP or an urgent care unit, they would. But they cant, so they go where they can.

It's for accidents and emergencies. If there's an injury that needs an x-ray, we need to go to A&E as there isn't another x-ray machine anywhere near. Other than that it would be for something that needs to be seen right away. I'm thinking severe bleeding, allergic reaction, chest pains, severe pain, etc. I have only ever been to A&E for myself because of allergies (twice as an adult, tons of times as a child), and for injuries requiring an x-ray for my kids.

@PaulRuddsWife

Although the consensus on MN seems to be split down the middle of either anything and everything, including if you can't get a drs appointment for two weeks or don't go unless you've just been given the last rites.

But why wouldn't, particularly inexperienced, posters err on the side of caution? There have been threads where OP ended up having sepsis, or other serious conditions needing several days worth hospitalisation.

Regardless of what you think about the rights or wrongs of asking online for advice people should remember that their "advice" (more like judgement and sneering) means that someone could die.

Reasons I've been to A+E:
Severe asthma attack
Broken bone
Deep, long lacerations
Cellulitis
Severe UTI at the weekend - perhaps should have been OOH but was seen and treated quickly
Sudden loss of vision - referred from optician

Also- that list of what A&E is for- I know an awful lot of trauma & emergency medics who would suggest “risk of loss of life or limb” is not the only reason to go to A&E.

Seems to be doubling up at the moment for anything GPs can’t deal with.

A&E is for accidents and emergencies. I would class an emergency as in you’re in immense pain. If not, get in contact with your GP.

Whilst agreeing that A & E should simply be for emergencies, I was coughing up blood continuously, feeling hideous and was unable to get a GPs appointment for 3 weeks! I was seen within two hours at A &E , assessed and given medication.

I do call 999, I have brittle asthma and can barely breathe, ands its a struggle to give them the necessary information.
Obviously that's fine, I get taken in and it's usually at least a 5 day stay.
However, what I've seen on here is that if you can message on your phone, you just aren't ill enough.
Complete tosh.

I think it’s harder to know when to go to A&E if you don’t have an out of hours clinic or minor injuries place, and it’s the weekend. We have a great out of hours clinic at the hospital that 111 will book you appointments for. I was sent once very early on a Saturday morning/late Friday night with bad mastitis that had come out of nowhere. If there was no out of hours, I’m not sure what I’d have done as mastitis doesn’t feel like an A&E thing, but equally my temp was nearly 40 and my heart rate was so high they thought the heart rate monitor was malfunctioning so got another one, and then were concerned about sepsis. So if there wasn’t an out of hours place, would it have been A&E? Or wait until Monday when the GP opens? I don’t know.
But I think that’s where 111 actually is useful, I know on here people seem to say that they always send you to A&E but that’s not my experience at all, perhaps because we have such a large out of hours clinic they can book you at instead. I’d always just ring them if I wasn’t sure.

@Mamamia7962

I think every town needs a minor injuries centre and then A and E could just be for serious accidents and life threatening emergencies. It will never happen though.

My local hospital does have a minor injuries unit. I tried to go there after I self harmed, but was told to go to A&E as they wont deal with anything to do with mental health.

The issue half the time are GPs. Twice I've ended up in A+E the last 7 weeks for things a GP can deal with. The first time my GP (or rather the receptionist!) refused to reassess me for an infection which meant the wrong antibiotics were prescribed. Second time was the symptoms for the same infection returned, it was a Sunday night so obv my GP was closed, I called 111 and wait time was at least 1 hour to even speak to someone, then I knew I would be waiting for hours for a GP call back. Considering how quick the last infection spread I knew I couldn't wait.
I'm pregnant though and now have open access to the triage unit so if I'm ever in that position again I can go there. I don't regret going to A+E though on those two occasions, it was the only option I felt like I had.

I hate making that call and DS has two potentially life threatening conditions so I have to make it too often! Thankfully our peads A and E know him well and know I don’t go unless I’m Really worried.

Our minor injuries doesn’t see children though, so any possible broken bones etc we end up at a and e.