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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Lots of people go to A&E when they shouldn't

306 replies

Liz1tummypain · 04/01/2023 10:18

To be clear- I couldn't think of a way or wording this so I just came up with something that might attract some opinions. It isn't something I can spout about with any authority.

But is it true? My kids are older so I haven't had to go to A&E for ages. Very little experience. On the radio I heard they are trying to re-direct potential patients to pharmacies etc . So what is your view on it?

My mum worked in A&E , a long time ago and she says she thinks people wouldn't have dared to turn up with some minor injuries that she thinks people go in with now. She thinks people just tried home remedies and only went in with broken bones, trauma, sick children. But I think maybe she was just getting a bit worked up after seeing something on TV. She also hasn't been to A&E for a long time.

OP posts:
Ponoka7 · 04/01/2023 11:43

Champagneforeveryone · 04/01/2023 11:09

I was in A&E recently (as an emergency)

While I waited to be seen there were people there laughing, FaceTiming about the next days dinner and posting selfies. I obviously don't know why they were there so it may have been appropriate, but I suspect that if you're in a state where you can update social media then you probably don't need A&E.

My DD sat in A&E behaving as you described. She was waiting for the surgical team because of a cyst on her groin. She had surgery and a two night stay on the ward. She's since had an MRI because they don't know why she is having recurring cysts, but has to go to A&E when she does. My sister was on SM while waiting for an antibiotic drip, she has diabetes. She was admitted for four days. My Mum danced around the bed with her Nurse the day we went in and died within three hours. Some people are very resilient when their bodies need medical attention. Some issues don't cause pain etc. It's like saying if you can drive your car to the garage there's nothing wrong with it.

BradfordGirl · 04/01/2023 11:43

I was on my phone when I was on A and E. I was then admitted to a ward for a week. The idea you can't be on your phone and really ill is a bizarre one.

Orangesandlemons77 · 04/01/2023 11:44

StewPots · 04/01/2023 11:10

I have a few chronic conditions and one of them creates a pain that mimics a heart attack and it can go on for days ( I know it’s not a heart attack so I will stay at home for as long as I can in agony in case it eases off - sometimes it does so of it’s own accord but it’s very unpredictable)

I have a pain protocol put in place by my pain consultant a few years ago and have had to enact it probably 3/4 times a year. This means when it’s clear it’s not subsiding, I need acute care in the form of IV pain management plus an oxycodone injection - all of which helps me to cope until the pain drops to a level I can manage at home, where I remain on bed rest for however many days.

Now here’s the stickler - IV pain relief and the oxy injection can ONLY be done by A and E. I’ve rang the MIU places nearby and both have said nope, you must attend A and E as they aren’t equipped. Our local A and E is hell on Earth currently - as an ex NHS HCA I know well what that means…. I do not want to add to the problem so I sit at home in full flare and in agonising pain for days because that’s still better than waiting in A and E but sometimes I give in to the pain and get my treatment as prescribed.

I hate going over there, I hate being a burden BUT the last two times I’ve been in I’ve been on a hard chair or the floor for hours yet there’s been drunks laying on beds sleeping happily!!!! Makes me fucking rage!!! It shouldn’t be allowed. It’s not fair that I have a condition through no fault of my own - one that’s ruined my career, my mental health and my life - yet put off going for the treatment I need at A and E because I know what he’ll awaits me and the stress of seeing people there lounging around, snapping at the amazing staff and being generally cuntish and abusive to them when they’ve got too pissed or too high and can’t handle themselves…. Where’s the fucking personal responsibility here?!?

I have had to completely change my life to lessen the risk of serious flares, and my co diction has now led to several others being discovered last year. Yet I feel guilty as hell when I DO access the service and now I’m thinking, “why the hell should I feel bad when there’s utterly irresponsible arseholes out there who take ZERO responsibility for their own health?!”

And to be fair, that’s not just drunks and people on drugs - there’s a fair few out there who really should be taking their health seriously and don’t and then expect the NHS to pick up the pieces time and time again - it’s bloody wrong.

Sorry for the rant but I’m flaring at the moment - luckily a low level one with pain of 6/7 which is just above my daily level… but I worry it’ll escalate as it sometimes does and how the hell I going to access the medication I need and is onl6 available at one place which currently has 18 ambulances outside plus all the other people inside?! Scary, upsetting but also ridiculous that a GP or OOH Dr can’t give me an injection elsewhere!

I know this feeling, I have recurrent small bowel obstructions which can need monitoring in case of surgery, an NG tube and IV morphine and fluids.

The only place is A&E

MajorCarolDanvers · 04/01/2023 11:44

I agree but if they can't get a GP appointment it's understandable

PatronSaintOfPotplants · 04/01/2023 11:45

I always though A&E was for serious acute injuries only, but then I had an incident where I burned my thumb, checked the NHS website, it's said call 111 or go to A&E, so I called 111 and they told me as I'm diabetic I had to go to A&E. So obediently I did so, then sat there with my thumb under a tap of cold water for 2 hours, injury healed, not even a blister. I hated wasting their time and next time I might ignore the NHS advice, but honestly, with everything else closed down (even pharmacists avoid giving any advice if you have a medical condition, or are breastfeeding, pregnant etc), it's hard to avoid being directed to go to A&E for minor things.

sunshinesupermum · 04/01/2023 11:46

DP has just been to our G P surgery where he sat next to an elderly man who had broken his arm this morning. There was no slot available at A & E to see him and he was told to present at his GP! WTF? A GP can't set his broken arm.

EilonwyWithRedGoldHair · 04/01/2023 11:48

Godlovesall26 · 04/01/2023 11:42

111 have to err on the side of precaution : they’re in awful position in my eyes : it’s either take the guess by phone or recommend A&E to be safe. And once people hear A&E they’ll just end up going naturally

Show quote history

We have to phone to go to A&E anyway, you can't just turn up and be seen - they turn people away and tell then to phone first. So nobody should be at our local A&E unless it's a 999 emergency or they've been triaged by phone.

Bugbuggerit · 04/01/2023 11:48

luxxlisbon · 04/01/2023 10:30

Three times in the past 12 months my GP tried to direct me to A&E for mastitis (which in the end I had to go in for as GP wouldn’t see me and I was massively unwell with a 3 week old to look after) a chest infection for DD, and an ear infection for DD. The two last times I had to push incredibly hard got to to be seen and made it clear A&E was not the appropriate route for a child with an ear infection!

So yes some people go to A&E when they don’t need to, either because they don’t know how to access the right care, they aren’t sure how serious the situation is and they are worried or they cannot access care through other means.

All of this …NHS is a shambles! Friend is nurse practitioner at minor injuries unit and her description of the unit is unprintable! Bloody scary TBH !

StewPots · 04/01/2023 11:48

@Orangesandlemons77 sympathy and solidarity to you. It’s a shame that there isn’t another place for us to go and get sorted. It’s a horrid way to live :(

NeverGonnaNot · 04/01/2023 11:48

I took dc to children’s A&E one night recently and it was packed out. After a 4-hour wait, a doctor came to the waiting room to announce that there was at least a 9-hour wait and that he was the only doctor on duty that night with no available doctor from another department to help him.

He said, if you feel you want to take your child home, check with the nurse and go. Within ten minutes, the waiting room was deserted. (I did ask to go home myself but the nurse said we had to stay.) I’m not suggesting that people were there for no reason btw as it was full of children coughing and spluttering and being sick with obviously worried parents.

APurpleSquirrel · 04/01/2023 11:49

Yes - my daughter hurt her hip/groin after a fall in gymnastics, but it didn't present till a few days later. Tried calling the GP & got told on the recorded message that the phone line queue was full & to call back later, then it cut the call off.
I tried 111 thinking we could get an OOH GP appointment instead - several hours later a GP called & told my he couldn't do anything over the phone (no shit Sherlock!) & to go to A&E.
Waited 4hrs in A&E & eventually saw a HCP & got a referral to the OTs - all of which could have been done by our GP had I been able to get through/make an appointment.
So yes, people are going & are being sent to A&E when they don't really need to be because GPs are overwhelmed & A&E is taking up the slack unfortunately.

bluesky45 · 04/01/2023 11:50

I had to take my DC to urgent care, which is attached to a&e,last week. Definitely should have been a gp appointment but I phoned GP and they said no appointments for 2 weeks, try 111 or urgent care. So I did 111 hoping we could get to a pharmacy via them or something and they sent us to urgent care too. 2mins for a doctor to listen to his chest and we were done. But it was a 2hr wait and a busy waiting room and I really felt like we were wasting the doctors time in there because I knew the GP should have dealt with it.
So yeah, people are using a&e because they can't get a GP appointment. The system is broken.

Goldenbear · 04/01/2023 11:51

BradfordGirl, yes, it is the continuity of care that needs to be the change we see to improve this situation. I worry about my Mum as she is (touchwood) fit, thin doesn't drink/smoke but has an awful hospital nearby and the American style medical centre that just don't see anybody in person, sometimes not even on the phone. There was a protest about it in her local market town. It is shocking to say that it's better where I live in the south east. It is bad but not as bad as her hospital which even three years ago when I took my Mum there on GPs instructions for a dizziness issue, there were people sitting in the floor as no seats. Two men who worked in a factory were waiting to be seen for injuries they had given each other from a fight in the workplace!

Ponoka7 · 04/01/2023 11:52

@Champagneforeveryone , I've just remembered another incident. My youngest DD (then 22) had a lump above her cheek, it looked like a insect bite. I tend to dismiss health stuff. It got to the point we're she said that she was going to the walk in because of the way her head felt. She is autistic and has S&L issues so I went with her. They sent us straight to our designated eye hospital (but you used to wait in general A&E) because it was a eye condition that starts at the back of the eye and then 'tracks' to the face and can cause loss of sight and nerve damage if long term untreated. Of course she had a great time telling the world via her SM etc about how I'd nearly caused her to go blind.

Goldenbear · 04/01/2023 11:52

Doesn't see anyone not don't

nalabae · 04/01/2023 11:54

Yep they do because people are selfish and want to rinse the nhs

tattygrl · 04/01/2023 11:54

As many people have already said, I believe it is because of how hard it is to get seen by a GP these days.

Goldenbear · 04/01/2023 11:58

Who are all these people desperate to sit on the floor of an a and E department for 24hrs. It just isn't true and deflects the attention from the government who are doing nothing about the situation and are completely incompetent!

Godlovesall26 · 04/01/2023 12:00

EilonwyWithRedGoldHair · 04/01/2023 11:48

We have to phone to go to A&E anyway, you can't just turn up and be seen - they turn people away and tell then to phone first. So nobody should be at our local A&E unless it's a 999 emergency or they've been triaged by phone.

Show quote history

Sorry English isn’t my first language and it’s only been a year UK (but have had all the extensive lovely medical experiences throughout) so I’m not sure I’ve understood : I meant that most people will try first 111 ooh first, but 111 by phone can’t really do much most of the time (except if very obviously no risk), so lots of people get recommended A&E.

I don’t know if you can see my previous posts to illustrate that I’ve been reluctantly many times to A&E post réanimation, I was sure it was probably nothing, but I was also damn sure I’d never get an in person GP appointment, and the only way was in person.

I’m not defending the current system, it’s absolutely horrendous : having had to wait 1.5h for an emergency ambulance to ICU when I was in a large city center, and luckily escaped any side effects of prolonged hypoxia (was in a coma by the time they arrived), and my neighbor was not so lucky at all with his hypoxia, I can’t help but wonder, were all these ambulances unavailable before us really vital also ?

BradfordGirl · 04/01/2023 12:01

@Goldenbear Sadly it is about privatisation by stealth. Those mega US GP practices are bad for patients health and ineffective. But they make more money for the private company, so we get them.
I know without my brilliant GP who knows me, that I would have ended up in A and E at times.
Sad to hear your mum does not have better options.

LlynTegid · 04/01/2023 12:03

Adequate number of GPs, appointments able to be booked without the third degree questioning from receptionists, and tackling binge drinking culture, are three things that would reduce A+E admissions greatly I would expect.

swg1 · 04/01/2023 12:05

luxxlisbon · 04/01/2023 10:35

Also people love to judge others in general so they are sitting there sizing up all the other people in A&E working out who needed to be there or not but this isn’t an appropriate way to measure how much they need medical care.
Recently my DD appeared to be one of the ‘least sick’ kids in A&E but I knew she was unwell and so did the doctor’s hence she was admitted for multiple days for treatment. She is young but very good about pushing through illnesses and will hide it as much as possible. No doubt plenty of those parents thought I didn’t need to be there and yet they were sent home and we were admitted.

This this this.

Following a thyroid op last year my parathyroid gave up the ghost completely. For some reason it took forever to get the prescriptions I needed right between my consultant and GP and every time I couldn't get them (literally couldn't, despite crying on the phone to GP and consultant secretary) I slipped into calcium deficiency.

Severe calcium deficiency is a medical emergency. How does it manifest? You're fine, then you get severe pins and needles, then you start having heart issues. So here I am in an A&E crisis under standing orders to report to hospital immediately if I get.. pins and needles. Which was needed - I frequently needed a calcium drip and once had to stay a few days - but never felt as though it was. It was horrible and embarrassing and I ended up persuading them to give me walk in access to clinical decisions instead because sitting amongst a bunch of really sick people with pins and needles and feeling them judge you is mortifying.

FourTeaFallOut · 04/01/2023 12:08

I agree with the previous poster that anyone who is prepared to sit in a&e for 10 hours has more than likely expended other routes for medical care.

user1498572889 · 04/01/2023 12:10

My daughter has had a serious problem with one of her ears she has been under the ENT department and was discharged a week ago. The problem has flared up again and she is in a lot of pain and unable to close her teeth together. She called the ENT department and was told that she has to go to her doctor to get them to refer her again or she has to go to A and E. Referral could take a few weeks. What other choice does she have than to clog up A and E

MilkyYay · 04/01/2023 12:10

Ive had to take DD with breathing problems on weekends/evenings. If there was better out of ours GP service, the GP can send her straight to the children's ward for monitoring/oxygen etc (we are talking serious breathing issues here, ending up fully ventilated etc). She has needed hospital but could bypass A&E.

Ive also had to take DS for steroid medication when he was struggling to breathe with croup, again i think this could be administered by an out of hours gp or maybe even a nurse