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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

A&E person getting seen sooner because they knew one of the nurses

163 replies

PrincessHoneysuckle · 22/09/2023 19:27

Aibu to say we'd probably all take advantage of this scenario but for christ sake have some discretion.

In a&e today for several hours a woman came in an hour or so after me.
After a short while one of the A&e nurses came up to her "hi sue aah didn't know you were in here"
don't worry I'll ask the Dr to see you next.
Everyone in waiting room was like wtaf.

OP posts:
Original poster
PrincessHoneysuckle · 22/09/2023 22:43

The woman who was seen wasn't a nurse at the hospital. I don't know where people are getting this from

OP posts:
Boomboom22 · 22/09/2023 22:44

But it could easily be that she is known for a medical condition that makes a fall more dangerous for her. You only know the nurse knew her and she fell, not why the nurse thought to tell the Dr sooner.

Streamorwatchlive · 22/09/2023 22:46

Not rageful at all I was just just surprised at the lack of discretion

this is the kind of thing that warrants an annoyed shrug. Not hours of posting on the same subject.

Original poster
PrincessHoneysuckle · 22/09/2023 22:50

Streamorwatchlive · 22/09/2023 22:46

Not rageful at all I was just just surprised at the lack of discretion

this is the kind of thing that warrants an annoyed shrug. Not hours of posting on the same subject.

I've been replying to people posting.Why are you here?

OP posts:
AliciaLime · 22/09/2023 22:51

Streamorwatchlive · 22/09/2023 22:46

Not rageful at all I was just just surprised at the lack of discretion

this is the kind of thing that warrants an annoyed shrug. Not hours of posting on the same subject.

I guess you start off having a little moan, get morally picked apart by the self righteous contrary team and then criticised for daring to respond. 🤣

AlexaCanYouHearMe · 22/09/2023 22:52

I'm not disputing that the nurse possibly knew one of the patients coming to A & E @PrincessHoneysuckle But come off it - you can't seriously expect us to believe that ANY nurse would have pushed somebody they know, (in front of 40 or 50 other people who have been potentially waiting 8 to 10 hours in A and E,) to immediately see the doctor. That just absolutely 100% wholeheartedly would not have happened. Pull the other one. Grin

Hocuspocusnonsense · 22/09/2023 22:52

Probably a member of staff.

My sister is an NHS nurse and was fast tracked an appointment to see a consultant. When I worked in a hospital and had a problem with my throat I was sent down to have an X-ray and see a dr the same day I told my boss about it. It’s a perk of the job.

If you work in a pub you get free meals (normally!).

If you work in a hairdressers you get free haircuts (normally!)

And at my children’s school the parents who are teachers even if they teach at other schools, get priority for breakfast/after school club.

TorqueWrench · 22/09/2023 22:53

Next time I'm in A&E I might loudly state how nice it was of Ruth to bump us to the front of the queu. 😂 Good chance it could be the start of some proper mumsnet frothing lol.

AlexaCanYouHearMe · 22/09/2023 22:55

PrincessHoneysuckle · 22/09/2023 22:43

The woman who was seen wasn't a nurse at the hospital. I don't know where people are getting this from

You sure know a lot about this woman! 😂 Are you a mindreader as a career? Or is it just a passing hobby?

DyslexicPoster · 22/09/2023 23:02

Why is such a streach that a nurse was doing a favour for a random friend? Why is the most like explanation the most improbable?

Ohthatsabitshit · 22/09/2023 23:07

Staff often wafted us through when dd was very ill. It was partly because of her condition, and partly because she has a very disabled sibling at home. There was a point where the ambulance drivers used to wave at us when they drove by. Personally I’d swap in a heart beat not to have been that patient.

MouseMinge · 22/09/2023 23:23

Maybe she knew her name because she's a frequent flyer and the nurses know that she needs to be seen quickly.

Maybe she's a nurse and other nurses will make sure she gets seen quickly.

Maybe she was a friend of the nurse.

None of it is any of your business. If your situation was really serious you would have been seen quickly. It wasn't serious enough for that so you wait. The last time I was in A&E I waited for about seven hours before getting "behind the scenes" and another hour or so before getting to a ward to have an operation. The operation was needed ASAP but I wasn't going to die without it so I wasn't as serious as some people in the waiting area and there were any number of people who came in after me who were seen before me. A lot of them seemed to be "less serious" than me, but what do I know? What do you know? That's how A&E works. It sucks when you have to wait around for hours but that's the way it goes. Rather than being annoyed at one incident that you think was unfair, and maybe it was, be angry at a system that has seen the NHS being ground down by cuts and lack of staff.

Streamorwatchlive · 22/09/2023 23:53

I've been replying to people posting.Why are you here?

is this like an existential question? Or do you genuinely mean why am I here on mumsnet where you are??

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe · 23/09/2023 00:32

If you're going to post an attention-seeking post slagging off the nursing staff on duty then expect your own situation to be queried. Your injuries were obviously non-urgent/non-serious and considering that you were seen the same day, that's a vast improvement in hospital throughput.

You're like one of those benefit-reporting posters who always seems to somehow know the ins and outs of other people's financial history, better than they themselves.

NewName122 · 23/09/2023 00:36

It's not what you know it is WHO you know. Always been like that.

TuesdayQ · 23/09/2023 00:42

Spacecowboys · 22/09/2023 22:05

The number of people who attend A and E inappropriately is huge. If this could be successfully tackled, no one would have to wait hours on end . Perhaps that should be what everyone in the waiting room focuses on - do I really need to be here, rather than assuming they know what category other patients were triaged into.

This unfortunately isn't the whole story; it's very easy to move those people through and out of A & E. A lot of the delay comes from patients who have attended A&E appropriately and need a bed, but are waiting for hours to be moved to a ward because there are no beds available. (I was in A&E for 36 hours recently with meningococcal septicemia, just waiting to go to a ward.) Each of those patients being admitted and waiting to be moved to the ward is taking up a cubicle in A&E and increasing wait times.

The lack of beds available on the wards is frequently due to social care issues; patients medically fit for discharge, but without anywhere suitable to be discharged to.

The lack of adequate social care is a huge contributor to delays in A&E, but it's far better/easier for the government to point fingers at the individuals inappropriately attending A&E (often due to lack of alternative access to care), rather than admitting it's through deep seated issues in our social care system in this country.

Thatladdo · 23/09/2023 01:55

Could be anything, Could have been due back in on shift that night.

Youll never know 😆

You could have become a nurse and had the chance of such perks so... take that one on the chin.

applesandmares · 23/09/2023 02:54

Patients in A&E should be triaged and seen in priority order. It shouldn't matter who you know or what your job is. Surely most people agree with this principle? Not sure why you've had such a hard time on here OP, a lot of whataboutery going on.

applesandmares · 23/09/2023 03:02

Hocuspocusnonsense · 22/09/2023 22:52

Probably a member of staff.

My sister is an NHS nurse and was fast tracked an appointment to see a consultant. When I worked in a hospital and had a problem with my throat I was sent down to have an X-ray and see a dr the same day I told my boss about it. It’s a perk of the job.

If you work in a pub you get free meals (normally!).

If you work in a hairdressers you get free haircuts (normally!)

And at my children’s school the parents who are teachers even if they teach at other schools, get priority for breakfast/after school club.

Right, but pubs and hairdressers aren't funded by the public purse are they? I work in the public sector and would never expect (nor would be given) a "perk" that would disadvantage a member of the public, or that they didn't have access to. If I have a personal problem, it is dealt with in the exact same way as if any other member of the public had that problem, and to my mind, that's fair.

Whiskeyinthejaroh · 23/09/2023 04:58

OP I used to be a cancer patient, and chemotherapy destroyed my immune system. If I walked into a&e or a doctor's waiting room with anything - a splinter or a sore foot, I'd get called before anyone else and skip the queue. I used to get some really dirty looks from other patients, especially when I sometimes didn't look sick.
But being around a waiting room full of potentially sick people could have killed me.

You don't know the circumstances.

sashh · 23/09/2023 06:23

PumpkiPie · 22/09/2023 19:52

Isn't A&E for genuine accidents and emergencies though? ie: you don't go there for injuries where you can "get back to work asap" for? Surely, if the problem is non-urgent enough that you can rush back to work after, the GP is who you should be seeing as a non emergency?

That depends.

One hospital I worked at I lived an hour away, I started at 8.00, so for me to go to the GP I would have had to stay home, go the the GP at opening time for the walk in service, wait however long, see GP, possibly go to a pharmacy and then go in to work.

I once went round to A and E to do an ECG, while there one of the nurses saw I had a burn on my arm, said, "That's infected, put this on it 3 x day" and handed me a tube of cream.

OP

You have no idea why this person was called through, so what if she had hurt her leg, you don't know what else was going on.

She might have been staff, she might have been a friend, she might have something that puts her at risk. She might need a particular piece of equipment that's available, a condition one particular Dr specialises in.

DuckRice · 23/09/2023 06:53

As an NHS consultant I can confirm that this queue-jumping happens. I believe the OP. It’s not right of course and really not good to rub it in people’s faces, especially in a busy A and E dept.

gentlemum · 23/09/2023 07:09

applesandmares · 23/09/2023 02:54

Patients in A&E should be triaged and seen in priority order. It shouldn't matter who you know or what your job is. Surely most people agree with this principle? Not sure why you've had such a hard time on here OP, a lot of whataboutery going on.

People on here like to pretend they're understanding saints whereas in reality if they were sitting in that A&E waiting room for hours with an injury and then someone else seemingly jumped the queue they would also be very frustrated and thinking what on earth.. just like OP said the other people in the waiting room were thinking.

I work in the NHS. Nepotism happens no matter how much everyone wants to deny in.

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 23/09/2023 07:50

DM is a cancer patient with a number of other conditions. Outwardly she looks pretty normal. She has a "red flag" on her hospital notes which essentially triages her to the front of the queue, whatever happens, Including when she recently fell and sprained her ankle. It wasn't really the ankle they were bothered about, it was any internal bleeding that may have occurred.

She waited about 2 minutes on a day the board said 4 hours. Some hospital staff know her because of her cancer treatment, but she doesn't have "friends" on the staff, that's just how triage works.

KimberleyClark · 23/09/2023 08:13

Mumofteenandtween · 22/09/2023 20:16

I know a surgeon whose appendix ruptured whilst he was waiting in chairs in A&E. He knew it was about to rupture (and explained to the staff that) and also knew when it had ruptured (felt it go and knew exactly what that meant) but they still wouldn’t see him out of order.

Result - touch and go operation and over a month off (NHS) work for something that had they believed him when he came in saying that he had appendicitis would have led to him being back at work in a few days.

To not treat him as an absolute medical emergency is mind boggling. He could have got peritonitis and died!

I have a relative who is a paediatric consultant, has been diagnosed with cancer and is being fast tracked all the way. Which is not wrong imo.