A&E time wasters.

[ConfusedMumma99]

I don’t know if I’m just thinking like this because I’ve not been in a situation. But are people genuinely being ridiculous for the reasons of going to A&E

a friend took her son (20 months) to a&e because he got a temperature of 38.8. By the time the nurse took it at a&e it was normal and she said it was because she’d given him Calpol??????? She then said he was running round the waiting room eating snacks.

am i a cow???? Or why would use a&e for this? I appreciate lots in the news about strep A. But surely you would wait and see if temp came down with Calpol/nurofen? That’s what I’d do with my child.

however I am a first time mum so im worried I should take illness more seriously? Do you really need a hospital visit just for a temperature?

our local A&E had wait times of 14 hours the other day??? Is this a combo of lack of
staff or people going unnecessarily.

I know GP’s are notoriously bad for appointments?

how are people seen in A&E? By time spent or by severity?? It seems scary that if you actually needed a&e that you might not get seen.

Don't even go there. I'm going to have to take my toddler and baby to private dentistry. Zero dentists round here taking NHS patients. I know there have been big changes in the way NHS dentistry is funded (though don't know details) and an ex dentist told me there is literally no point in them taking NHS patients anymore

I work in A&E, 17 years so pretty qualified to give you an accurate answer! Firstly there is no one reason.
There is a huge amount of reliance on the medical profession and many many people lack the simple ability to care for themselves, just basic stuff. We have adults coming in as they vomited once! Or for a cold, my favourite was a lady who had an eye lash in her eye... the lash came out but she was panicked because she could not find it, she came to see where her eye lash went. We have people attend who want their toe nails clipped, verrucas removed. I could go on but you get the picture! So self help, more of that in spades would be great!

Secondly, 111! Nightmare, sends many many red flags that are not really red flags to A&E. so we have a lot of very bemused patients wondering why they have to be here but 111 insisted, or even called them an ambulance.

Thirdly, primary health care. Now GPS are not bad at appointments, they are hugely over worked and stretched to an impossible amount. As are all over primary care services, nursing, mental health, sexual health, physios etc. so people come to us as a last resort, and I get it. The system is broken and we are the only place you can come, open door, no appointment needed. Just wait!

As for the order we see patients in, well yes life threatening problems will always be prioritised. But all else, is first come first served, that all changed back in 2004 when the 4 hr target was bought in. So we had no choice or we were fined for if we had more than 5% of patients wait longer that 4 hours to be seen, treated, discharged or referred and admitted.

Generally people are seen in the order they arrive. Everyone is triaged soon after arrival and really urgent or life threatening things are prioritised, but otherwise everyone else gets seen in order. Most people attending a and e don't have imminently life threatening problems and will get dealt with in the order in which they arrive. It obviously isn't possible to order cases by severity until they've been seen.

Sometimes there is no other choice - my child had an infection that needed antibiotics over a bank holiday weekend, we couldn’t have waited 3 days. No out of hours GP so called 111, they recommended going to a&e as no other service available. There were others there with shoulder pain that needed prescribed painkillers, infected cut and other minor ailments that could have been dealt with if an out of hours GP service was available. Total mismanagement and incorrectly structured for the healthcare that we need, and that’s before we even start on elderly care

People are still a bit hysterical post covid I think. There is so much sensible advice on NHS online telling you when to be worried about a child's temperature and when to seek help and it isn't after the first dose of calpol.

111 definitely plays a part. We were one of those taking toddler DC in for a temperature. Phoned 111 for advice and they immediately said to go to A&E. I didn’t really think we needed to go, but when you get told to go you go as if something bad did happen you’d never forgive yourself.

How was that a waste of time? The tests that you had in A&E ruled out another heart attack or other cardiac emergency, and potentially saved your life.

It is not possible to tell whether or not chest pain is a heart attack without doing troponin blood tests, which is what you will have had in A&E. Just because the pain felt different from your last heart attack, does not mean that you were not having another one. Heart attacks can feel different - or even have no symptoms - depending on which part of the heart is affected.

I am an A&E doctor/urgent care GP and, if I had a pound for every time a patient having a heart attack had told me, "It's nothing, Doctor" or "it's just a bit of indigestion", I would be a very rich woman.

I can't believe you are having a go at your GP for potentially saving your life. Astonishingly ignorant and ungrateful.

Im always surprised by those 24 hours in A&E type programmes. So many of those seem to be there for minor things. Which doesn’t help!

Yabu for using so many question marks in your op.

Also the GP service has got a lot worse. When I was a kid the doctors had an out of hours number and an on call GP would come out and do home visits at night. Although I was unwell a lot as a young kid I never had to go to A&E for something like a temperature because of this. Doesn’t happen anymore, our doctors surgery closes at 5pm and then that’s it, on your own.

I personally think it can go the other way. My daughter had a temperature and was ‘not right’- I knew something was wrong even though it could have been classed as ‘just a temperature’ by a friend. I probably was v hesitating about going as I didn’t any to be a time waster. Anyhow, I trusted my instinct. We got to A&E and they found a non blanching rash had developed and my dd was admitted for three days. It’s too easy to judge

You'd be very surprised at what some people do, believe me.

It's like a day out for some people.

Apologies- lots of typos but you get the idea!

GPs are seeing one million patients per day, with consultation numbers up 20% since 2019, despite a fall in GP numbers.

The GP service has not got worse. Demand has gone up.

i thought the exact same thing with a work colleague. She came into work stressed as her son had the cold. On the phone to nhs 24. Spoke to the doctor, she hade his symptoms a lot worse on the phone. Ended up taking the child to doctors, doc said child was fine. They had a macdonalds on the way home. Child went out to play after that. Totally wasting doctors time

YANBU people are crazy to waste their time there. Yes the NHS is struggling to say the least but also A&E is rarely the only option I would imagine. I have 3 kids and have never been to a&E touch wood. Once DS1 had a fever of 42 and shivering and sweating in bed next to me. Had to take him and ds2 to out of hours gp at the hospital at 2am (dh away!). No wait time as it’s by appointment. Back in bed with medicine by 3am. WHY would you choose a&E over that!!!! Insane. I realise not everywhere has that yadda yadda yes but come on.

Never seen one

so what happens to these minor ailment people?

I’d echo what a previous poster has said about 111 being a bit insistent on going to hospital. We’ve been told to present at a specified A&E within the hour before over the most common, non-event things. I knew it was daft but was made to feel I’d be a negligent parent if I didn’t follow the advice. I now absolutely avoid ringing 111 for advice.

I've asked before on here and never get an answer

what part of the country still has out of hours GP? We hadn't had one for c15 years in my bit of London, nor mum's bit of Essex.

People aren't ridiculous, they are scared.

Plenty of people are both.

I don't understand why you think that's understandable given Brexit or nurses strikes. Why would they mean people go to A&E more?

I’ve no doubt doctors are busy but yes, it has got worse. As I said there used to be home visits for children for these sorts of illnesses during evenings and weekends and now there isn’t any help after 5pm at my surgery. That is worse.

Even a couple of years ago there was a walk in emergency doctors session you could wait at to be seen. Doesn’t exist anymore, have to call up at 8am or nothing. That is worse.

Used to be able to call up and actually book to see a doctor. Now you have to have a triage call first that can be any time in the morning slot or afternoon slot, regardless if you have a job that you can’t have your phone out, before they will book you for a face to face appointment. That is worse.

You know what I don’t blame people. People are scared and this strep a virus is scaring parents with children. I’ve not been well for days with the lurgy and needed medication . Rang 111 who said I’d get a call back within an hour they rang 24 hours later. And when I got to a pharmacy finally for my medicine I saw 5 different parents with kids all get refused for antibiotics as they had none. The hospital can provide it so I’m all for going there.

People react differently to situations.My Mum suffered from health anxiety when growing up -siblings and I spent many times sat in GP surgery and a&e. She improved once she started working and was busy - literally over night.

But it’s stil a underlining issue and occasionally she can’t believe I haven’t ran to the doctors or a&e with my children.

Im someone who doesn’t panic because I’ve seen my Mum like it to much and I try not to mimic her behaviour.

Recently daughter had a really high temperature- by day 3 it was worrying but in herself she seemed ok. I understood the temp is her body way of fighting virus. We did what we could do at home managing it - by day 5 much better.

people react differently. For some they need a doctor to say their child will be ok.

There are a finite number of GPs so, if demand has gone up, the service will be stretched more thinly, which inevitably affects service users (patients). But it is not true to say that the service has got worse. The service is providing more appointments than ever before and is in fact 20% better, in terms of appointments provided, than pre-Covid. The problem is that even this increase in supply is outstripped by the increase in demand.

Surrey, Somerset, Cheshire to name a few. At hospitals usually, not your regular GP.