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!

So all of the majors patients get wheeled into the waiting room on their trolleys in between being seen by clinicians? And your ED clinicians carry out surgery actually in the ED?

We used to have a minor injuries unit at our local "cottage hospital".

Until I had to go to the hospital for an x-ray 3 years ago, I had no idea it had become an "urgent treatment centre" and now saw people who were ill, as well as injured.

I drive past it every time I go into town and back, there was nothing about it on the sign that you can see from the road, or even as you go up the drive. The first sign you see is on the door that is next to the main entrance (which is helpfully on the side of the building, not the front). Hardly anyone I've mentioned it too knew it had changed, and a couple of friends have looked at me as though I'm bonkers. It must be the quietest such centre in the country, as hardly anyone seems to know it's there.

Of course, I suspect that they don't want people to know, so that they can claim there's no need for it and shut it down.

Lol. An attitude like that could easily lead to a trip to A&E, couldn't it?

This week I has some severe pains overnight near my appendix. The receptionist didn't have any appointments at the GP and asked me to go to A&E. I felt uncomfortable with this and after several conversations with medic friends, decided to take the risk! Similarly, last month I had a chest infection and couldn't get a GP appointment so went through 111 who wanted to send an ambulance (I am also pregnant) and I had to persuade the call handler to organise me a GP appointment at hospital to be able to get antibiotics by formally declining the advised ambulance. The NHS is not easy to navigate at the moment to get the care you need. Nobody needs your judgement.

Went to hospital with a cold

A simple Cold

I was admitted!

You never know someones medical history
So you have no right to ‘decide’ some people shouldnt be there !

I think that could work really well in urban areas, but would be difficult for people who live more rurally.

I live in a small town, but in the surrounding area there are 3 rural GP practices that serve groups of villages and hamlets. If they were closed in favour of using an urgent care/minor injuries, a lot of them would have long journeys (anything up to 12 miles) with pisspoor and expensive public transport for non-drivers.

I'm not in the middle of the highlands or anything, either, but barely 50 miles from London.

I had no idea if our local A&E has a GP service. I don't even know what you mean by 'Urgent care" unless its what used to be called "minor injuries" which in our area was shut down a decade ago.

However just for you I've gone and checked - no information on the availability of a GP at the three nearest A&E centres, no mention of urgent care units anywhere.

So - how do people in your area who don't live on FB local know about such services? I don't discuss the local A&E unit if I see my neighbours, how would I know?

It can work the other way, too. I was at a friend's one evening when she got the most excruciating abdo pain. It went on for hours and got so bad, she could barely stand, and she looked awful, sort of pale grey. The slightest movement had her groaning in pain.

It got worse and worse, and in the end we both thought she needed to get it checked out (this was in the 1980s, long before the existence of 111). I helped her into my car and drove her to A&E, and she was in such a state that a paramedic going off duty had to help me get her out the car and into a wheelchair. He was concerned, too, she looked so bad.

We'd only been waiting half an hour or so when she was called and she managed to sit up a bit in the wheelchair. As she sat up, she emitted the most massive burp I have ever heard, followed by another two burps, only slightly less impressive. Her colour immediately improved and she started to look a lot better.

I had taken her to A&E, thinking she was at death's door, with what turned out to be wind. I was mortified.

Thankfully, the doctor was very sympathetic.

*Then you're a bit silly

I’m really not. There’s no need to resort to insults.

What do you mean by “urgent care”? We do not have “urgent care” in my part of the country. Why should I know about it if I haven’t ever had to access it?*

I've never heard of 'urgent care' either. I guess because I've never had to use it? OP, why are you being so angry and defensive?

I go to hospital alot
Had more than my fair share in A&E and ALOT of outpatients appointments
I have roughly 1-4 appointments at the hospital a month

TODAY I noticed there is a 24 hour urgent care centre there, I had no idea
I dont know if you have to be referred by A&E or 111 or you can just turn up
But my point is, im always at the hospital and never knew they had one

I've just looked up what urgent care centres are. I thought my local one was called a minor injuries unit and didn't realise it was for more than injuries that might need x-rays.

www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/urgent-and-emergency-care-services/when-to-visit-an-urgent-treatment-centre-walk-in-or-minor-injury-unit/

The page for my local Urgent Care centre on the NHS website is really poor. When you click on services, it shows nothing.

I never had a clue that hospitals had a GP every day you could just go to.

Yet you did.

Perhaps YOU are familiar because you spend more time than people like me popping to see doctors all the time? Maybe I rarely ever want to bother a GP and only ever seek healthcare when I feel that it's really necessary so do find myself in A&E?

Bloody hell, do you even realise how rude, ignorant and self important you sound!?

Yes some people should not be at a&e but I Think you are being rude here!
Do you know about the GP? How? How often you attend the GP?
I rarely go to our GP Practice , recently tried for 5 mornings to get an appointment and failed so I've given up on that.
I know there's urgent care but we still have to have an appointment. We had great local 'walk in centres' across our area which they've closed down.
I literally have no idea what our hospital offer other than a&e.
At the local eye infirmary with my mum, a young lad came with an awful looking eye. Receptionist told him he couldn't just turn up and needed an appointment. He replied he wasnt aware of that and she rudely said well it's been like that for more than 2yrs now and pointed at a sign, and he replied well funnily enough I've never been to this hospital and was totally unaware of that rule.
He called from outside was telephone triaged and allowed in to be seen.

I just googled urgent care centre and my county.

No wonder I didn't know about ours.

Because we don't fucking have one.

So DFOD.

I have never seen a single road sign for Urgent Care, yet OP claims that they are abundant. They are not.

Maybe you should take this up with the Highways Agency and the local councils. They should obviously be signposting these barely existent services more clearly. That would solve all of our healthcare problems.

This whole thread is goady fuckery.

Aye well good for you that "you've never had to wait longer than a day" for a GP appointment. My sisters GP's waiting time was 4 weeks, she was advised A&E, she was told the same about the GP at 8am. Funny though, the GP could only see so many people in one day, so she was sent home again. Do you know happened, OP? She killed herself. She was 27. So fuck you for your snide views about "what people should and shouldn't know"

...because many GPs will still not actually see you, many GPs will not get everyone who needs an appointment one.
Because in some areas dealing with 111 means waiting almost 24 hours to get seen.

Some of those people will have left because they didn't want to wait.

When my DH fractured his arm very badly, he tried to leave the hospital, the wait wasn't worth the help he thought he needed. But he then had to have an operation.
The next time he walked put pf A&E with a bad case of cellulitis, couldn't get help anywhere, but hoped the GP situation would be better in the morning- it wasn't and he ended up back, and kept as an inpatient for 4 days on IV antibiotics.

The system is broken. A lot of people cannot access their own GP

I think several things can be true at once. The system is broken, some people are desperate for healthcare and don’t know where to go and some people are are idiots.

Our hospital has an A&E but if the triage nurse (sometimes 4 hours wait just to be triaged) doesn’t think you need the A&E, you are sent to the on-site GP.

i was in the A&E a while ago (heart condition). I was sitting next to a man who had a suspected stroke. We were both sitting there quietly, very worried, but realising that the system is broken. There were a few announcers about ambulances, ETA of the ambulances and “abdominal knife wound etc).

and there was also a very argumentative, unpleasant woman who kept complaining very loudly to the staff that other people were seen ahead of her (probably higher priority), that she had this tummy pain for days (possibly less urgent than the teenager with a knife in his/her stomach) and she really needed to be seen. And she was very unpleasant to staff. About 4-5 hours later she was triaged and sent to the on-site GP to start waiting again.

I was there in total about 10 hours including blood tests, not sure what happened to the stroke guy or the casualties.

I don’t mind people trying to access healthcare in any way they can. But to think that the A&E is some kind of a Tesco queue and be unpleasant and shouting when higher risk patients are seen ahead of you is not ok.

Maybe they would just rather wait in a&e in the morning and go get some sleep, knowing they would otherwise be there for several more hours. For example fractures can't be seen by a GP, but they can wait til morning if the person is able to control the pain

A&E isn't just for accident and emergency anymore. It bridges a gap in care services

Ain't that the truth.

Totally agree with this!

I bet they've had a good laugh!

Depends where u are. No urgent care and walk in gps in wales
i waited 9 hours for 5 stitches last month and wish I didn’t have to but was a complicated injury that I just couldn’t steri strip