To think 70% of people shouldn’t be in A&E

[PrettyPleaseXo]

Recently I was admitted in excruciating pain to A&E due to kidney stones. Over the time I was there it got progressively busier as expected and there was corridor care (I was stuck in a corridor without pain relief and crying in pain for two hours) and ambulances backed up out the door.

When I was discharged and went back out through the A&E reception/wait room I couldn’t help but notice
that 80% of the people sat there looked perfectly fine, chatting etc and didn’t appear to be in either an accident or emergency.

AIBU to think that unless you’re seriously unwell, in acute pain or have an injury that needs immediately addressing you should be turned away from A&E and told to go
to the GP instead?

Mine apparently does as I was there when she was given it, I was also give when I was admitted to a ward

100% nowhere else to turn to

According to some, probably asked the neighbour to remove it!

My local a&e won't give you paracetamol, I was there with GS after a sports injury, x-ray was clear so they said elevate and take paracetamol. I was advised to go to the 24 hr Asda in a neighbouring town when I said I didn't think I had any.

Our A&E gives painkillers. I was offered paracetamol and ibuprofen in triage when I broke my elbow but had already taken them at home. I was also given a box of co-codamol on discharge. I don’t think it’s easy to tell who qualifies for A&E and who doesn’t. When I was there with my broken elbow I bumped into a school mum who had been called to collect her daughter with a suspected broken wrist. I had my 7 year old with me as I had nowhere to leave him. We weren’t sitting moaning in pain, so probably looked as if we were there for the fun of it but we both needed to be there.

Yeap, the option to book appointments for small issues does help to prevent the escalation to A&E. They only need to provide the service. But, as it stands today, many places do not have this option.

I meant they won't give it to you to take home. I was given paracetamol when I was waiting to be seen, I had pneumonia, but if you need some at home you buy it.

I was sent home with a big box of paracetamol when I was discharged from hospital last week! Even the nurse said I must be special, as they usually tell you to go to Home Bargains! They don't help with the pain that much, I have to combine them with the codiene to have an effect!

Conversely I was in agony following a car crash a couple of days earlier, which left my car in pieces. It was bad abdominal pain. I went to A&E bent over and crying in agony and was told I wasn’t a suitable patient. I was sent to another department manned by just one GP. After a seven hour wait, he said I had a serious injury. It was a ruptured diaphragm and the contents of my abdomen were in my chest. I’m having major surgery this week. This GP was horrified that A&E had turned me away and said he sees serious cases like mine every day because they just don’t want to see so many patients and unload them on his clinic. How patients with minor ailments get seen in the Emergency Department I don’t know.

I think the OP is partly right and partly wrong. Years ago you didn’t go to a&e with minor things but these days there are fewer other options and people are less clued up on what needs a&e. But also - I was in A&e with basically post menopause haemorrhaging twice. Apart fro
the towel I was sitting on and that I was pale and quiet you wouldn’t have known

A&E covers mental health emergencies too. These people can look fine if you are just passing by.

Oh! I understand now, no she sat there and took them.

Indeed I have for the same reason 😳.

I was also told by the GP to go to get an ear bud removed. I did go in at what I thought would be a quiet time and it was indeed quiet

My local a&e have a mixed waiting room for urgent care. Some most are not there for intense kidney pain often infections. Last time I was there was because of a hernia not eating and falling down the stairs as so dizzy. The staff was great but nowhere to put me, people on beds everywhere I only copped as had my walker. Breastfeeding as well. Luckily they found something wrong with tummy and I'm feeling better thanks to a&e. This has been missed by gps for 2 years I've had the hernia pains!

yes you are disgusting.

I went to A&E nearly passing out with a badly broken arm. The man in front of me at the desk was with his wife who said to the nurse he was there with 'anxiety'.

I have endometriosis and adenomyosis (currently waiting for a hysterectomy however there is a long wait).
Before I got referred to a pain management consultant , I would have excruciating pain flare ups . Thankfully I have only had to attend A&E a few times in the two decades of suffering with these conditions. I only present at A&E after hours of excruciating pain, where every movement causes severe pain.
People with chronic health conditions should not be having to attend A&E for pain management… the problem lies with waiting for specialist care and how people are coping in the mean time. Before I get any sarky comments , strong opiates were not cutting it , and my GP and nhs 111 directed me to A&E.

I must say i disagree. As a daughter to an 83 yr old who we have been to see the GP 3 times this week with vomiting for days, and tremendous pain our GP sent us to A&E... we came earlier in the week (sent by GP) left after 5 hours not seen, here again today, at 4 hours not seen.

Is my mother entitled to not be screaming in pain at 83? i'd say yes. Do we want to be here? no.

But, this is our way to get her into the hospital system. The GP sent us, on a weekday.

Totally agree with you . I split my head open after collapsing on the floor and waking up in a pool of blood. I sat in an and e for 15 hrs and watched people come in with broken finger nails, ordering take a ways and just generally having a nice outing. Made me do cross as most should have just sorted a lot of their ailments themselves

I agree. My daughter had ongoing abdominal pains. GP referred her for an urgent scan. That was 5 weeks ago and she has heard nothing. GP did say that if the pain got severe, she should go to A&E.

My 91 year old dad couldn't swallow. His urgent referral took 4 weeks.

If you go to A&E you are likely to get scans straight away.

It's not about jumping the queue, but people needing access to medical treatment now, not having to wait months for so called "urgent" treatment.

That’s ridiculous. No one goes to a&e as an outing.

There are people who chronically abuse the NHS I've known people go to a&e for a cut finger my mum was in not so long ago with issues that ended up being cancer and there were several people there that obviously spend the majority of their time there. The staff knew them well unfortunately the caregivers have to follow rules and aren't allowed to just send them on their way.

I’ve unfortunately been in A&E quite a few times over the past two years not for myself but with close family. Before that, I’d not been for years and I was shocked to my core to find a situation like the third world with a clear lack of resources and yes people there that shouldn’t have been. The patients ranged from death imminent very elderly, people obviously poorly, people obviously injured etc. to someone with a sore finger (it had been sore for 3 weeks but they’d decided not to go to the GP or chemist), an attention seeking man in too small high heels with pains in his feet (I’m not kidding), a woman with a hair growing out of a mole and that had apparently never happened before, several people with headaches / migraines. I also witnessed a lady screaming intermittently in agonising pain from gallstones who was unable to walk, begging for help to the toilet, she kept being told to wait and she couldn’t hold it, so she peed all over the floor, they soon helped then! They failed to give one of my loved ones the necessary care and as a direct consequence, they now have a life long debilitating condition. It’s truly a place to avoid unless there is no alternative.

Playing devil's advocate all the people insisting they've seen people with a paper cut/broken nail etc or regular visitors going there for an outing - potentially these people have health anxiety or a MH problem (that obviously should be treated outside of A and E) because I literally can't believe people are going (and spending literally hours there) just for the fun of it. ...

Some people certainly shouldn’t be in A&E and mainly it’s some of the relations or friends
of some patients. One patient and one friend or relation would work well but for some people, A&E seems to be a social outing.

I broke my leg one Sunday afternoon recently and while I waited in a busy London A&E, a woman was there who had been in A&E for several hours. She had refused the medical care that was offered by the staff but then refused to go home.

She was accompanied by her increasingly bad tempered partner, three children under 10 and her mother. It was difficult to see why she needed to be accompanied by more than one adult, as from what she said they all lived locally, and the other adult could have gone home with the children.

Another apparently very mobile patient was there with three boisterous friends who ordered takeaway food which made some people feel even more nauseous than they already were.

Both sets of people were rude and insulting to staff and other patients.

Am very pleased that my own days of working in A&E are long gone!

I’m always baffled by the things people go to A+E for, however I think a big part of it is the reduction in other healthcare services, like the closure or reduced hours of minor injury units and lack of available GP appointments. I also think 111 send people there at the drop of a hat.