To walk out of A&E

[Usernamqwerty]

I've been here since 18:00 with what started as suspected appendicitis (from a GP visit this afternoon). Surgeon examined me and said looks like a kidney infection. I had a CT scan nearly 4 hours ago and still waiting on a chair in the busy stuffy waiting area.

There are trolleys lining the corridors here. It's so busy. I asked the nurse when I might hear and she said the doctor will get to me when they can. I might be here all night, I have no idea!

I am shattered, hot and bored and I just want to go home 😭. What happens if I leave? Can I ask them to send my GP the scan report and antibiotics request?

They must love sitting in their ivory towers. Getting paid hundreds of thousands of pounds, while we all beg to just speak to them on the phone.

The A and E dept have been doing this for a while it’s to deter people from going in the first place. Last time I was in they kept an elderly couple in who was waiting 12 hours. I went to ask how long it would take for me to be seen and to ask if they could help the elderly couple who were probably in their 90s. I found a nurse playing solitaire on her phone sat at the desk doing sod all. I left the hospital the nurse wasn’t bothered and so did the elderly couple I went to the Drs the next day I had frozen shoulder and was in agony. They just want the real emergency cases such as car crash victims, knife wounds, burst appendix etc in. It’s been made difficult as people who could have seen their Drs go and that’s why it’s full and round in circles we all go. I hope everything went well and you stayed and got treatment and if you went home you called a dr for advise. I was once told don’t go to A and E just go to a walk in centre where you can be seen a lot quicker. Good luck and let us know how you got on

Kidney. Not appendicitis, thankfully, which was ruled out following an examination by a surgeon.

Thank you. At this A&E, they have a triage nurse you see straight away and if it doesn't warrant A&E, they send you elsewhere. As part of A&E, they have GPs so can send you there. I went there initially, was examined again by a GP (having seen my own one earlier in the day). This GP was also concerned about possible appendicitis and so I had bloods taken and was referred to the surgical team and transferred to A&E minors whilst waiting to see the surgical team. On examination, the surgeon ruled out appendicitis but said I probably had a kidney infection which was then confirmed by a CT scan.

I would stay. I’m sorry you feel poorly but if you leave you will start at the beginning. You’ve already invested a lot of time so try stick it out. Also, sorry to point this out, but I think your GP was concerned that you get sorted sooner rather than later which is why they referred you to A&E. get better soon!

Who are you talking about? Hopefully government members who are privatising the NHS by stealth….

Why doesn't this stuff affect the government, their ageing parents or other elites? There's no private a and e, so what do they do? Genuine question.

Sorry to be blunt here BUT If you are well enough to walk out after all that time sitting & waiting why are you at A & E at all?
Why waste NHS time & money having the tests to then just go home without an answer?
If you were so concerned & ill you’d wait as long as needed for those results.
You are still waiting because your issue is seriously less urgent than others there & more life threatening arrivals will push you further down the waiting list.

Manage your issues at home - drink more water, take some over the counter pain meds, use ice or heat packs to ease pain - & call 111 if you start to REALLY struggle!

A & E is super, super busy right now & for accidents & life or death emergencies, last time I checked, not a little pain which clearly isn’t enough to cripple you as you are considering walking out & going home!

OP was sent there by her GP.

It's in the post you quoted.

@Grrrrdarling yet another poster who thinks that being sent to A&E by your GP with suspected appendicitis is wasting the NHS' time. Really? She shouldn't be at hospital at all? You know appendicitis is a medical emergency right? Kidney infections are no joke either, speaking as someone with a duplex kidney.

What a pompous ass!

Pompous ass?! Erm nope..

You know what I’ll actually thank you for bringing that bit of extra information to my attention because I totally missed it hence my post reading that way.
In my defence I was in the middle of being whined at by an apparently STARVING kid, they had a banana 10minutes ago & wouldn’t know Starving if it ran up & bit them on the ass, & was making lunch while I was reading the post.
I also suffer with brainfog which makes it hard for me to take in information so I often miss things when reading.

I know very well how serious appendicitis can be, I’m not a moron, & also I know the complications that can arise from it & how quickly things can go sideways, BUT I still think that if you are well enough to go home without answers after waiting all that time why wait all that time in A & E’s at all 🤷‍♀️
OP had been told it was not appendicitis, probably a kidney infection & could have come back to collect the meds the next day, if that was doable.

A & E isn’t a 1st come 1st served system & lots of factors will have bumped OP down the priority list. Just because they were sent there by their doc doesn’t mean they will be seen any quicker than anyone else.
In an ideal world staff would want to get the easy cases sorted & out of A & E asap to free up time & space for more serious cases BUT the NHS doesn’t work proactively it works reactively.
If OP had got extremely ill or collapsed while there they’d have been seen sooner or potentially admitted for further observations as the staff would have reacted appropriately for the situation.

Again thanks for highlighting what I missed in OP’s post.

No you can't ask them to do that you either wait it out or don't get treatment.

Glad you stuck it out . Kidney infection can get worse very quickly . I had sepsis recenycaused by a kidney infection ( didn’t have an symptoms) not something you want to suffer . My son was sat in a chair waiting for 16 hours after being delivered to hospital by ambulance with a broken ankle !!! The system is falling apart . No idea what can be down

This makes me so sad. When you are feeling poorly (without being unconscious!) you really don’t feel well enough to wait there. Even worse when you have to be there by yourself with no one able to advocate for you. Let alone those who are elderly and vulnerable. Breaks my heart.

I found a nurse playing solitaire on her phone sat at the desk doing sod all.

Because health care staff don’t need a break or two on their 12 hour shifts, right?🙄