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.

Where’s your nearest urgent care centre? That’s where I would be heading. Check online, some want you to call ahead or make an appointment. NHS 111 can also make an appointment for you as well as have a dr ring you. That’s what happened when I had severe stomach bug and was passing out every time I went to the toilet. They won’t leave you in pain and if it’s a UTI you will need antibiotics soon before it becomes a kidney infection. Then complain to your doctors surgery.

I agree with this too

That. I am absolutely baffled that doctors don’t see their patients anymore but only if they invite them too.

Go to a walk in centre or change your GP. Not ideal but a work around.

You can walk into any pharmacy to get advice and treatment from the pharmacist including for uti's. You can buy antibiotics for uti's from online pharmacies like superdrug.

Can you look up bartholins cyst/bartholins abscess and see if the symptoms match. This is what it sounds like to me. If this is the case the nurse. Could take a swab and hopefully get you the antibiotics you need. Sorry you are struggling so much

She is already on antibiotics. They can't change them without knowing what infection they are treating, but her swabs and bloods are negative for infections.

It sounds much more like vaginal atrophy. Symptoms can be exactly like a bad uti. Very common in menopausal women.

Surely pain that makes you sob is an emergency

Why would it be an emergency? There are lots of people in pain every day that makes them sob.

While I agree that A&E is vastly abused… I think you were right to go there. You have tried your GP. (Personally I would have then escalated to 111) but failing this, yes, go to A&E. Pain is not a reason in itself for a visit, but the cause of the pain can very much be so! Hope you’re feeling better soon OP.

Don't vote Tory in July.

My friend had something where she couldn't lie down and was loosing feeling in her bottom and it ended up being cauda equina. She needed an emergency operation.

I'd phone the GP surgery daily.

Ring 111 may take while but a and e is only emergencies they have to have limits now as people are waiting 12 hours

It's awful. Instead of a robust amd accountable primary care system, we have GPs in overwhelm, who then essentially ration care.

The overspill goes to A&E.

If we had an adequately funded system, they could insist on performance standards as part of the contract. Then imagine if GPs were penalised for every person who went to A&E inappropriately. A&E could turn them away, but require the GP to provide an urgent appointment to deliver the care they need in an urgent but non-emergency setting.

But the government knows that every part of the NHS is now threadbare and half functioning. This leads to gaps in capacity that they can't insist are managed because they aren't funded.

The Tories destroyed it, but didnt guve us an alternativewhere you can choose to receive decent care if you can afford to. I just hope Labour can do better. Either abolish it or fund it, but don't leave us in this impossible limbo.

It could be hormonal as others have said. Can be triggered suddenly and feel agonising. It took me about 5 months to see someone physically & I don’t know how I lasted but ovestin or vagirux are options for this. Amytryptyline may help. Use a cream such as emollin spray or an ointment. Try googling for vulval eczema treatment. Sorry you are in such pain-it’s awful.

I think this was just an unfortunate bad experience and the treatment you get can very much depend on put luck and staff on shift. Just because one Dr didn’t take you seriously doesn’t mean another won’t. I also think you just need to be persistent and advocate for yourself, if you get fobbed off keep going back and complaining until you don’t and they find a cause. When I was in crippling pain and could barely stand for months, I almost lost my job, I kept ringing and going to the GP, I kept ringing 111 and getting out of hours appointments and I kept turning up at A&E when I couldn’t get those or felt fobbed off. I got told by every doctor I saw that it couldn’t possibly be endometriosis, I got told by a gynaecologist that A&E sent me to it couldn’t possibly be endometriosis because I didn’t scream whilst high on morphine when she poked my cervix and referred me to urology (who found other gyne issues), I got told in the end by an ex - gyne GP that they had literally ran out of things to test me for and I was a medical anomaly! She told me it could not be endometriosis because my symptoms didn’t match (google told me it very much could be), I stood my ground and insisted on a referral before giving up on me, what was there to lose at this point they may as well just appease me if only to rule it out and prove me wrong so they did. I opted for an appointment with a specialist in a different district, he agreed my symptoms could very well be that, following scans I was diagnosed with severe endometriosis and booked for surgery. As part of my condition I kept getting re-occurring UTI’s, but they never showed up on dip tests it took turning up at A&E more than once to actually get them to do a culture. Persistence pays off. I am now well managed and largely pain free. Don’t allow one bad experience with one Dr stop you from pushing for help. Call your GP every day at opening, Call 111 to get an OOH appointment, go back to A&E the next Dr may be nicer, try going to a different hospital if needs be. If you are in so much pain you can’t work, can’t sit down or most importantly can’t look after your kids adequately then yes I would deem it urgent.

I was in hospital last week for a planned surgery.. stayed in overnight as it was major surgery… woman in the bed next to be went to A&E with excruciating pain and was admitted, they kept her in for 3 days and did scans… so although your A&E doctor was a bit of a knob, they all aren’t!
I’d still recommend anyone in pain to go to A&E….
Someone else I know couldn’t get gp appointment and went to A&E was diagnosed there as terminally ill.
All I’d suggest to you is calling you GP’s at 8am and get urgent appointment?

I've thought for a long time if doctors actual surgeries were open for 24 hours things would be easier. As it is it's going to a different place to see a stranger, walk in centre, etc.

It really depends where you live though. We have a and e 30 minutes in 1 direction and urgent care (not 24 hours) 30 minutes in the other direction. And that is it. I once went to a and e, knowing that the urgent care was about to close, then after 6 hours I got shouted at by the doctor for not going to urgent care. When I politely pointed out that it was 1-closed and 2- 50 miles away, he just hmmphed and said how should he know that .

Can't you go to an urgent treatment centre which is a sort of go between?

If you still can't get into your GP tomorrow call 111 and tell them you need a GP and can't get into your own, they will get you into a doctor.

This. I've been the patient admitted from A&E with severe pain before, more than once. Sorry you had such a shit experience OP.

I’d ask gp/nurse for stronger painkillers, as it is clear that paracetamol is not doing the job.

I would have yelled back at him! Pain is an emergency especially if you don't know what's causing it! Twat of doctor!! They had zero right to speak to you like that, extremely unprofessional!