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 think many people need to learn to advocate for themselves. The doctor who sends you home as they don't think anything is wrong doesn't spend another minute thinking about you so why worry about being a nuisance? Go back. Fight for yourself.

@Wheredidileavemycarkeys because nothing touches it. I seem to be quite resistant to pain relief and I was the same with a herniated disc

Paracetamol, mefanamic acid, dihydrocodeine, oral morphine is what I'm currently on ... there's no more painkillers they can try and I'm maxed out. There's nothing else they can do for my period pain until I have surgery

@BirthdayRainbow when you feel really ill it is hard to advocate for yourself.

It can be but what choice do you have?

I fight as my kids need me. That makes it easy for me.

I'm on month 7 of pain which leaves me unable to sleep probably,
Only very recently have I got proper answers having been pushed from one department to another, or simply just left.
At least I have finally got an answer and an operation date in place - so the end is in sight all being well.

As for the pain clinic - they still haven't been in touch. I have the referral from weeks and weeks ago. I'm in the list and they've asked to make an appointment, but nothing is available at all on their link at either location. So I'm in yet another waiting list - this is the waiting list to join the actual website to make an appointment. I cannot contact them in person until a date near the end of June, to chase it up. That will be over 8 months just to get to the point of making an appointment - once booked, the appointment looks like it will be another 16 weeks on top.

So we will be talking nearly a year before they will even see me at the pain clinic for the first appointment!

I already have things like cocodamol, diclofenac, etc. and have liquid morphine on and off. These aren't doing much more than dulling the pain. But it's still waking me up during the night every couple of hours, I'm still struggling all day every day. Luckily work are being great about it so although I'm there I can take some time out as and when, and have had to leave early at times when it's got too much.

I'm used to lower level chronic pain due to arthritis for years, but intense chronic pain for months is never acceptable imo.

This 👏👏

You should complain to PALS. Not acceptable treatment and very bad care from both GP and hospital medical staff.

Sexual health clinics also have walk in appointments, so no need to book,just check times.

@Emmerald

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.

Are you not aware that until relatively recent years those now known as pharmacists were known as chemists in this country? The eye roll is a little bizarre...

I don't understand why you are saying you are "stable" when you are also saying that you are experiencing increasingly severe and debilitating pain. The increased pain suggests things are deteriorating.
Are you being clear to the HCPs that your health is actively deteriorating?

What the fuck is wrong with GP surgeries today- can’t get to see one! Yet when I go up to the surgery, waiting room is empty 😩this is since COVID - yet surgery down the road is always full & they see mum no bother- is it that they have got used to the telephone appointments?
my husband had a strangulated hernia misdiagnosed as a simple pulled muscle- ended up at A&E, the doctor there went bloody mental, said did my husband’s Gp not know what a hernia looked like- partner said TBF it was Gp guessing over the phone.. husband operated on morning after.

My GP surgery is great.
The other local one has been taken over by a US conglomerate and is terrible. Privatisation leads to a deterioration in services.

https://x.com/ProfKarolSikora/status/1795093512263704983

Accident and emergency means exactly that. A+E is filled with people who SHOULDN'T be there.

Pain is subjective. I've seen people in absolute tears over a paper cut at A and E....that's not an emergency. They made sure you didn't have any life threatening problems before they sent you home. They did their job.

You've had investigations at the 'crap' GP: "took swabs and urine tests and blood tests, which all came back clear" so they have ruled out any ACUTE issues. Therefore this is routine - routine appointment at my GP surgery is 4 weeks minimum. So you're lucky you got 2 weeks. Maybe if people actually realised how ridiculous these supposed acute issues are and the fact that GPs ar working 12+ hour days dealing with ROUTINE issues as acutes on top of their day job then maybe the public might realise why primary care is struggling.

And to top it off you don't want to go down the STI clinic out of embarrassment.

2 major reasons why you are waiting:

1. 35% of GP appointments per month are wasted because people don't attend, then demand an acute appointment for their issue because they don't want to wait. That means 2 appointments are wasted. That's why there's a wait

1. An 18 doesn't want to start medical school, placements and work experience which is incredibly hard and then spend 8 hours a day being told by patients why they are 'crap' or wrong. Who'd want to end up on tens of thousands of pounds in debt to get shouted at by people who are not even grateful.

Just came across this thread. OP I hope you are ok now? Please update if you can.

The previous post is lacking any empathy. Someone is in such severe agony they cannot function, sit or sleep, and the NHS is saying they will take no further steps towards diagnosis or pain relief for 2 weeks? How does a human being accept that and just lie in agony for 2 weeks?

As an aside, if 35% of appointments are no-shows then why don’t you offer 35% more patients the option to come in each day and wait on standby? Many would jump at the chance.

Yeah I've seen people advising a&e for stuff like insect bites on here. Depends on your pain though? That a&e doctor sounds awful.

But OP doesn’t want to be seen with the riff raff, so let’s ignore the fact doctors already did tests and said it’s not urgent, let’s bash a&e for issues that either the go or the SHCccoukd deal with if only we’d accept pain killers in the meantime or the fact that sexual health clinics provide a valuable service to their communities, and don’t just treat people’s clap, like OP thinks.

Op thinks sexual health clinics are beneath her, so no point suggesting this as she wouldn’t want to be seen dead in one.

Try reading OP's posts. She tried the GUM clinic, the system wouldn't let her book an appointment.

Exactly this. The doctors (often junior) are doing their best but most medical staff do understand that many of the problems and overcrowding in A & E are directly attributable to the terrible and expensive GP service we don't have.
If you are not a doctor how do you know whether something is serious or not?
Wait til you drop down dead?

Op have you had a diagnosis yet?

You don’t need an appointment for the GUM clinic you can walk in between certain hours. You have 3 options got to the gum clinic on walk in; go back to a&e or wait for the gp. Yabu for asking non doctors on the internet for advice and then created a new thread to berate those people for trying to help you. You’re acting like a massive martyr. The comment about people in the gum clinic sleeping around is hugely incorrect and judgemental. Those people tend to be cleaner than the average because they ensure they’re actually clean rather than assuming. The gum clinic do more than just std tests. Pregnancy and std tests, vaginal examination, blood and urine tests and treatment of bv thrush and uti’s that aren’t sexually transmitted and contraception. Even if you aren’t having sex there are stds that can be dormant for years and then present symptoms. STD testing doesn’t always get done for all stds and is usually just for the most common ones so even if you have been tested you may not actually be clear. Please educate yourself and grow up

To give the other side of this, I had severe back ain, and at the same time developed a temperature of 40C. I was disgusted at the idea of even seeing the GP for what I thought was just a virus.By evening I couldn't pee, so called 111. They sent an ambulance and it turned out I had a kidney stone which had blocked a kidney and caused sepsis.

Aargh,fell for a zombie thread!!

Yes, I was just asking if OP got an answer yet…be great if some of these threads got more op updates