Stop telling people to go to A&E!

[Miriad]

I see it on here a lot. Someone is getting fobbed off by their GP and not getting diagnosed. So they get told to go to A&E, where they have the ability to do blood tests and urine tests and scans to figure out what’s going on.

I’ve been sobbing in agony for three weeks and my GP isn’t helping me, and I can’t get another GP appointment for a fortnight, so posters advised me to go to A&E.

I waited six hours only to get yelled at by an angry doctor, saying my condition is neither an accident nor an emergency. According to him I don’t need urgent treatment even if I’m crying with pain - because pain isn’t urgent. If I’m stable and not at risk then I need to go home and see my GP.

A&E can not be used to bypass a useless GP and access tests and scans. They will not diagnose you or refer you. Their job is to give you the minimum care to make you stable so you’re not at risk, then send you home.

So stop telling people to go there. Maybe in the olden days you could go there for help if your GP was rubbish, but not any more.

The different experiences people have with their GP is crazy. I’ve been referred for surgery and not even been able to see my GP about it. I genuinely don’t know how you see one at our surgery, I have a friend who submitted photos of something for her DD, waited 3 weeks for them to be assessed and then 4 weeks for a GP phone consultation, at which point he started by saying the pictures were a bit old 🤯

If you had investigations done for UTI and had swabs done ,that means its not a new pain ,hence A/E send you back home.GP can see your previous consultation in notes and I am thinking you would be given painkillers before they did your investigations ,hence the appointment in a fortnight.If that is the case ,they might be referring you for further investigations or to pain clinic ,(which could be months)hence the non urgent appointment

Don't be so immature. Some people will be there because they have had one partner or 50 or have been cheated on. Some will be there for horrific reasons. No one cares why anyone else is there. They just want help for themselves.

If you are being truthful about your situation then stop letting medics say no. Ask for help when they say no ask them who can. Ring every day. Go back to A and E. I have never once turned up to A and E and been told I shouldn't be there. I've always been helped.

See a private gp anyway you can. Beg steal borrow. Not that expensive and you’ll get 20-30 mins not the shitty non service from NHS!

Go to PALS and write down a complaint.

In the meantime tomorrow call your GP surgery and ask them to book an urgent day appointment.
Call first thing in the morning and tell them you are in a lot of pain.
Otherwise if they are full they have a duty of care and should book you in a different surgery for you to be seen.
Don’t take no for and answer.
Good luck OP

Tomorrow is a bank holiday!

Oh dear 😅. Then Tuesday.@IroningThrone

Even if your gp refers you to a urologist tomorrow, you will probably won’t be seen for another 12 months or more because of the waiting lists.
get a loan and see a doc privately and make sure you vote wisely in the election to help bring this sh*t show to an end.

You should have complained. I would put in a complaint via PALS. If you were in so much pain they should have got to the bottom of it. No wonder the NHS is in such trouble if GP’s won’t see their patients without such a wait that you have to go to A&E in desperation and then get batted back to your GP. This happened to my late husband. Went on for weeks and he was eventually taken in as an emergency when he collapsed and I called 999. He was put straight into intensive care and diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer - died on a ventilator ten days later. Sometimes you need to stand up for yourself.

All gp practices have a duty dr to deal with clinically urgent issues that come up that day, you phone on the day, get a call back and duty df calls you in when they are free, after house calls or something. They cannot refuse you an appointment for two weeks, that’s unethical

Just buy what you need. Google 'sailors packs medical antibiotics'. We always have some in case of emergency (we travel a lot).

The ANP can contact a GP within the practice if you presented to the surgery very unwell and needed urgent doctor review. They are probably in adjoining rooms, no one should ever just send a patient home because it’s not within their scope of practice, they will find someone who can help.
Pain certainly is an emergency, but month long pain with stable observations and no overall change in severity is not. Nor does it merit emergency scanning or tests for the most part.

BUT not every pain presentation is the same, and if sudden severe pain is experienced to any part of the body, I would expect that patient to present to ED for review. A blanket don’t attend ED is not correct.

I agree with this. I was ambulanced off to hospital about 5 years ago after collapsing a propos of nothing in extreme pain and vomiting coming out of work one day. Couldn't stand up. Couldn't hail a taxi. Never had such intense pain come on so suddenly before. I thought it must be appendicitis.

A&E did the routine checks. Couldn't find anything other than a low white blood cell count. Sent me off a few hours later with pain killers. Didn't have a clue what was wrong with me and I was still in pain but DID feel hugely reassured that I wasn't dying. So for that reason, I was glad I'd gone.

Wasn't quite so happy when they phoned eighteen days later to say I had a kidney infection, and would I like some antibiotics? - but that's another story. 🙄

Kidney stones would cause that type of pain.. I’d go back if you’re in that much pain and raise a complaint with pals about how you were spoken to as 111 referred you there.

They don’t just stabilise you in a&e. They find out what the issue is and treat you if they can. You need a scan. I’ve gone with kidney pain in the past and been admitted because I had sepsis. Although if your bloods are ok then I guess all your organs are fine… but you still shouldn’t be spoken to like that.

Also ask to speak to the practice manager. Two week appointments are for routine matters. This doesn’t sound routine.

Sorry you are in pain. I agree that too many people are being directed to A and E when its a GP issue. I disagree on the pain issue though. I was in A and E a few years ago and I imagine a very junior Dr tried to examine me. It was agony and I was crying. She said that I can't let you go home in this much pain, I need to get someone more senior to look at you. Pain can be an emergency, depending on the cause. Think you saw a crap Dr.

This can't be real.

If you were in anything like the pain you claim to be, you'd let a horse doctor look at you if it meant getting somewhere.

Does your GP not offer any emergency appointments when you call first thing in the morning??

A uti would show in urine test and bloods. The pain must be something else.

If it's a UTI, a pharmacist can help.

Otherwise, if you're in this much agony go to the GP as soon as it opens and see if anyone can see you

I know exactly the pain you’re talking about, I unfortunately had it for a long time and it was hell. If you don’t want to go to an STD clinic (which you should because they can help with vaginal area problems that can cause similar symptoms, not just STDs) you might be able to get a home test kit which will test for chlamydia and gonorrhoea at a minimum. But when you say you haven’t had sex do you mean ever? Or just not recently?

In my case the problem was caused by interstitial cystitis and urethral syndrome. I really feel for you because the pain is awful, it’s a very particular type of pain. Things that helped me during flare ups and UTIs which might be helpful to try include: Buscopan because it eases bladder and urethra cramping, rinsing with warm water (not cold even though the pain feels like burning), the most useful thing was using a product that numbs the skin such as Vagisil or a numbing sexual lubricant (you can buy these on Amazon/online to avoid embarrassment), plus preventing my urine becoming acidic. If they are still finding nothing when using a dipstick in your urine after this long then it’s unlikely to be a UTI so that’s one less worry

Have they actually sent your sample off to the lab to test for UTI? Ive had a few that haven't shown up in the dip test but then did at the lab.

I’d change GP. That does sound ridiculous. With my GP surgery you can fill an online consultation in and the dr will review the same day, and if they think you need to be seen will usually ring with an appointment the same day. Get yourself registered with a new GP and hopefully you will get seen asap

My experience with MN posters is they are FAR more likely to tell a poster not to go to A&E than to advise them to go.

And sometimes this is dangerous advice.

I've known of more than one MN thread where the same posters are saying it's not an A&E job and criticising the op for even considering it, when it's turned out to be something fairly serious and very much in need of urgent care.

A lot of the tests the NHS use to diagnose UTIs are out of date and inaccurate. Only well conducted, prompt lab cultures will narrow down the likely cause of the infection, and too many hospitals haven’t got the resources to do it properly.

At this point I’m half wondering if you should go to Spain to get checked out… only half kidding.

Are you taking painkillers when the pain hits only? Regular paracetamol would be better than doing that. Or co-codamol instead. If you're able to tolerate ibuprofen take that too.
If you think it's a UTI then you can get treatment from a pharmacy.

Your GP surgery sucks btw.