To think if you can wait for a GP you shouldn't be in A&E

[Alfenstein]

Was in A&E overnight last night and was confused and then a bit annoyed about a situation and wanted to see what others thought

I arrived at A&E for 18:00, was told it was very busy (when is it not) and the waits were 5+ hours. I was triaged and sat in the waiting room

At 02:00 a nurse came in and made an announcement. Saying that waits were still really long because they've got 15 ambulances waiting but there is a GP based at the hospital who will be in from 08:00, if people would prefer to go home and come back they would be seen by the GP.

And half of the waiting room got up and left!

AIBU to think that if you can wait until morning you don't need to be in A&E.

Surely the issue isn't that urgent or an emergency if you can bugger off home and come back in the morning!

Why is it my issue they're are silly people out there

Why is it everyone else in A&E who needs to be there's issue?

There are massive road signs around the town center showing people where to go to urgent care

People who live in the real world would know it exists, school nurses tell parents to take their child there if they get hurt at school, people bemoan it on the local FB groups, GPs have signs with the details of urgent care up and often refer patients to them themselves

If despite it being well publicised, signposted and spoken about you still don't know it exists and live locally then lord help ya

I've never had to use A&E before and still know it exists

I've also never used the local urgent care but know they exist

As there are massive bloody road signs around for directions, signs in my GP waiting room, and people speaking about it online.

I have an appointment in September to see my GP, and that was the first available one. Luckily it's not anything acute and I can wait that long. For a UTI or similar I'd head to urgent care because it's not realistic to wait that long with something that can quickly get worse.

Why cant he do an e consult and send in the image of the mole? Look up nhs e consult

@dizzygirl1 nope

Where did I say they were everywhere?

I said they were an option and I've never lived anywhere that didn't have one

People who live in the real world would know it exists, school nurses tell parents to take their child there if they get hurt at school, people bemoan it on the local FB groups, GPs have signs with the details of urgent care up and often refer patients to them themselves

I live in the real world. I don’t often visit my gp and when I do, I’m in an d out without looking at signs. To be referred to urgent care by your gp, you have to have managed to have contact with them. No children. Not a member of local FB groups. So exactly how would I know about this?

There are massive road signs around the town center showing people where to go to urgent care

That only helps of you know that urgent care is somewhere that you can turn up to without an appointment.

Sounds like the first desk is Triage OP. So deciding who’s symptoms are most concerning and so who needs to be seen first - eg. Abdo pain could be several very nasty things and will be prioritized above a suspected broken ankle.

YABU to ask and then ignore all the sensible contributions in favour of stamping your feet.

Might it be because it's something you don't pay attention until you need it? I pay attention to road signs I need, and rarely go into the GP surgery (especially now!).

You don't have one locally so of course don't know they exist as you wouldn't be referred to a service that doesn't exist, nor would I assume there be signs in your local area pointing people to a building that doesn't exist.

Christ alive

You really are something else

Sensible contributions?

Where

Why didn't you go the Urgent Care instead of taking up space in A&E? You clearly didn't need to be there either as you were ok to be kept waiting for 8+ hours. You sound like one of the silly ones. And you don't even have the excuse of not knowing about the GP and Urgent Care.

It might be that when people arrived at 6pm they thought it needed to be seen quickly, but that once it got to 2am and they had already waited 8 hours and were likely to be waiting at least another 2/ 3/ 4 hours they realised that actually waiting for the 8am GP wasn’t much different. Just because people decided to leave also doesn’t mean all of them were best choosing the GP service over continuing to wait, something like a twisted ankle/ possible break is a reasonable thing to go to A&E for but also something someone who has been sat for 8+ hours in A&E might decide can wait until morning once the 2am exhaustion and no end in sight hits them.

Also it might be some people just decided to go home even though it might not be in their best interests. I have been to A&E for stitches before and thought it was urgent at the time but then after being sat for 9 hours when I still hadn’t been seen and there was an announcement that the wait was still long as the bleeding had stopped I decided to go home and treat the wound myself. It ended up getting infected and when I went to my doctor for antibiotics they said it really should have been stitched as it ended taking well over a month to properly close and heal. At 2am the sick/ injured people tired from sitting in A&E for 8+ hours probably aren’t all the best judges of whether they can wait to be seen or not.

You could also argue that nobody sat in that waiting room, including those who stayed, likely needed to be seen urgently if they had already been made to wait 8 hours and were going to need to wait several more; if it was a true emergency then they surely would have been rushed through as a priority.

It probably should be, but triage is done by the check in desk.

The first desk just asks what's wrong and gives everyone the same instruction to go to the check in desk, if they were triaging people they weren't filtering anyone out

You don't have one locally so of course don't know they exist as you wouldn't be referred to a service that doesn't exist, nor would I assume there be signs in your local area pointing people to a building that doesn't exist.

Having checked the link posted above, apparently there is an urgent care place locally. I had no idea it existed.

Sensible contributions?

Where

I can imagine you sitting there waving your arms up and down like a petulant toddler 'but I AM right' - perhaps that why you have missed them.

Who said I was waiting for 8 hours

I was there and being seen

You go back to the waiting room between seeing doctors, nurses and other staff

Oh I know I am right, although yes some people have added to my view and have included some suggestions raised here in my email to the hospital

Wow, you need to get off your high horse. Those ‘wasters’ are no less important or worthy as you. Some would be off the opinion that if you can sit there from 6pm til 2pm, you weren’t exactly on your last legs either 🤷‍♀️

this is where the closure of walk in clinics really did a number on the NHS, it puts pressures on the GPs, coupled with the targets which make them manage bookings in a way which isnt conductive to good service, and you invariably get issues with people going to A&E as a first or second port of call that dont need to be there.

This is a Government choice and been done so people lament differant parts of the health service and then dont moan when certain parts are then sold off in the name of 'providing a better service'

People are not born with the knowledge of what nhs services are available to them locally. Constantly insulting the intelligence of people who don’t know in advance where they might go if they need medical attention is pathetic.

You really are embarrassing yourself here.

I'm from London and in my area you have to book an appointment at the majority of the urgent care centres. You can't just walk in anymore. There's pretty much only one urgent care centre that you can walk into without pre-planning. So that's another healthcare hoop to jump through. I can completely understand how desperate people end up in A&E. OP you're being beyond ridiculous but it seems like you're enjoying being high and mighty

Our A&E triage and send people to the urgent treatment centre if appropriate. You can't take yourself there. You have to be referred from A&E. Unfortunately, it doesn't operate 24 hours a day, only overnight and weekends, because it assumes people can access emergency appointments with GPs during week days. This is not the case unfortunately, so people who require urgent assessment or treatment but can't see a GP have to go to A&E. It would have helped in your situation though OP, I suppose.

Yes I think she's just enjoying it

hopefully when the clot clears, OP will feel better.