To share ways to make A&E more bareable

[silvershark22]

Given lots of people find the 12 hour plus waits in A&E tough wondering what things make it barable.

Mine is an oodie can vbe warn if in a draftie place or rolled into hood to make a pillow or sat on to make uncomfortable chairs better.

longest i’ve ever waited is 2.5 hours

what were you in A&E for?

Charged devices
Bottled water
Travel sweets
Baby wipes

I find hospitals drying places

Take a phone charger with you, water, snacks and a book.

Sounds like you go to a great A&E were@verifyinhuman you admitted when you went or was it more things in minors? I have been there with a kidney stone, sepsis, ruptured ovarian cyst etxc. At poibnts have been left on chairs while on ivs, sometines having to share the drip stand with others. Collapsing from pain exaustion and low bp doesn't always get a trolley in mine. @v@v

How frequently are you attending A&E?

To teach people that A stands for accident and E stands for emergency so if their issue doesn't qualify they go to a minor injuries unit or book a GP appointment.

They only keep you waiting 12 hours where I am if you're injury isn't high risk and can wait.

Otherwise just take a good book.

Agree on taking a phone chargetr a power bank is also great if you have one. Always felt vending machines could make a fortune vending powerbanks and phone chargers.

Are we sure we’re talking about A&E here because it’s starting to sound more like a trip to a theme park?

I can't fathom a situation where A&E was required but I'd also have time to pack up a bag of miscellaneous stuff.

Or the rare occasion I or a member of my family have been to A&E it's been in a rush, because there's been an accident or an emergency.

Over the last couple of years @Starlingexpress I have been a few times. This has either been with myself or others but have all resulted in admissions and emergency surgery.

Famously a clinical manager at an A&E walked into a packed waiting room and said, "all those who can stand up without pain etc please do so". They excitedly did thinking they were going to be seen first.

She then said "All go home. You are neither accident nor emergency".

Charged Devices

'Yes I know I've cut my finger off but my phone's on 64% so if we can just wait an hour until I've bumped it up to 95% then we can go'

🤯

check out the Op’s history

it would appear… a lot

Make sure we’ve got change for the vending machine. It’s the only place we can get those limited edition pickled onion crackers’

You say that, but last year when DP cut his arm very badly at work we started out at minor injuries who decided it wasn't something they should stitch due to the nature of the injury, and sent him to A&E... He was walking and talking fine, but it did need stitching ASAP and I'm not sure where else would have been appropriate!

Even the paramedics putting DM into an ambulance checked that she had her phone charger.

Most accidents are not life-threatening. The vast majority of my time sat in A&E is with kids with potentially broken bones - I always make sure to pack a bag!

OP I would respectfully suggest that if you haven’t already done so, you have a look at information about health anxiety and how to manage that.

If you feel you don’t have any type of health anxiety you really do need to think about the appropriateness of the healthcare that you chose to access in any given situation.

We had to take DF there twice the other week for a nose bleed. He's on blood thinners and has various health issues so it's an apparently minor but potentially very serious problem. He'd had a couple which we'd dealt with before but this was worse.

The GP no longer offers a packing and cauterisation service and told him to go to A&E

We tried the local minor injuries with the same response. We don't do it - go to A&E

We applied some DIY packing and trundled off the local major hospital. The bleeding did eventually stop before he seen and he was sent home untreated with instructions to come back if it happened again.

We were back the next day with the worst yet - this time they did the quick cauterisation procedure he needed and all is fine. Why on earth GPs no longer do this beats me. DF did not need a full A&E service but that was the only place where he could be treated. No wonder it's collapsing under the weight of numbers using it

@TwinklyAmberOrca when was your most rescent attendence. I have often experienced being seen relitively quickly after but there just being nowhere to put people. This results in being treated on the chairs i even saw an elderly man in his 80s being sent back to sit on chairs. Clearly had quite a bad infection as was being given antibiotics and fluids IV. His son was begging for somewhere for him to lie down and the staff were saying this couldnt happen until he got to a ward, but know he had been waiting 210 hours and just didnt know when a ward bed would become available.

I felt if able to care enough about it being boring to want a good book, then maybe you aren't that sick.

Well that's obviously nonsense. At least half of my A&E visits are for broken arms!

(And yes, we use minor injuries if possible, but it's only open 8-8, and they don't have x-ray facilities every day)

Really? I doubt that. Last time I was in A and E I was sent there by the OOH GP because I'd tripped and smacked my head on a doorpane, resulting in a split in my forehead that needed stitching. It didn't even hurt that much, but it was gaping and obviously not going to close, and though I asked if there wasn't a minor injuries I could go to, they said the minor injuries unit had closed. So I went, and of course I waited hours, as I should have, because I was hardly on death's door. But it did have to be stitched, and there was nowhere else to do it. I even asked the GP if she'd do it, but she said she didn't do stitches. I felt quite apologetic when I finally saw the doctor, but they completely understood, and agreed with me that whilst a minor injuries clinic would have been preferable, there wasn't one!

Observed from my last visit to A&E after MIL broke her hip....Don't take the whole extended family with you. Mum, Dad, Granny and 3 kids taking up 6 seats in A&E waiting room while genuinely ill/injured people were sitting on the floor. Oh, and the reason for this family being in A&E was 'Jaydin' fell and hurt his leg, same child that was running riot, squealing and having a great time so definitely did not have a broken leg!

Another tip, unless you are dying, heart attack type thing, or bleeding to death, try calling NHS24 first as they might put you in a virtual A&E queue and you go down to the hospital for a pre agreed slot (not sure if that's just a thing in Scotland though?).

If you have a broken arm you wouldn’t be able to stand up without pain 😉

When you can stand without pain but you're having a reaction to chemo, A&E is still the right place to go, in fact it's the place the chemo unit direct you to, and even give you a priority treatment card.