To suspect that the usual mumsnet attitude to a&e is going to end up dangerous if there’s a strep outbreak

[Swg]

Because we’ve all seen it a million times and know how it goes don’t we? Someone is going to show up anxious about their child who has a high temperature and sore throat and be told “that’s not an emergency don’t go to A&E”.

Call 111 (which will have a wait time of over an hour to get through and then may well insist on sending an ambulance no matter what causing more guilt)

Go to urgent care (if you have one)

Go and see your GP (it might take a month for an appointment but hey)

Lambast the poster for asking on here (because they’re not sure whether they have health anxiety and they’re worried about taking a sick child to sit 12 hours in a&e and don’t have childcare for their other kids)

Tell the poster that if they’re not prepared to sit forever in a&e their kid is clearly not that sick (or in a reverse, say that people who can survive sitting 40 hours in A&E are clearly not sick enough to be there)

Do anything at all other than admit the health service is broken and that is no one individuals fault.

AIBU to suggest mumsnet comes up with a blanket response to these threads now before someone dies of bad advice?

The sad fact is that strep A can be swabbed for and treated by a gp-this is the issue that there isn’t easy and quick enough access to gp appts. They need to be open longer hours and at weekends . It’s vital not just for this outbreak but for other reasons if we get the gp systems sorted then demand on urgent care and a and e would be reduced

Is the severity of this strep A problem actually because children aren’t being seen by a medical professional soon enough so treatment is delayed?

There have been a number of posters on here whose lives or their child's life has been saved from advice received on MN. I remember one poster whose child had chicken pox and was very drowsy, they were advised to go to hospital and their child had serious complications and ended up in a coma, but did recover

Wow
Wish I had made my response to you as Personal as you just did. !;. Ffs
Cow

Harsh. Somebody child dieing of any illness is rarely due to parental fault.

...this is such an over-reaction to a few anecdotes about how things actually were pre-internet that unless you are the ghost of my mother who has spontaneously resurrected to complain about my talking about her terrible medical advice you are almost certainly reading things into my tone that weren't meant to be there.

Look, my point is that my mother - lovely as she could be when she felt it, and very smart about some things - was where anything medical was concerned a complete and utter fucking idiot. And she had good reasons to be that idiot some of the time - she had me relatively young and was a long way from her family for some of my childhood- but she vacillated between having zero trust in her own instincts and asking anyone who seemed the least bit authorative for advice rather than bothering the doctors or confidently deciding that something was absolutely not bad enough to bother medical people with to the point she would very insistently advise other people of it and be completely and utterly wrong. And she did not require the internet to be that way. And she was not in a minority in this - or at least wasn't amongst adults I grew up around. And those of that generation who are still alive and in contact with me today, whilst they wouldn't dream of using an internet forum, still maintain those habits and attitudes to the point of insisting that when I do get proper medical advice from proper medical sources that the doctor must be an idiot because they told Tracey's mother's sister who used to be a nurse all about my problem and they said...

This is not a shiny new internet problem is what I am saying. What is new is that while it used to be a neighbour or a family member - and they would at least try and give good advice and if you were lucky you would find one who was not a complete idiot - now it's a forum where some people might be trying but some will be trolls and some will give the same "don't attend A&E" advice no matter what.

I think the very real danger atm is not that parents will not seek medical help when needed but rather that thousands of anxious parents will be making their way to a&e because their child has a sore throat and fever. Those whose children are the one in ten thousand that do need urgent medical care will be sitting in some awfully long queues.

These posts are ridiculous. There is a thread recently regarding someone who had already been to the GP who had advised them to go to a&e if the pain gets worse and yet posted on mumsnet asking people should they go to A&E??

@bakebeans I used to be an A&E receptionist and it was unreal how many people would call A&E to ask if they should come in because the doctor told them to. If you’ve been advised to attend then go. Please!

My cats always give me excellent financial advice, which is why I'm a millionaire.

@Untitledsquatboulder totally ageee.

Surely you mean a meowlionaire

I'll get my coat

I just think we all need to try and be kinder to each other.
We all come with different levels of coping and different life experiences.
Yes, we need to be measured with our decision making and often - sometimes - mumnetters can provide some balance or at least a listening ear.
I can see both sides - having worked in the nhs acute side, and have two dd who although older now, have offered me a lot of worrying times with their health, and tbh still do at times, But also I lost a sister aged 4 weeks with meningitis and saw how quickly things can progress.
Plus symptoms listed don't always cover them all.
I'd contact GP IF your GP is one of the lucky ones which you can get through to (they do exisit - I feel v v fortunate with ours) but otherwise try chemist/111....and if really worried get to hosp.

Yes majority will be ok.

I think overall people need to take a bit of personal responsibility - I don’t take a poll of health advice in Starbucks then blame the employees and patrons if the advice turns out bad. As adults, we have to make that call. Dithering online and asking random strangers isn’t really helpful, and any advice taken from mumsnet/Twitter/Reddit should be taken with a big pinch of salt.

I think Mumsnet is generally too eager to send people to A&E. Parents are often advised to phone 111 or just go to A&E because their child has a fever, even though the service unless there are are other red flags (or it's a young baby) is to make a GP appointment after 5 days.

This. MN health advice should be taken no more seriously than the advice you read on Facebook.

Well now you explained it well I take it back. Apologies