I'm so fucking sick of a and e wait times

[cutrtain]

As a working mother to a toddler in nursery, I'm just fucking done with how long it takes to get help in a and e for my child.

It's starting to make me not want to go, in situations that I would have maybe gone in the past.

I'm absolutely exhausted. It's always 3/4 hours wait, at least.

I'm just so done with it. It's a disgrace.

Well said.

I have always been super prone to ear infections. I think I’m almost at the stage of accepting that I’ll probably lose some of my hearing this way as it’s impossible to get a GP appointment in any sort of timely fashion. I worry for DS1’s hearing as he’s the same.

DS1 and I both have chronic conditions, and 5 month old DS2 is showing signs of developing the same chronic condition as DS1. We’ve been to the local A and E - merged with the Urgent Care Centre - quite a lot, including multiple ambulance trips.

I always, always, always feel like I’m wasting NHS time, and I can guarantee at least one nurse will make me feel the same. But more often than not, we’ve ended up being admitted for at least one night if not more. Usually after waiting at least 10 hours for a bed. Last time was a 15 hour wait for DS2 to get a bed but he was put on oxygen as soon as he saw a doctor - within two or three hours of arriving - and remained on oxygen with a NG tube for three more days before he could breathe on his own.

I think we’ve begun to accept the government narrative that the NHS is perfect and unassailable and everything must be our fault. It isn’t. Face to face GP appointments are so hard to get and involve ages waiting, there aren’t enough pharmacists, there are massive shortages of common prescription medication, and hospital medical staff are often under extreme pressure, with lots of doctors leaving to go overseas.

It isn’t all our fault. It’s a deliberate government choice.

OK, I’m about to sleep and I’m sure it’s annoying but being irritated by wait times of 3-4 hours?! When my sister was a frequent visitor to A&E over twenty years ago that would still have been a short time for what she was in for, and I (not a child but tend to be in with serious problems) have waited over 20 hours recently, with my dying grandad often waiting over 8 hours frequently in an ambulance. There’s nothing we can do about it and the NHS has been eviscerated. I’m sorry your child is having health problems.

There seems to be an increase in people going to A&E because they can't get a GP appointment.
But, for years, people have also been using GPs inappropriately, so it is a knock on effect. Every medic will tell you about some of the nonsense requests they get from the "worried well". Our parents knew that most ailments could be treated at home without any need to see a doctor. Nowadays, sensible people (with luck) can go for years without any need to see a GP. Whereas others are there every 5 minutes for the most trivial things. So there does seem to be an increased lack of public awareness and education.
Problem is that if you make something "free" (at the point of use), there will be some who either misuse services or who don't think twice about "just checking". A small fee would be worth a trial, to see whether it actually makes any difference.

@SleepyRich fever isn’t irrelevant that’s really bad advice. Febrile seizures can occur when the fever shoots up too quickly. Fever and high heart rate/fast breathing which also often happens when fever is at 40 or above are also all symptoms of sepsis.

Oh, and I’ll add, I SO enjoy waiting for at least an hour in the pharmacy every three or four weeks for my and DS1’s medication. Which is often not available or not enough of it, so I have to come back and do the same again a few days later.

NOT a good use of time. And the same in multiple pharmacies I’ve been to in my city (I’ve gone private for DS1’s condition as the waiting list for the NHS was 12-18 months and it’s a condition that causes him pain daily and could cause long term damage requiring surgery).

One of these days the result of a thread telling people not to go to A&E is gonna be fatal.

If your child is grunting, rapid breathing with a fever that won’t come down go to bloody hospital.

I would agree with you OP that if 111 assess and send you to a&e you’d be negligent not to go. high fever which won’t resolve with proper doses of medication and difficulty breathing aren’t trivial problems. The problem is that there isn’t enough capacity in the system not that everyone is attending inappropriately.

@cutrtain

You are waiting 3-4 hours and you are complaining? Seriously ???

Get real. Many people wait 8-10 hours.

@sleepyrich am I mistaken for thinking you're a paramedic?

If so as a fellow medical professional the fever advice is irresponsible.
Uncontrolled persistently high fever is a red flag.
I appreciate that there are other red flags alongside pyrexia but still...

And 111 would tell you to! And depending on the age of the child, would send an ambulance to take you! Trouble breathing in a young child is category 1, so said my last set of paramedics - the same as a heart attack. I don’t know if that’s because DS2 is so young, but still.

3 to 4 hours doesn’t sound too bad to me. I might give it a miss for constipation though.

They did for us too!

Poor examples there you've given unfortunately. Whilst antibiotics have historically been given for tonsilitis and ear infections they actually make very little difference and the practice is really being cut down on.

Most middle ear infections treatment is just paracetamol and or ibuprofen for pain, normally settles 3-5 days. Antibiotics aren't indicated unless unwell - signs of meningitis/mastoiditis.
Tonsilitis similar - even when it's raging awful tonsilitis feverpain5 which we do still give antibiotics for we do so knowing that it'll probably only reduce the duration of your symptoms by 12-24 hours total.
Chest infections - generally until 2-3 weeks viral and bacterial will present in quite a similar fashion so unless you're particularly vulnerable you wouldn't be prescribed to on day 3 just told to come back if not improving at 3 weeks.

I take the sentiment though, it absolutely should be that with severe or abnormal duration symptoms you could be sure of being able to see a GP on the same day you became concerned. But now you can't be sure of this because you're fighting amongst all the people who get checked out every time they have a runny nose. I'm not exaggerating my clinic is absolutely full of people who just don't need any kind of medical assessment, then you look back through their history and full of A&E discharge letters "no treatment required, treatment complete".

A and E is horrendous when we were last there. Had the feeling of being in some sort of field hospital, if all the soldiers had an equally miserable parent with them.

My son keeps getting injuries that require an x ray so have been there a few times recently - the non a and e place that can also do x rays isn’t always open (I forget what they’re calling it right now).

My Dd used to have to go a lot with her asthma 6/7 years ago but thankfully that’s better under control now - there were always long waits even back then but I bet it would be worse now even with something like that.

I think Ireland does an A and E cover charge - don’t know if any Irish MNers can comment on that, maybe it’s localised or was a trial or is indeed simply a myth?

The op clearly states constipation and rectal bleeding.
The ED referral would have been because of the bleeding

Honestly some people on this thread are worryingly nonchalant.

You LOVE the out of hours GP @cutrtain ??? Why?

I agree!

@AngryBirdsNoMore presuming your prescription is nhs you Gould be able to sign up for online ordering and then you can track it online and collect when it’s in stock. If you use the same pharmacy for your son just give them a call and let h to me know you’ll be bringing the script in and to order it in advance. Or if you’re a regular customer they may keep
it in stock for you. There’s no need to wait for a repeat prescription, just order in plenty of time and they can have it ready for you to collect

May I ask where this is? Sounds like a really excellent idea.

As an addition to a point above about there being not being a private A&E provision.

There isn't private A&E however there are private urgent care and treatment centres, which cover a lot of ailments and minor injuries. Anything immediately life threatening will be redirected to NHS A&E though.

If you are able to afford family private healthcare, or benefit from it via work, it is a godsend for out of hours care, and can address many of the types of issues described by the OP.

Yes the NHS should have better out of hours provisions so everyone can get seen, I just wanted to point out that there is urgent care available privately, even if it doesn't cover the most serious A&E needs.

May I ask how I do this? I would like to investigate.

I order my repeat prescriptions online via my doctor’s website. Then go to the pharmacy three days later when it will have been signed off by the doctor. But the wait is then because there are always a zillion other people also waiting to collect.

She was literally sent there by her GP who is in a better place to make a decision about her situation than you are.

The degree fever doesn't correlate with febrile convulsions and antipyretics don't prevent febrile convulsions from occurring.

If you're in doubt please review NICE guidance on management of febrile convulsions they do a section for whilst seizure occuring and aftercare:
https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/febrile-seizure/management/management-after-a-febrile-seizure/

• "Provide written advice on the management of any future febrile illness.Advise that the intermittent use of antipyretics such as paracetamol and/or ibuprofen at the onset of fever is not recommended, as this does not reduce or prevent febrile seizure recurrence.
• Advise on the use of paracetamol and/or ibuprofen to reduce fever if the child is uncomfortable or distressed, and on measures to prevent dehydration. See the CKS topic on Feverish children - management for more information.
• Advise on when to seek immediate medical help if a serious or life-threatening cause of fever is suspected. See the CKS topic on Feverish children - risk assessment for more information."

You're right pulse and breathing rates rise naturally with fever but this isn't the same as sepsis.