To balance this though, there are also a huge amount of us general public who feel awful about having to go to A&E because we know how under pressure they are and end up in a worse position as we delay getting care.
It’s also not just patients who don’t need to be seen causing issues, I’ve had some frustrating situations with GPs. My son has a chronic kidney condition. As a baby he had severe recurrent infections that would cause spiking fevers and very serious symptoms if allowed to develop. As the samples showed pseudomonas bacteria, I requested for the specialist to write a letter asking GPs to treat with the correct antibiotic upon first diagnosing infection and then confirm via culture (usually twice to confirm not contaminated) - otherwise he was hospitalised prior to confirmation. I had a GP refuse to read this letter, try to refuse to test the urine (massive crystals that even I could see were concerning) and, upon testing, told me to go A&E and would not listen to me explaining it was treatable with the right antibiotic. I felt awful and kept apologising to the A&E staff for wasting time. I had multiple incidents similar to that where GPs not listening meant I kept having to attend A&E, despite the specialist having said they could treat early symptoms via GP.
I’ve also had nightmares during pregnancy and labour, including a Consultant threatening to call the police because I (politely, no shouting or anything) disagreed with him putting my ds on NICU purely for observations and had asked to wait for if and until symptoms developed so he could stay with me. We later found out this was related to lack of trained staff and the NICU matron luckily stepped in to say we could move hospitals instead (a huge relief, but also a stress as less than a week before due date and they’d known my information and how I felt from the booking appointment).
These types of experiences aren’t uncommon or unique to me as such. And yes I’ve made some mistakes too - like my dd appearing unable to walk properly (turned out to be ear related balance issue that looked serious because of Hypermobility but wasn’t at all). However, most of us feel silly and guilty when we realise it’s not an issue, even though the appearance made it a valid reason for attending A&E.
A huge number of NHS staff are fantastic. A lot of us know they’re overworked and understaffed and underfunded. However, there are some who are not fantastic, there are some who make desperately trying to seek very needed care difficult and there’s a system that is so underfunded it perpetuates this. My vote won’t make a difference as such as I always vote Labour anyway (short period of Lib Dem when voting tactically in different area). I’ll still be voting though.
I think a lot of issues come down to lack of care prior to A&E. There are lots of people waiting huge times to be seen for chronic illnesses that wreck their day to day life, there are lots of people struggling to get GP appointments, dealing with children with escalating mental health issues due to lack of access to SEN care and inability to access medication and diagnosis (4-5y process) and dealing with medication shortages and that’s all going to increase A&E pressures.