If you work in A and E, when is the quietest time for a patient to come in?

[applejack18]

I know IABU to ask, as the NHS is unimaginably stretched all of the time.

But if there was a least busy time of day/night, or time of week, which would it be?

Is there a pattern?

I ask because I had to call 111 yesterday at 10pm and the upshot was I should get seen for my symptoms within 12 hours. The clinician said I could go to A and E that evening or see the GP in the morning. I'm lucky it wasn't urgent but it got me thinking.

My mother fell and broke her wrist on a Friday night once and insisted on waiting till the Saturday mid-morning because she wanted to avoid all the drunks. This was before there were minor injuries clinics though.

if you are trying to find out the best time to go so you don't have to hang around it is clearly not an emergency so you shouldn't be going there.

Call your GP in the morning

Last time I had to take my mother to a&e it was a late Monday afternoon and it was rammed, with medical issues. Mum had waited through the weekend, gone to see the gp and had sent her to a&e as it was an issue that needed her to be admitted to hospital, he’d rung and got advice from the consultant who confirmed but there’s no by pass to being admitted you have to go a&e. We went about 5 or 6 Monday night and it was 7am Tuesday morning once we’d been through triage, seen the doctor and got into one of the a &e beds, when she saw the consultant he said “why didn’t you come last night?”

a&e nurse told us Monday nights are always busy with medical issues as you get your people that have waited thought a weekend for their thinking they don’t need a&e, then weekends tend to be more physical injuries from drunk people and people playing sports

I had a gallbladder attack on a Saturday night and went in at 2am and I was the ONLY PERSON in the waiting room! I thought there was some sort of apocalypse going on. The receptionist I spoke to said it was very eerie.

We needed to call an ambulance for my DP a few weeks ago. Ambulance arrived in about 15 minutes and he was seen almost straight away when we arrived. It seemed fairly quiet.

That was on a Sunday morning.

DH was taken to hospital by 999 ambulance late one evening, midweek. Wait was about six hours once in hospital,, though ambulance came immediately.
Then the next day, once home, the hospital having said his injuries were just bruising and concussion etc, he went to a different hospital by taxi where they said he’d broken several bones.

I've only had to go to A/E once for myself.Fell over and broke my wrist.Arrived at A/E reception 12 noon on a Tuesday and by 1.50pm I had been triaged,X -rayed,taken to the anaesthetic room,sedated and had my wrist manipulated back into place,plaster cast put on and more X-rays.
In contrast I spent over 5 hrs in A/E on a Saturday night when my FIL fell down our stairs and broke his humerus

For those querying timing an visit, when your nearest minor injury unit is an hour away and doctors no longer provide such a service you have to go to a and e. You don't want to but there is no other option and so you do try to aim at a quiet time. Two incidents recently - suspected infection after hand surgery and burst stitches after face surgery

Who in many parts of the country will simply say there are no appointments for the next 3 weeks and tell you to go to A+E.

A few years back I was told to go to A and E for removal of a cotton bud for my ear. I went 9am Friday morning and it was quiet.

DS's friend, a trainee Doctor advised, 6.00am. This was in East London in October. The result was a transfer to a London teaching hospital by ambulance and brain surgery the next morning!

DS's friend, a trainee Doctor advised, 6.00am. This was in East London in October. The result was a transfer to a London teaching hospital by ambulance and brain surgery the next morning!

That is true. DD works in A&E for some of her shifts as a HCP and doesn't mind working public holidays but hates the day after. People won't spoil their day off and will drink through the pain, first working day after, there they are.

Christmas Day is traditionally quiet in her city centre hospital.

There is such a chronic lack of GPs that even trying to train more up reduces apointment slots, for supervision

All GPs have to perform their own CPD, participate in training events and attend trust meetings so that reduces their availability to patients even further

Admin, for typing up clinic notes, reading hospital test results and creating appointments and typing letters for the patients, referring patients to hospital and general practice admin all take the doctors away from the patients

Many GP only see patients for half a day before going to Admin/Meetings/CPD/Supervision

Receptionists are under instructions to refer patients to walk in clinics, urgent treatment centres or A&E

@ShatParp

I have 2 heart conditions which cause arrhythmias and I waited in A&E for 18 ours last year. I arrived at 10pm and was seen 4pm the next day.

It was hell.

That's absolutely not true.

I wanted 18 hours before. I have a heart condition that puts me into arrhythmias. My heart was in and out of SVT for 18 hours.
I was triaged, given a room and hooked up on a monitor the whole time, but didn't get seen by a doctor or given any medication for 18 hours.

What an absolutely fucking ridiculous post.

That's absolutely appalling, how depressing that it's come to this.

@baldpenguine 🤦🏼‍♀️ you were already in hospital waiting, not waiting to go to hospital. Bit of a pointless comment really

Agree with the posters saying that people who can't wait 12hrs don't need A&E are living in another world! As I said up thread, I was there for over 18hrs both times I went with a pulminory embolism! One doctor even sent me home because he clearly didn't believe me or my D dimer result because I didn't have leg pain (despite me saying I thought it was my lungs) DESPITE me waiting in the hospital since 6pm the previous day! I personally think these doctors cause a lot of the longer term injury and patients with multiple needs because they don't do a simple scan in the first place, meaning I wasted 2 rotas of staff's day as well as my own with repeat ECT, bloods, D-dimers, X ray and eventually a CT scan.

unfortunately my elderly mum was admitted on New Years Day. We didnt have to wait long for an ambulance and when we got there it was practically empty. The nurses said it's quiet Xmas Day and New Years day normally. The next day when i went to visit her i walked through A&E and it was full to capacity.

I took DD a couple of weeks ago after she fell off a horse. We arrived at 9pm on a Friday night and I was expecting a very long wait but the place was fairly empty. We were triaged before we had even had chance to sit down in the waiting room.

The receptionist said it was always fairly quiet then as it was a bit of a lull - people avoided the place unless absolutely necessary as they think Friday nights would be extremely busy, but pubs, etc hadn’t started kicking out yet.

By the time we left just before midnight, it was a very different story!

@Aaaalrightythen another one who has misinterpreted my comment so I'll clarify yet again. I meant if you can wait 12 hours to GO to A&E you don't need it, not if you can wait 12 hours once you get there 🤦🏼‍♀️

Again I disagree, the clot I have is large and has reduced my lung function. It is unclear how long I have had it but I can guarantee you that even if it started at 5pm an hour before I went in at 6pm, being sent home for a whole week before I had to call an ambulance on the following Monday was longer than waiting 12hrs at home. And yes I needed to be in A&E. Some of the people in A&E making the most noise likely had the least serious issues.

@Aaaalrightythen what on earth are you talking about? I'm genuinely baffled. In that case the hospital decided for you to wait at home for that week. Still absolutely nothing to do with my comment

If you can wait till a quiet time, it is neither an accident or an emergency ffs 😂