To think the NHS makes it difficult to avoid A&E

[ArchesOfsunflowers]

All the comments about people just going to A&E… but there’s so little alternative!
I try to play the rules, this time:
-GP no appointment until May
-None at 8am
-Try pharmacy for infection, looks at me like I have two heads and says go to GP
-111 really really difficult to be listened to, get callback in the end (refused to discuss both ear and throat having pus/ swelling, I had to pick one issue)
-call back hard to hear, like he’s swallowed the mic
-rude and dismissive but says he’s sending antibiotics to pharmacy. Told off for overuse of antibiotics (she’s not had any in five years???)
-pharmacy receive nothing, so restart the loop.
(Here there’s no walk in, I know some areas have them. We have GP and A&E or out of hours calls/ online consultations)

I’ve luckily not had to call them often, but with 5 children sometimes they need the GP. It’s just inaccessible here. 8am calls are the only on the day options but you end up in a queue for ages to be told there’s no appointments if you call on the dot (it goes to answerphone recorded messages before 8, no calling earlier.)

I get the funding issues. But without GP access people get funnelled to the only option. It’s not just the narrative ofthe lazy/ feckless who go there on whole family jollies to have a fun day out. It’s the fact that people can’t wait a month to see a doctor and there’s nothing else. People get sick occasionally however hard they try.

DD has huge tonsillitis, covered in pus and an ear infection with it, gunk dribbling out. I’m not going for no reason, it’s reasonable to check a child crying in pain with a high fever and pus leaking…but the system is broken. We are being told to blame each other, it’s our fault. Or to shut up because people are sicker or something.

The issue though is an under funded system that’s also got management issues that’s not fit for purpose. It’s not just time wasting for an otherwise fit for purpose system. My local hospital for example is being rebuilt with less beds, and the end of life care ended. No alternative in place, and the population has hugely increased since it was first built. It’s funding… and bizarre planning. And gatekeepers. Partly people, but a shit ton of big issues as well

YANBU at all - the amount of times that the GP has told me to bring DD to A&E when it’s clear as day that she does not need to be there is absolutely ridiculous. Each time we go I genuinely apologise to the doctors as I’m embarrassed to be wasting their time on minor issues only to inevitably be told that we (surprise!) need to go back to the GP. Last time it was due to tonsillitis, not even a particularly severe case - she just needed the correct antibiotics!

Nowadays I usually pay to go to a private GP. Less hassle and things actually get sorted out without a fight

Yanbu our a&e also has miu within it and we have some further away
drd appts here are impossible , proplr are driving down when they open to get one , but even then the queue is huge.
i did online consult the other day it came back you need to see a dr , well i kind of knew that.
the pack of Gp appts is going to cost the NHS more in the long run
the nhs is broken

YANBU - I live in SE England and it is near on impossible to get a GP appointment. The amount of times I’ve phoned 111 and been directed to Minor Injuries or A&E for issues the GP could solve would shock you.

We have to complete e-consults at my surgery and I’ve had instances where they’ve been ignored, hence then calling 111. Had a severe UTI in Jan and had to go to A&E to be seen, and to be given anti-biotics.

But like you said, GP surgeries are totally oversubscribed. There are not enough GPs to facilitate the appointments that people require. Often when I am at the GP surgery it is filled with older adults. So an ageing population is concerning.

It truly is a broken system and I feel it’s become especially worse since the COVID pandemic too.

NHS simply needs more funding, and it needs more staff.

Yes, this is NHS 2024.

This is a political choice made by the government.

If you underfund primary care, you transfer more cases to secondary care, which costs more.

100%.

YANBU A and E is the only chance of getting any medical care of any type here. And yes, it is up to 24 hours wait, but there is absolutely no other option. You just move in and set up camp - normally on the floor for the first 10 hours. I was in A and E last year, and it was 16 hours before I even got a chair. However I would have died if I had gone home

I can't identify tbh, I wouldn't wait until pus was dribbling out for anything. Why didn't you call the gp before? Surely they must have been in pain for days before, you don't go from nothing to pus dribbling (eew)

Whenever I’ve been to the pharmacist they’ve said I need to see the GP, so pointless really. And if they are a health professional saying that I need to be seen, they should be able to refer me rather than me make an appointment.

(Makes a sign of the cross) my gp is fine, they will usually get you in on the day or the next one. They have 3 practices and an overflow type one which is open till 7pm

The NHS was fantastic in a life and death situation with my mum recently. She had an anaphylactic reaction to Ramipril ( blood pressure tablet she’d been on for years). Who knew you could suddenly develop an allergy to something you’d been taking for more than a decade? Her tongue and airways were so swollen she was struggling to swallow and breathe.

I drove her there. On arrival, they recognised how serious the situation was and immediately took her through. The ENT consultant saw her right away and he knew straight away it was a reaction to Ramipril. His timely diagnosis and treatment saved her life. The NHS at its best.

I feel like crying when I read your post @ArchesOfsunflowers and subsequent posts @goldenretrievermum5 @RichTea90 as you are right, there seems to be no other option but to go to A&E. I’m glad I don’t have young children now. I have watched the NHS ( where I worked for 35 years) unravel in front of my eyes over the decades.

I don't have a dentist though and my teeth are crumbling, sad.

You are being unreasonable to blame the NHS. They didn't put a quota on medical school places that is now impossible to deal with due to a lack of staff to train anyone. Nor did the underfund the service and destroy social care. The blame is with the Conservative government.

It’s luck of the draw and a complete postcode lottery as to how good the healthcare you receive. I live in a northern town where the population is growing rapidly but there’s no new infrastructure to support this. We have one very old and small hospital which is stretched to its limits. My friend, in a nearby city has 5 different hospitals she can access and there aren’t the horrendous trolley queues that are standard in my town.
I dread any of my family having to go to A& E as I know they’ll be just left in a corridor for over 24 hours and as a result people are dying

A&E has basically replaced primary care for millions. Most GP surgeries are no longer functional.

I just hate the way we are being gaslit about it. I could live with being told that it’s no longer sustainable and that they are consulting on a different payment model. (Or whatever). We are very clearly beyond the point of no return for the NHS as we know it.

I just hate having my intelligence insulted by being told this is adequate primary care.

YANBU at all. The NHS needs to be scrapped and a new system introduced with managers who know how to run a business.

Sadly, YANBU.

There are not enough GPs to cover the demand, so getting an appointment is virtually impossible. Our surgery did away with online consult as they couldn't keep up with the number of requests. Trying to get through by phone is a nightmare- usually at least 40 minutes. If you work, it's really hard. I am a teacher so limited as to when I can ring. I tried in a free the other week but had to cut off before they answered as my next class was due.

Pharmacists can't help if you need antibiotics. I have found most things they can help with are things most people would probably know how to treat anyway.

111 are very hit and miss I find. Also, some things can't be properly dealt with over the phone.

The walk in centre in our town closed during covid and has never reopened.

We are lucky that we rarely need medical help but I feel for those who do. It's all well and good people saying that they shouldn't wait/shouldn't go to A and E but in many cases, that is literally the only option.

It's a shame pharmacists can't prescribe - for some things like tonsillitis, it would massively help.

YANBU. My surgery basically says if you are too unwell to wait weeks for an appointment, you should go to A&E. It removes the need for them to deal with any patients who are currently unwell.

It's NOT a business it's a healthcare system. It needs more GPs not managers! It needs nurses not managers. We need health care practitioners.

Absolutely agree.
I am a district nurse and very conscious obviously about the strain the NHS is under, but I have inappropriately taken my toddler to a+e knowing full well a GP or Advanced Practitioner in community was what she needed - but alas no where could see her. I'm also considering going private for a separate issue for her as an expedited referral sees us still waiting 9months later to be seen.

In my work I've had to tell people to go to a+e because there is simple not enough staff to provide the acute care that could be provided at home.
The social care system is also broken and I've sent people to a+e who are not safe to be alone at home but no emergency placements or care packages available.
Sad times

That's awful. I get fed up with the appointments system at my practice but they have always managed to see my DC with ear infections and tonsillitis. Your experience with 111 also sounds terrible. I have always found they manage to find some sort of out of hours appointment in similar circumstances. Did you fill out online first? I usually find it's better than trying to go through the call handlers.

My contrary view - yesterday I suffered a nasty crush injury to my finger resulting in lots of bleeding and tissue seeping out of the wound. I completed the online 111 form, got a call back from a nurse within 10 minutes and was quickly directed to the nearest MIU for treatment. I was seen within 10 minutes of arriving. And this is in Devon where hospital resources are scant.

Pharmacists can prescribe

Most unhelpful comment ever.

Everyone's different, all illnesses are different, the thread is about how it's impossible to get GP appointments. Doesn't require a judgement on the actual illness.

FWIW my daughter had pus out of her ear at the slightest hint of any infection, often before she was in any pain.

Our GP appointments are full for weeks ahead.
As a nurse I have no appointments now for four weeks. My colleague is off with very high BP caused by stress, largely caused by work and constantly being asked to see and more for people in less time. She's retiring at the end of the year. I am out in two. Our last nurse recruit in an attempt to bolster numbers lasted six months. We have yet another GP retiring (early) in three months.
We are statistically seeing more people now than before COVID with less staff. Mostly an ageing population with multiple chronic health conditions. That costs.

This country is being run by billionaires and millionaires who most probably have never used the NHS in any capacity, and they never will. They are running it into the ground, breaking it up, chunk by chunk, so that it can be entirely privatised. We will then have a medical health care system like in the USA where people are pulling out their teeth with pliers and going bankrupt over having to pay for an emergency operation for a burst appendix or whatever.

Anyone, absolutely any other political party will be better for this country, for the NHS, than the Tory’s. They are literally turning are society into a dystopian vision of the Hunger Games!! Please don’t vote Tory!!