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.

Not sure what your problem is @MrsFezziwig or why you're so antagonistic unless you're a mumsnet troll?
I don't know how long he would have had to wait and neither do you. He waited a couple of hours, hadn't been seen, got fed up and went home. Like I said I wouldn't have made the same choice, I would have stayed. He's 46 so relatively young to have a stroke. He has no visible lasting damage. To be honest I think he was scared by what had happened to him and as the main breadwinner he was worried about not being able to work.

But I stand by what I said. Noone suffering from a stroke should be told when they call for an ambulance, that there aren't any available. That's not acceptable. His wife doesn't drive so had to call a friend to take him to A&E.
Of course he communicated his symptoms to the receptionist. What a stupid thing to say. He had already had 2 TIAs in the last 4 months, and on both occasions was told there was no ambulance available to take him to hospital, that he would have to wait approximately 12 hours.
And yes I used the word "dumped" because I don't think anyone suffering from "stroke" symptoms should be in a waiting room waiting to be seen. He was assessed as soon as he got there and then told to wait in the waiting room.

Great you were a HCP for over 30 years. Good for you. Not sure how it's relevant.
My mum has worked in intensive care and recovery for 46 years. She agrees the system is broken and completely failing. It just doesn't work. I don't know why you're so defensive.

I went to A&E the other day after a heavy object fell on my big toe and I suspected it was broken. I was worried it had affected the joint and I could be at risk of arthritis in the future so after a lot of umming and ahhing I decided to go in the hope I'd get an X ray, even though I felt like I might be treated as a timewaster. I was dreading what I assumed would be a 5+ hour wait. In fact, I was called in almost immediately, had an X ray (it was broken) and then saw the doctor again, all within an hour.

I mean, Jesus Christ, I had a suspected broken toe and was deemed more in need than the dozens of people already sitting in the waiting room? What in the name of God were THEY all in there for, that was less urgent and severe than a suspected broken toe?!

There seems to be such a lack of very basic medical knowledge and just plain common sense. There's now a culture of people incapable of taking any responsibility or making their own decisions. A friend is a GP in Accident & Emergency and despairs at the amount of time wasters who show up, often with several family members in tow. Today's ailments have included someone presenting with a sore wrist and someone presenting with a mouth ulcer.

The people people in the waiting room could have already have had scans/tests and were just waiting on the results.

Why do MNetters who go to A&E give so much headspace to the other people there?

They don't always triage people correctly @SalYPimienta . When I was in a&e w ds2 this autumn my great, hulking 14 year old had to wait 6 hours til every snotty toddler was seen, their parents reassured and sent home. When the doctor finally saw him he was admitted immediately and spent the next 3 weeks in hospital because he was really fucking sick.

Hilarious. Not a troll by the way, been on here for years and never namechanged. You? My “problem” (as you put it) is that you describe a scarcely believable incident whereby your relative “knew” he had had a stroke but was so worried that he was unwilling to wait for proper diagnosis and treatment, discharged himself and now (surprisingly) is fine. None of it makes any sense. I’d be the first to say that the NHS needs improvement in many areas but a case where a person diagnoses his own illness, wants an ambulance but yet manages to get there under his own steam then can’t even be bothered to wait for proper investigation isn’t one of them.

And since you’re so dismissive of my experience, why do you think your mother’s experience would be of any interest to me? (although if that really is her background, even more unbelievable that she would think it a good idea just to take him home without being seen)

Absolutely agree, and I work in A&E

How would you propose this issue be solved?

My ds just had a fever of 40+ for 24 hours that’s wouldn’t break with calpol or nurofen. I called out of hours to get an appt. They took 2 hours to take my details and then a further 6 hours to call me back despite saying I’d get a call back within the hour. When they called it was to say no appts and to take him to a&e. I remember only a year or 2 ago I used to make out of hour appts and never take kids to a&e, but in our area there’s literally no out of hours appts anymore. Good job I took him he needed antibiotics which I wouldn’t be able to get over a weekend.

I have a distant family member who seems to use A&E as an attention seeking method. Takes her DCs to A&E for minor things and then spends the waiting time posting about it on Facebook in order to get as many ‘are you alright hun?’ responses as possible. Oh and probably to have an excuse for not going to work.

I appreciate not everyone is like that but there are enough who are to clog up A&E for those who need it.

I am so sorry to hear this i hope he is ok now. And this perfectly demonstrates why HCP are so angry and vociferous. We are not "blaming" patients but all those clogging up and demanding angrily are blocking access to those very much in need. Some days it's like finding a needle in a haystack to make sure those who genuinely need help get it promptly
and it's often those that need it the least shout the loudest

Im sorrybyour child was unwell. But unless they are under 6m, had a temp for more than 5 days or seemed very unwell in themselves, why did you think you needed medical help at all? How have we lost the ability to manage childhood illness it's utterly odd to me.
I cannot tell you how many bouncy not unwell children with temps I have seen with clearly anxious parents.
Information is now so easily available. Why is GP and 111 just used "to check/advixe/make sure"??
www.nhs.uk/conditions/fever-in-children/

@memorial if you read her post @Creatingusernamesismygame says that her DS needed antibiotics. She couldn't get an out of hours appt so had no choice but to get to A&E.
She did the right thing.

I am afraid I disagree. Antibiotics may well be needed. They are not however magic fairy dust. They don't provide an instantaneous magic cure for a high temp. They take 48 hrs to take effect and can well wait to the next GP appt. They do not need A+E.
The strep hysteria means every anxious parent With a child wirh a temp is getting abiotics. Again preventing access to those in need , very limited abiotic supply and risk of side effects and resistance.
Sensible care is currently nigh on impossible.

I've been the one in A&E with a fairly happily playing toddler. You can't assume that means they aren't poorly - triage gives out weight based doses of calpol which are much higher than the doses on the bottles you can give at home. It can do an amazing job of temporarily making them feel better.

In our case, we'd gone through 111 and then a call with an out of hours GP, but had been sent to A&E because we couldn't control his temperature despite maxing out both calpol / nurofen and his heart rate and breathing were both significantly up (and his oxygen sats were down when we were triaged too). He also wasn't really drinking so looked very poorly until his triage massive dose of calpol. It brought the fever down which settled his heart rate and breathing and gave him enough pain relief he could drink and even eat a bit. About 45 minutes after that he was playing happily, which is quite good as it was another couple of hours until we saw the doctor and got antibiotics for tonsillitis.

He's had repeated bouts of tonsillitis and always has the same thing happen with his heart / breathing rates. When it happens during the working week, and the scoring flags him as possibly needing hospital, the GPs can call the pediatric ward, talk to a doctor there and then agree actually he can stay at home being monitored carefully. Without that kind of back up at the weekend, out of hours GPs are limited and we end up at A&E. In the couple of other countries I know well enough to say, kids see pediatrician GPs rather than general GPs and those provide out of hours cover so I suspect that cuts down on people like us going to A&E. Without that, you will end up with lots of toddlers with fever in A&E.

Yes, I do. We recently waited 17hours in A&E to be admitted for a serious critical illness because there were no beds anywhere available in the hospital. (Not an unusual situation, and not the only time we've experience this in the last 3 months.)

Our local A&E is also where the walk-in clinic is where you are seen for minor illnesses, such as the ear infection 111 sent us there for to be seen for in the summer.

Pick up a newspaper or read multiple accounts online for people struggling to get GPs.

What exactly is it that you feel is nonsense?

He had a fever on and off for 2 days which we managed at home. Then eventually his fever rose to 40+ and we still managed his symptoms at home in the hope he would turn a corner. On the 4th day he became very lethargic and his fever remained at 40+. He’s a very active boy (adhd) and it is not like him to just lay in bed. Usually when he has a fever he’s not this phased by it. He’s up and about or at least still interested in some of his normal activities. My DS became very lethargic and appeared to have zero energy. On the 4th day he stopped eating/drinking and hadn’t passed urine for more than 18 hours. His asthma also became really bad and needed his rescue inhaler a lot more. Throughout, I kept calling the nhs 111 explaining all his symptoms, but kept being told how busy they were and that someone would call me back.
Once we were finally seen in a&e we were given penicillin antibiotics for throat and chest infection. And a course of prednisone steroids for his inflamed airways. His oxygen was low and we almost ended up being admitted.
I’m actually ashamed of myself for waiting at home and attempting to make an appt to see a gp. Wish I had gone to A&E sooner rather than waiting for advice from nhs111.

Soz but when my 3 year old is shivering and sweating and groaning in bed next to me with a temp of 42 (yes after medicine, obviously!) and I had no other adult to brainstorm advice with I’m not going to wait 4 days to ring 111 😵‍💫 (still didn’t go to a&E though as we have ooh gp here).

In our case with our 6mo it wasn’t that I can’t take care of a fever at home, that’s perfectly manageable. It’s the fear of febrile seizure is why we went. We’d maxed out what we could give medicine wise and his temp still climbed. 111 doctor told us if over 39.5 go to hospital, so we did.

Your personal anecdote is not evidence

How did they help you when you were there, ie treatment

Just out of interest

Checked his temp frequently, checked all his vitals, took blood to check various things/levels. Once we got to the point of the window of being able to give him medicine opened again the Dr assessed him and gave a dose of Nurofen before we came home. Said if he deteriorates in X number of ways then to bring him back. I don’t know whether they were more cautious because he was only just 6 months and he was also born a bit early.

When I was a kid we had a great family dr. She would come to our house and I used to get so many throat infections, constantly always sick . She always refused to give us antibiotics saying she must fight it herself and overuse causing problems. This was 40 years ago. Never had sore throat since. I've only used a and e twice with my kids. One for broken bone and the other had eye infection caused by chicken pox. 3 day rule in our house. As long as you are getting better not worse and still ok by day 3 prob be alright lol

What happened to walk in centres? Or other cheaper (for nhs) alternatives? Currently I'm personally only aware of urgent care center that you need to get referred to (by a&e or 111), gp and a&e.

I think people were scared of hospital thanks to covid. It was also really bad then.

Government needs to fund social care better and bring back the nurses bursary. So we could train more health care workers. Yes, this won't fix today's problems but we would be better off in the long term.