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

[PrincessHoneysuckle]

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.

As my granny used to say "There'll be "pull" in hell."
As in, no matter where you are it's who you know not what you know.

Yep

Yes everyone definitely felt rubbed!

Would be the same with my son. He's severely immunosuppressed. He's not allowed to hang round an a&e waiting room. So even if he was there with a sore arm or broken toe he would be seen first.

This IS a thing. I have known a family member get various 'perks' of this kind in the NHS. It's wrong.

@KimberleyClark

"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."

How is this not wrong?! The whole point of the NHS is that we all pay into it, and we all are supposed to access the same standards of care. I appreciate you love your relative, but why on earth should they be fast tracked at the detriment of other cancer patients? It should be on a needs basis, not a "oh well you're a doctor so let's treat you first and poor old Gary can wait while his cancer progresses".

Ok I don't think you have given enough information. You seem to know that this patient was not a member of staff- how do you know?
If not, and not in uniform, it sounds like either the nurse did a supposed favour for a friend which seems unlikely or there were staff after all. A Dr is not going to agree to see someone just like that for no reason it doesn't make sense. Members of staff injured on duty ir acutely unwell will often be seen pretty quickly, yes but that's different and is not an absolute there will still be prioritising going on of course.

So if the nurse just happened to bump into a friend and offered that, yes that's wrong and not an accepted thing. There's nothing to prove her treatment pathway all happened in that way though and would depend on others agreeing - I definitely wouldn't.

Exactly this.

The NHS is paid for the public purse and whilst medical staff do a great job, just being in the profession shouldn't entitle them to "perks" above everyone else. The scandles that have been brought to light amongst civil servants/mps over the last two decades from them taking the piss at the tax payers expense which were justified as "perks of the job". Well this is no different.

Being a public sector worker myself, the job can feel like there's no perks at times but things like the sick pay and pension make up for the shortfall compared to the private sector.

Lol. I fell and injured myself at work last week. Sent down to A/E. I’m a nurse wearing a nurses uniform. Head injury with a lump the size of an egg on my forehead. Absolutely no preferential treatment. Waited to be triaged, waited to be checked by a doctor.
I reckon this is yet another goady NHS bashing thread (not that it’s perfect)..

The NHS can’t function if their staff are not on duty so it’s in everyone’s interest to have them back on duty ASAP.

@KimberleyClark I'm sure the NHS can withstand one doctor taking time off to receive cancer treatment, but nevertheless, does this mean we should fast track the police too? Firemen? Social workers? All very important people don't you know. Should there be a priority order for receiving treatment based on occupation, that we publicly fund? If I discovered that my father's cancer treatment was delayed so that a doctor could be unnecessarily fast tracked through the system there'd be hell to pay.

We know a lot of doctors (work) and do get seen quicker at hospital because of it. Just one of the perks. The exception to this would of course be someone who was considered critical who would be a priority. But that aside I don’t think iv ever had to wait in a&e