To say every hospital should have a children’s A&E

[Wouldloveanother]

I know, it’s pie in the sky and won’t happen.
the state of A&E scares me at the moment. It’s one thing adults waiting 12+ hours alongside people high on drugs or in mental distress (our A&E seems to have a lot of both), it’s another thing for a small child to have to wait in such circumstances. I also feel in general children should take priority over adults (perhaps that’s controversial) and they shouldn’t have to queue with us.
Where we lived before had a dedicated children’s A&E and it was fantastic. AIBU?

Well that’s subjective. I see a separate dedicated facility as ‘prioritising’, you don’t 🤷🏼‍♀️ End of.

It’s not prioritising as each department is separately staff and will triage their own patients in their own way. One day Peads may have a 6 hour wait for non urgent while adults only have 4.

"Are children who are drunk or have taken drugs not asked to wait in adult A&E? Where do children who are highly distressed and possibly acting violently waiting ?"

It will be based on age. Children who are distressed should hopefully have somewhere calmer to wait. Ds would get very distressed and hurt himself waiting in any busy waiting room so there is already a plan in place that he would wait somewhere else ( unless that is impossible).
I do know someone whose adult child got more injuries requiring treatment because of what they headbutted in the A and E waiting room when they got in distress. People with learning disabilities can really struggle in that environment.

Exactly!

thats what I said…

As in, children aren’t being prioritised on a case-by-case basis, but overall it’s better for them to have their own A&E rather than share with everyone else.

If that’s the case why did you originally state that it may a controversial point?

Having separate areas with separate triage (or even joint triage with order of treatment being based solely on medical need not age) sound like a good idea and obviously works well already in some areas, it is not controversial at all.

But you said prioritising children over adults and that may be controversial - do you not understand why posters are looking at your words literally rather than what you were attempting to say?

YANBU but only because ours has a childrens A&E and it's completely different from A&E. It can be daunting but our one has painted walls, toys etc its for 18 and under.

I thought most did. My partner was in A&E over the weekend and someone with MH was waiting to be sectioned so I get what you mean as it can be scary for them to witness.

Because any post on here about the NHS or wanting more provision, seems to set everyone off.

I feel like a few posters are trying to ‘corner’ me into saying something I didn’t, for reasons best known to themselves.

I agree.

I’ve worked in two small district general hospitals emergency departments and both of them had a separate childrens waiting area.

In one of them the children did sit in the main waiting room till it was their turn at triage but then they’d be sent through to the childrens area once triaged.

In the other one, the receptionist sends them directly into the childrens A&E section and they never come across any adult patients except while queuing to book in.

There must be very few ED’s still remaining where everyone sits on the same waiting area. I don’t think the OP is saying that mentally ill people must never be around children, but the adult waiting room isn’t a very child-appropriate place sometimes. You can have prisoners with prison guards cuffed to them, and people in police custody sat waiting to be seen, occasionally a patient from a secure mental health facility who might come with 8 members of staff chained to them for everyone’s safety, as well as all the drunk self-presenting patients, or those who have come to try and con an extra dose of methadone and a sandwich out of the system, etc.

I don’t think ALL children should be immediately prioritised over adults, however. It’s absolutely not okay to see a child with a sore verruca before an adult who is actually incredibly sick or distressed. Like all age groups, there’s a LOT of children brought to ED who absolutely did not need to be there.

Good to separate if possible. It can be exceptionally annoying and stressful for adults who are sick and in pain to be surrounded by bored shrieking kids running about or babies crying. Not a great combination either way so best for everyone’s’ sake

I honestly didn't know it wasn't standard to have PANDA units in hospitals.

In ours, you go through the normal a&e, register and then get sent straight up to the PANDA (My DS was disgusted there weren't real panda's) and then get triaged directly from there. You might wait, but there's cbeebies playing, toys and books.

YANBU. Luckily we do have a children's A&E fairly close to us, however I have to say our nearest A&E is a regular one, and the twice I have had to go (on advice of 111, luckily nothing life-threatening albeit worthy of a visit), I've heard adults talking amongst themselves about waiting hours with no end in sight. Each time I've steeled myself for a long wait, and both times my children were prioritised, seen within the hour and home in less than 3, from arrival to discharge. I really can't fault them.

We are in London and all a&e's around us have a pediatric section. But I remember initially having to be triaged at reception and kids taking priority in the queue. Thats because kids can deteriorate at a much quicker rate than adults and need to be triaged asap to ensure it's not something serious. So yes its about need but they are often prioritized to check what their need actually is. Thats important from a medical standpoint

We have one in Croydon University hospital and it’s such a relief to have that area away from any druggies / undesirables (and there are plenty). They’ve refurbished it too in the last few years and it’s got a lovely play area. My daughter broke her wrist when staying at her cousins and there wasn’t one there and I realised we were lucky to have that

YABU. Get a grip

Age is a protected characteristic under the equality act btw

Maybe other people can have their own A&E too

I’d personally like my own A&E just for people called Carl

Age is a protected characteristic under the equality act btw

You better get busy reporting all the hospitals with separate paediatric a&e then! Let us know how you get on.

I don’t know why you’ve had a hard time. Our local hospital has a childrens A&E with dedicated paediatric staff so whenever I’ve been my children haven’t waiting in the main waiting room. As an adult I’d very much want a toddler to be prioritised over me in circumstances with similar severity. Obviously if I was critical I’d except appropriate prioritisation.

A&E on a Friday night for example is not an appropriate place for small children. Drunk and high people, people who are in psychosis etc.. I don’t get all the hand clutching about the OP suggesting separating children from those experiencing acute mental illness. It is entirely sensible and I say that as someone who grew up with a schizophrenic parent.

There are childrens hospitals for a reason-it’s a specialty in its own right.
And if people stopped going to A&E for things a decent pharmacist could deal with, then everything would work more smoothly. Also if we put infrastructure and training for more GPs then that would alleviate things massively so yes YABU.

That was in response to the part where the OP said “children should take priority over adults” rather than the bit about a separate paediatric a&e

As an adult I would like to avoid those people in A&E too!