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.

I think part of the problem is the way 111 has been set up as a health advice line and not just for people who actually think they need to see someone. Maybe going back to the old days of phoning up the out of hours GP service directly would be better?

I wonder if absence being frowned on at work is also a factor? Bradford Factor scores mean people want to avoid having recurring absences and so pursue antibiotics etc instead of taking a couple of days off to rest up, take paracetamol etc.

Yes, that should in theory be a GP thing.

Bradford Factor sends me the opposite way....if they are going to count short absences, why not rest up and make it a longer one as it's counted against you anyway!

People are absolutely ridiculous, that was a stupid reason to bring a child to A&E. Why didn't she wait to see if the temperature would go down? I sat in A&E when my DS was 3 weeks old, it was Boxing Day and the amount of people who upped and left was crazy - they clearly weren't in a state of needing to be seen urgently or they'd have waited.

people with brushes stuck up their backside

@StarDolphins
Brushes??? Do they have to hang around the waiting room? Surely they can't sit 😳

Its a vicious cycle. People might think if there’s a 14 hour wait that it’s better to go before things get dire, especially with a young child and the strep A situation, which leads to more people going and longer waiting times.

I wouldn't say your friend was stupid, no one goes to a&e for fun. I've called 111 before and been told to go in when DC had temp, disoriented, fast laboured breathing, by the time we got there for an appointment he wasn't showing those symptoms. So should I have ignored those things and seen if they got worse? I used 111 so they could tell me.

Part of the problem is you know you might have a very long wait - if DC are ill and you know it's 5 hours for a call back, 5 hours to be seen etc, you're not going to leave it even longer to start the process.

I'm sorry your son wasn't feeling well. But that sounds like your fairly standard, mild upper respiratory type virus. Especially if he was watching telly. You wouldn't even be thinking of visiting A&E in that scenario, kids get illnesses like that quite often and rest and fluids is often all that they need. Adults often have to power on if they work, dosing themselves up with anadin extra and the like (the poor staff at my school look half dead at the moment and wouldn't be in if they were in lots of other jobs). Adults can manage it better than the young ones.

What is more worrying is when the temp isn't coming down hardly at all despite paracetamol and ibuprofen, and when they are hard to rouse (definitely not in TV watching mode), and not eating or drinking. That's when you want an experienced medical person to look them over. When mine were young you simply rang up and explained what they were like to the receptionist and they would tell you to bring them down to the surgery. I'm not sure it's that easy now, so I can understand why some parents do take their child to A&E, simply because who else is going to check them over?

Having said that, normal virus, as described above, is just wasting A&E staff time, surely? I've been to paediatric A&E with my son in a genuine medical emergency and the amount of kids running round or playing on a tablet or something, happy as Larry. It's frustrating when your child needs urgent surgery and that kind of thing is going on around you while you wait.

Hard to judhe. A few years ago. I was advised to go to a&e within the hour.. i appologised to A &e.. by the afternoon despite running around the ward he was in emergency surgery that afternoon.

My Boyfriend works in a large hospital with an A&E, last week someone came in with a splinter it took the nurse less than 30 seconds to pull it out and he said "oh is that it dont i need a tetanus" she just shook her head and he left. People have forgotten that they need to take responsibility for themselves.

People have been complaining about A&E time wasting for > 40 years.
It won't stop.
I'm tired of complaints.

Tell us your sure solutions to make sure that the time wasters do not cause harm.
I Can't abide moaning.

Yes, this! Often there is no "wisdom" passed on from wider family about such things. We all get worried as first time parents, about the slightest thing. If you have a support network living close by who you see in person regularly you can often learn when it is and isn't time to worry. But times have changed and many people live in a bubble, with no wider family around. And all they've got to go off is, as someone just mentioned, "media frenzy."

I expect one factor putting pressure on the health services is that we all just live so much longer in such poor health. Although I don't think this is such a problem in comparable countries and doesn't explain the poor state of dentistry.

With regard the ambulance service, with or without the current crisis I think if people can make their own way to A&E they should. I wonder if ambulances attending a case could assess , give immediate treatment if needed, then tell people to go to A&E in a taxi or have someone drive them.

he must’ve just had to stand! How embarrassing! she said he was shouting & screaming at everyone & then came up with a story about he thought something was up there that he was trying to get out🤣 hmm, yeah ok mate!

My GP told me to take baby to A&E in the event of a temperature spike if I was worried. He was very reassuring about how medical professionals don't see parents as overreacting for bringing their children in for a temp.

Loads of people have limited knowledge of illness. I also think some minor things that would be better to run their course (sore throat, mild fever, slight pain etc) get over-medicated/treated and people don't have any idea of what is normal illness and what needs medical attention now.

That said, health anxiety is very real.

With regard the ambulance service, with or without the current crisis I think if people can make their own way to A&E they should. I wonder if ambulances attending a case could assess , give immediate treatment if needed, then tell people to go to A&E in a taxi or have someone drive them

I thought that was the case anyway. I have had paramedics attend me, and say I have to make my own way to A&E.
On programs like Ambulance, and 999: What's Your Emergency, the dispatchers often tell people that they do not need an ambulance so one will not be sent. So, it leaves me baffled when people that there are folks who use ambulances as taxis.

I heard some research about this once on radio 4. The boffins on there suggested they have the triage system the wrong way round. Instead of seeing the nurse pretty much as soon as you arrive you should have the most senior doctor on duty on triage. They can assess and discharge a great many more patients much more quickly, sending them home almost immediately, and tell others who need more detailed examination to sit and wait.

111 is a nightmare.

@Unforgettablefire no it's the streaming nurse or the triage nurse. Not the receptionist. Usually senior A&E nurses.

I experienced a similarly frustrating visit. Broke my wrist whilst on holiday (in UK) and the A&E at the hospital there referred me to the fracture clinic at my home hospital. Went there, only for them to refuse to see me and tell me I had to get a referral from my own GP!

Sooo pointless, I mean my GP would have just sent me back to the fracture clinic. They can't do X-rays. So instead I ended up going to the A&E next door and repeating all the tests I'd had done on holiday again, then having to wait weeks for a letter to invite me to the fracture clinic.

Took eight weeks for the fracture clinic to even acknowledge that it was broken rather than sprained. I assume if my bone had been sticking out they'd have acted quicker.

My daughter has a very high temperature that didn't settle with calpol and ending up having a fit. We called an ambulance and they took us to a and e immediately. They gave her ibuprofen 2 hours after the calpol to bring her temp down. I wouldn't have known what to do and she might have died. Ending up having to give her calpol and ibuprofen every 3 hours for 2 weeks to bring it down/prevent her having a fit. She was only 2 years old and as new parents we were terrified seeing her eyes roll back. Never judge a mother for her choices. It could be serious.

I took DD4 to an Urgent Treatment Centre this morning. There were over 20 people in the queue before it even opened and the sign said the day before they had reached capacity.

We were triaged and then seen within 40 minutes! What may look like a basic high temp / rash etc can be something completely unexpected as was the case today so why not seek medical advice?

Also took dd to a and e after doctors wouldn't give her antibiotics. Doctor in a and e told us it's good we came and he gave antibiotics immediately as she really needed them. She was coughing every 5 minutes and I just knew as a mother that that's what happens when she has an infection. But no...some doctors just don't want to give them. Back on her feet a day later and didn't have to miss school for a week.

Yes, this works both ways though. My first baby had loads of unnecessary medical tests because of the 'wisdom' of an older relative convinced she waa unwell. A different older relative tried to give her a finger full of bisto when she was a newborn.