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.

I fell and broke my arm so I went to the ER (California). It was severely overcrowded.
When they took me in the back some jackass was there because he wanted his ears cleaned of wax. I think they call it “irrigation.”
The ER doc scolded him for it not being a legitimate emergency — and then cleaned his ears.

@pepsilemon Impossible to do at my GP surgery. Phone line opens at 8.30 and you're straight into a queue. Fastest I've got through is forty minutes later when all appointments for the day are gone. People queue up in person outside the surgery from 8 a.m. to try try to get an appointment when the doors open at 8.30. The system is broken.

I remember being yelled at by an ER doctor for not coming to A&E sooner. I had gone to GP then he sent me to the hospital. I thought I was doing the right thing by not clogging up A&E unnecessarily. I had no idea how seriously ill I was.

Is switching surgeries an option? Not being able to see a GP for that long is ridiculous.

Exactly.

“full of people who sleep around” dear God OP. My sympathy for you has gone.

In your situation I would call 111, if they feel it's needed they can find you a GP appointment even if it's across the other side of your town/city/3 towns away. We've been sent to out of hours doctors ages away but it was worth it.

But also can you not call up your GP on the day? If I called up my GP I'd be told there's more appointments for 3 weeks too. But they release daily appts and you have to call at 8am to try get one. I've never ever not got an on the day appt if I needed one.

I agree that A&E is for accident and emergency!

I would always see gp first. If they tell you to go thats fine. I have been treated for uti at minor injuries before. Doctors where shut. I went to chemist and they said to go. When I got there I told them I'd been told to go to them and they happily sorted me out.

Sometimes it can be an emergency that doesn't result from breathing or heart problems. I ended up being admitted via A&E due to pancreatitis caused by gallstones. It was only by performing a whole range of tests that a GP wouldn't have access to that I got a diagnosis. The main symptom? Severe abdominal pain.

Quite often I've read about people being diagnosed in A&E for serious conditions missed by GPs.

I've only been to A&E twice; once for this and once for a suspected miscarriage. If people are rocking up there for minor stuff then that's a different issue but severe pain can be a sign of an emergency going on. The problem is that different people have different views of what an emergency is. I'm of the 'is my arm hanging off' school of thought. Other people unfortunately think that if they don't get immediately seen for something minor then that is an emergency.

I'm a bit sceptical about the OP though. If I had been told to see the GUM clinic when I was in severe pain I'd have gone like a shot and wouldn't have thought twice about it. You'll do anything to get severe pain resolved.

Orange Barley Water surprisingly effective, even if only while you wait to get antibiotics.

That said, I think this may be a wind up. Something strange. Just wants someone to look at her fanjo. Er.

I agree. OP doesn't seem to want to take any advice, just discounts any suggestions and then whinges.

And this is what annoyes me about our health service. From someone who suffers from a chronic pain condition, they have no regard for my quality of life. Due to my condition I can't just take painkillers either, yet the doctors will just say take painkillers (yet they know I'm very limited in how many I can take). So I have to suffer in pain with no alternative treatment available because no NHS trust will pay for it as just being in pain isn't a problem.

OP if you can't see a GP for weeks and need more urgent help you can normally ring 111 and get an urgent GP appointment. No need to go to A&E.

@buffyslayer ouch! I hope you get rushed up the list a lot quicker than you are. I'm in Wales and for all the slagging off of the Welsh NHS, I had a great experience a couple of years ago with gynae. I suppose the whole system is a lottery at the moment.

I think most people are not medical experts so don’t know what is an emergency or not. About ten years ago my elderly dad fell, I managed to get him onto a chair but he couldn’t stand even with help. His GP visited him and thought after examining him he may have broken his hip so called an ambulance. Several hours later we were seen by an A&E doctor who asked us why he had bought him there just because he’d fallen. When we said what his GP had said he just went off muttering.

Pharmacists, not Chemists. 🙄

Pharmacists are trained in the field of pharmacy, where they can dispense medicinal drugs for varied medical requirements, while chemists study chemistry and are graduates with a degree in science with chemistry. Chemists conduct research with chemical substances.

@Miriad have you taken any other painkillers except paracetamol?

Pharmacist are good for analgesia advice, might be worth going to see them. You can buy codeine over the counter, and they can advise re other methods of pain relief too.

I'm sorry you were spoken to badly by A&E but that doctor may have spent the previous 6 hours dealing with terrible tragedies, losses etc and then saw someone with a chronic condition and just lost his temper. I bet he does feel bad about the interaction. A&E can prescribe pain relief so they should have done that at least.

I've read the full thread and am starting to agree with others that OP would rather just complain then do everything she can to try and get the problem sorted. we've all had incidents in healthcare where we have been fobbed off or not got the results we wanted, not saying it's in anyway right but like others have said sometimes you have to be persistent and ensure the professionals know how much pain your in/how unwell you feel. I'm afraid all my sympathy for the OP went with the old fashioned, judgemental comments she made about visiting a GUM clinic 🙄 god forbid either of op's children ever miss out on treatment they need because she has raised them to think going to a GUM clinic is something to be ashamed of.

No sympathy here.
If you harp on at the medical staff the way you do on here then it’s no surprise they’re dismissive of you.
You sound ridiculous. Have you read your own posts? You say you just want someone to look at your “fanjo”. Gross!
Did you stand up for 6 hours in A&E seeing as you can’t sit down?
You said you’re “ all clear for STDs, BV, thrush, UTI, etc. “
How about you just leave your “fanjo” alone. Stop using your “fanjo” as an excuse to skive off work and to have your elderly 80 year old mother look after your kids.

Go to a different A&E.

The two A&E departments in our local North London hospitals (Chase Farm and North Middlesex) are really lovely and very thorough. In fact, we were at A&E yesterday and they were incredibly thorough - doing blood tests/ urine tests/ ECG/ X-ray. I really cannot fault the service we received. In my experience, A&E are always helpful whereas GPs are absolutely useless.

A few people have asked where the pain is. You haven't said.

You describe it as UTI pain. Do you mean abdominal or pain passing urine? You also mention your vagina.

Where actually is the pain?

Is it constant/swelling/tenderness/discharge?

Maybe someone here can make a suggestion? ( As HCP have sent you away)

I’m a nurse. My concern is that it is PID. Not all cases of PID present with high inflammatory markers, white cell counts, or fever; mild cases might not even hurt-it’s also the presumptive diagnosis for young women of reproductive age who have ever been sexually active who present with pelvic/lower abdomen pain. As most, but not all, cases of PID are caused by latent STD infection, OP does need to go to the STD clinic. They’re able to examine and begin treatment there. Untreated PID can have some pretty nasty complications, so if it is PID then OP will need antibiotics, depending on the exact bug.

My suggestion would be that OP doesn’t refer again to “fanjo”, “lying with legs wide open” and GUM clinics for people who “sleep around”.

That may elevate her credibility somewhat, with the medical profession and elsewhere.

You have been seen by 5 medical professionals and presented to A&E. Surely they’re not all incompetent as you seem to suggest. In an earlier post you described your Gp as “crap”.

@JennieTheZebra makes a really good point.

Tell the GUM you've been sexually active (you clearly have at some point) and make an appointment with them.

Sometimes it’s patient attitudes that are a bit “crap”.

And at least 2 of them have said she's needs to be examined, but none of them have. Sounds pretty crap to me.