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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be really sick of various posters advising others not to use A&E?

111 replies

QuestionableMouse · 07/10/2022 22:35

Seen it so much lately. A poster with concerning symptoms will post and there'll be a rush of posters telling them not to use A&E because it's "for emergencies only"

This is when the NHS advises using A&E.

People advising others not to go is going to end up killing someone and I'm genuinely getting sick of seeing it. Part of me wishes MN would ban these threads.

To be really sick of various posters advising others not to use A&E?
OP posts:
Swg · 08/10/2022 13:41

Hawkins001 · 08/10/2022 13:23

This is just a question, could the opposite be also true, that if everyone was waiting at e.g. A and E, then a more serious case could go fatal due to the backlog ?

@QuestionableMouse

Unfortunately yes but that's not necessarily something to blame on the people who are in hospital but something to take as reason to campaign to put more money into the NHS.

Triage does exist but people can deteriorate after Triage and covid means more people are attending A&E unaccompanied. It means if you're slumped in a seat slowly dying in a busy A&E it is possible no one is going to notice and you may well be too poorly to make a fuss and sound the alarm.

(Having been there..eight hour wait after Triage and I've been a carer fr other people before so recognised that when my pee abruptly turned brown it was a bad sign. I have a friend who is a doctor who sternly told me it was time to stop being well behaved and waiting patiently and sent me to the nurses station to make a fuss. Had I not done so or not been able to do so... Welp. Might not be here.)

Bridgeth29 · 08/10/2022 13:42

IMO if you've got time to post on Mumsnet and wait and consider the replies then it's not an emergency and you shouldn't go to a&e.

People should use 111 or 999.

A&e is so overused.

Also what really annoys me is people calling ambulances when they could call 111 and get a taxi to a&e if needed. Ambulances are not taxis to hospital.

justasking111 · 08/10/2022 13:44

QuestionableMouse · 08/10/2022 13:32

This is why triage exists.

Where we are ambulance triage took precedence years ago so someone who brought patients in by car were behind an ambulance patient. I did 90 mph on the dual carriageway to save an ambulance only to be told ambulance take precedence. OH screaming in agony. Whereas the patient moaning he was missing Corrie but had come in an ambulance was seen first. His diagnosis following triage was a sprained thumb. He went nuts when he was told no an ambulance wouldn't be running him home. OH on the other hand spent ten days in hospital

justasking111 · 08/10/2022 13:46

Bridgeth29 · 08/10/2022 13:42

IMO if you've got time to post on Mumsnet and wait and consider the replies then it's not an emergency and you shouldn't go to a&e.

People should use 111 or 999.

A&e is so overused.

Also what really annoys me is people calling ambulances when they could call 111 and get a taxi to a&e if needed. Ambulances are not taxis to hospital.

And if they say they don't have a car, taxi money??

Hbh17 · 08/10/2022 13:55

Ask any A&E doctor and they will tell you that the service has been misused for years (insect bites, hangovers, coughs & colds etc etc). There are a vanishingly small number if situations that are properly accidents or emergencies. If people had to pay a fee, they may think twice about wasting NhS time & resources.

Bridgeth29 · 08/10/2022 13:55

justasking111 · 08/10/2022 13:46

And if they say they don't have a car, taxi money??

If someone really needs to get to hospital and can't drive there, has no money for a taxi, can't for whatever reason use public transport, has no friends or family or neighbours than can give them a lift, then of course they would have to call an ambulance. No need to be pedantic. But this situation would be rare. People however think an ambulance is easier than trying the above options. Until they're told it is a 12 hour wait for an ambulance - then they suddeny find a way of getting there themselves (in my experience).

QuestionableMouse · 08/10/2022 13:59

justasking111 · 08/10/2022 13:44

Where we are ambulance triage took precedence years ago so someone who brought patients in by car were behind an ambulance patient. I did 90 mph on the dual carriageway to save an ambulance only to be told ambulance take precedence. OH screaming in agony. Whereas the patient moaning he was missing Corrie but had come in an ambulance was seen first. His diagnosis following triage was a sprained thumb. He went nuts when he was told no an ambulance wouldn't be running him home. OH on the other hand spent ten days in hospital

I'm sorry that happened to you but in my (recent) experience it's just not true. I took my mum to A&E by car with severe breathing difficulties and she was seen straight away while a man with a broken arm who had been brought in by ambulance was assessed, given pain relief and asked to wait. Maybe it varies by hospital. (My experience was at North Tees, but I've also had the same at James Cook)

OP posts:
chilliesandspices · 08/10/2022 14:38

I think it's more reasonable to be sick of people asking if they should go. How hard is it to pick up a phone and call 111 or go to a pharmacy? Why ask random people on Mumsnet?

I live in a large town with an A&E department but none of the other services frequently recommend. There's no minor-injuries clinic, no walk-in clinic for weekend illness, no out of hours doctor. The call handlers at 111 know that, Mumsnet doesn't. DH has used A&E twice. The first time 111 instructed him on how to clean and bandage a cut then said to go to A&E if it was still bleeding after an hour. He had cut the very tip of his finger off but it wasn't bleeding profusely so wasn't urgent urgent. The second was when he thought he sprained his ankle. I drove him to the pharmacy to get something to support it. The pharmacist took a look, was concerned there was a break and turned out to be right.

Our A&E department seems to be run quite well based on the two times we've been. The finger incident was a Saturday night and when we turned up there were only 2 people waiting. We were in and out within 30 minutes. The ankle one was a Thursday afternoon and DH left with a cast and some crutches 4 hours later.

ghostyslovesheets · 08/10/2022 14:50

I wish people would use their local chemist more - they can do basic checks, ears, throat, chest and advise on whether you need further medical advice or some over the counter medicine - mine has seen my 3 with earache, a rash, sore throat and been really helpful

A few threads recently about coughs and colds could have seen a chemist in the first place and gone from there rather than asking randoms on MN if they need A+E!

Badgirlriri · 08/10/2022 15:13

luxxlisbon · 07/10/2022 22:39

Tbf I’m sick of seeing grown adults as randos on mumsnet if they should go to A&E!
The posts shouldn’t be allowed, if someone wants emergency medical advice then 111 or 999 should be their only avenues.

This!

YABU.

I’ve never seen anyone post with the above symptoms and told not to go to A&E.

It’s usually “I have a cough” “my kid has an ear ache” “I have diarrhoea”

Those are neither accidents or emergencies and they should call 111 for advice.

Swg · 08/10/2022 15:18

Bridgeth29 · 08/10/2022 13:42

IMO if you've got time to post on Mumsnet and wait and consider the replies then it's not an emergency and you shouldn't go to a&e.

People should use 111 or 999.

A&e is so overused.

Also what really annoys me is people calling ambulances when they could call 111 and get a taxi to a&e if needed. Ambulances are not taxis to hospital.

Twice this year I’ve had serious gallbladder attacks. Both involved serious amounts of time curled up in pain mucking about on my phone as I tried to distract myself. Both resulted in ambulance attendance. I’ve now had my gallbladder removed as the second attack led to pancreatitis which is considered a medical emergency and can kill.

But “lack of time” was only really a consideration in the five hour wait for an ambulance on the second attack where I started to get seriously frightened at the possibility I might just die with no one else in the house before help arrived.

FatOaf · 08/10/2022 15:47

successive governments have screwed the NHS and it began with Tony Blair

This is so comically untrue it deserves a Mumsnet post of the day award. I presume you were born too recently to have seen the lines of people lying (and dying) on trolleys in hospital corridors under John Major's regime, a result of the ideologically driven National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990, one of Margaret Thatcher's last acts as prime minister. The introduction of the "internal market" by the 1990 act increased administration costs from 5% of NHS total expenditure to 14%, wasting billions of pounds and forcing drastic cuts to patient care.

The trouble with Blair was that he did half a job of fixing it: he built new, smaller hospitals, to provide a better standard of in-patient care but didn't put in place the necessary accompanying increase in community-based care provision (as nobody in the health service ever believed he would), so the new hospitals were entirely overwhelmed by demand. Nor did he get rid of the internal market.

The other crime of that regime was Gordon Brown's insistence on using the private finance initiative (PFI) to fund the buiding of new hospitals, schools, prisons, etc., to make it look like the government wasn't borrowing to build them, thereby saddling us with decades of commitment to service charges for facilities long beyond the time at which they ceased to be useable.

When Andrew Lansley then came along with his back-of-a-fag-packet plan in 2012 to completely dismantle the NHS and let the fragments fight with each other over what services they would provide, it ensured that the financial inefficiencies would be as great as could possibly be engineered. If someone had deliberately set out to ensure the NHS could not function effectively, they couldn't have done a better job.

Itstheimplication · 08/10/2022 15:49

I mean really you shouldn’t be asking a random Internet forum and taking their answers as gospel. There’s 111 and the NHS website which gives clear directions on whether you need to go to A&E in most circumstances.

of course in a forum you’re going to get a variety of different replies

memorial · 08/10/2022 15:50

Personally I am absolutely sick to the back teeth of random neurotic mothers telling every single poster with any remotely medical concern to go to A+E or see a GP. It's bizarre this complete paranoia as if doctors are magic psychics able to predict and cure everything instantly.

OverArmour · 08/10/2022 16:15

Meili04 · 08/10/2022 11:48

There was one the other day where the poor lady had fecal vomiting. People were saying don't go to A&E on what planet is a bowel obstruction not an emergency. Don't listen to MNers if you have any concerns contact your HCP , 111 or look on NHS for advice

Yes but she’d been fobbed off multiple times by doctors and A&E. She listened to the posters telling her to go and stay in A&E again and that probably saved her life.

NeverCleanAgain · 08/10/2022 18:00

@OverArmour that was me. Still in hospital now ☹️. It probably wasn’t the best idea to ask on MN but I no one else to ask and my visit to A&E a few days previously had resulted in them sending me home and telling me to wait it out. Everyone insisting that I should get another opinion stopped me just going back to bed and almost certainly saved my life.

OverArmour · 08/10/2022 18:39

NeverCleanAgain · 08/10/2022 18:00

@OverArmour that was me. Still in hospital now ☹️. It probably wasn’t the best idea to ask on MN but I no one else to ask and my visit to A&E a few days previously had resulted in them sending me home and telling me to wait it out. Everyone insisting that I should get another opinion stopped me just going back to bed and almost certainly saved my life.

I’m so glad you went back and really hope you have a smooth recovery Flowers

QuestionableMouse · 08/10/2022 19:22

NeverCleanAgain · 08/10/2022 18:00

@OverArmour that was me. Still in hospital now ☹️. It probably wasn’t the best idea to ask on MN but I no one else to ask and my visit to A&E a few days previously had resulted in them sending me home and telling me to wait it out. Everyone insisting that I should get another opinion stopped me just going back to bed and almost certainly saved my life.

This is exactly why seeing people saying not to go makes me see red. If you'd listened to them, God knows what could have happened.

I hope you're on the mend and soon back to your normal life ❤️💐

OP posts:
RIPQueen · 08/10/2022 19:42

The a and e posts are usually like this IME:

”I have had a cough for 10 days and now it’s Friday night and 8pm
and everywhere is shut but I feel so funny and can’t breathe should I go to a and e or call
an ambulance?”

then often many reasons why they can’t get to a and e and have to call and ambulance for a spurious reason/can’t afford taxi/don’t drive/no where near bus stop.

generally speaking it’s pretty clear when you need a & e.

Novum · 08/10/2022 19:44

IMO if you've got time to post on Mumsnet and wait and consider the replies then it's not an emergency and you shouldn't go to a&e.

This is typical of the sort of dangerous rubbish OP is talking about. The concept that you shouldn't go to A&E unless you need REALLY REALLY urgent attention is bizarre - if, for example, you think you've broken a hip that's definitely an A&E job but not one that means you couldn't wait half an hour or even longer to get there.

InCheesusWeTrust · 08/10/2022 19:50

Novum · 08/10/2022 19:44

IMO if you've got time to post on Mumsnet and wait and consider the replies then it's not an emergency and you shouldn't go to a&e.

This is typical of the sort of dangerous rubbish OP is talking about. The concept that you shouldn't go to A&E unless you need REALLY REALLY urgent attention is bizarre - if, for example, you think you've broken a hip that's definitely an A&E job but not one that means you couldn't wait half an hour or even longer to get there.

I agree. My family memebr was like "eh, I don't have any super strong pain, eill just take pain killer" and ended up with xxple bypass. He was all "fine" and chatting until he wasn't. The fact someone has a bit of time doesn't mean they are not in, or very quickly heading for, life threatening emergency.

It's similar like "if you had flu you couldn't even post"

He also would very much had time to chat online (if he was so inclined" just before he died. And by just before, i mean just before.

sarahc336 · 08/10/2022 20:00

Surely though if people genuinely need a&e they're not posting for advice on mn so I'd say generally if someone is posting on mn most of us are going to say you probably need the walk in not a&e 🤷🏻‍♀️ like if I really think I'm having a heart attack why would I post on mn? So I get you op people shouldn't diagnose on mn we're not drs but also too many people mis use a&e and it pisses people off so 🤨

Quincythequince · 08/10/2022 20:07

AnneLovesGilbert · 07/10/2022 22:37

When has anyone ever posted with the above symptoms and been told not to go to a&e? Not once that I’ve seen.

Yes, this.
I have seen people say it - but not for the above symptoms.

YABU OP

InCheesusWeTrust · 08/10/2022 20:39

sarahc336 · 08/10/2022 20:00

Surely though if people genuinely need a&e they're not posting for advice on mn so I'd say generally if someone is posting on mn most of us are going to say you probably need the walk in not a&e 🤷🏻‍♀️ like if I really think I'm having a heart attack why would I post on mn? So I get you op people shouldn't diagnose on mn we're not drs but also too many people mis use a&e and it pisses people off so 🤨

Heart attack warnings can last days and be very unpleasant and concerning yet you can still post....

QuestionableMouse · 08/10/2022 22:21

Quincythequince · 08/10/2022 20:07

Yes, this.
I have seen people say it - but not for the above symptoms.

YABU OP

There's a thread right now with a poster with concerning symptoms. They have been told multiple times not to waste time at A&E.

OP posts:
Swipe left for the next trending thread