To be annoyed at friend for taking her kid to A&E so often

[sellotape12]

We live at the top of a road and at the end is our local hospital. I have a fairly new Mum friend from preschool. A big personality, (possibly her Spanish roots) and quite the drama queen. I feel myself getting very very mildly irritated because she literally takes her kid to A&E every single month.
In the past 2-3 months she and her husband have taken the kid to A&E for

• A fever. Hospital sent them home and said just use Calpol and get rest.
• A bad repetitive cough. She was sent home for bed rest
• A graze on her nose after she fell from a scooter. Could’ve been treated at home with basic first aid.
• “Pains in her leg”. A&E doctors said it was growing pains.
• fever from the injection site after having preschool jabs.

Each time we get the full story and I think she expects a flurry of attention. This isn’t a panic or anxious person who suffers from hypochondria. She treats the hospital as if it’s a walk-in GP clinic because of its proximity.

I’m pretty sure that in every single case she could’ve just googled it or used the helpful NHS website. I feel annoyed that she’s wasting the resources of actual urgent medical cases, but I don’t know if I’m being unreasonable in having this eye roll! How would you feel?

But let's face it, the NHS is a bit shit and these days if your leg has fallen off , you'd probably be lucky if the cleaner put a dab of bleach on the wound.

To be fair being seen the same day isn't an unreasonable expectation. A few weeks ago my son had otitis and was crying from the pain. Like hell was I going to let him suffer all day because no doctors could see him. Thankfully where I live I was able to get him seen at once. I did have to pay but my insurance reimbursed me.

Your not-friend clearly is a bit anxious around health and probably wasting her time (though we'd have to see the actual scrape to be fair), but the UK system does sound horrible based on what people say here ? I say this as a staunch supporter of socialized healthcare. I think it's awful that in the US diabetics don't get access to insulin and people die or see their quality of life impacted because they can't afford it.

There is a subreddit dedicated to hospital bills and it's frankly sobbering.

They called an ambulance for that??? As an ex ambulance staff employee that is ridiculous. Id like to think the crew told her a thing or two. I would have done.

Where I am in eu, people called ambulance when a man fell off his bike. He was fine 😶he got a whole checkover and then was released from the ambulance to go home. Imagine having resources for that! On top, when there's nothing else going on - I've seen them helping in a&e so giving medication, checking on stats and going to get the Dr if needed. It blows my mind!

I know adults who do exactly the same, it’s not a successful week without a trip to A&E.

They are problem doing that because they haven't officially handed the patient over to A/E staff and are waiting to do so. The patient remains under Ambulance care until signed over. They are not necessarily helping out in A/E and I have never heard of that happening, probably for insurance reasons.

She’s talking about a different country though. Where I live, a nurse comes on the ambulance rather than a paramedic, for example, but I haven’t heard of that in the UK

Eastern Europe? That’s surprising considering it’s considered the poorest part of Europe. Lucky them to have specialists available with such ease

I think things have changed a little in the last years; some parts of the UK would love to have the living standards of parts of Eastern Europe now.

I don’t disagree with that and to think how rich the UK apparently is, yet poorer countries clearly use their money better and make things better for their citizens. Our government should take note.

We get the government we vote for and many people in the UK (and worldwide) are increasingly persuaded to vote in opposition to their own interests.

I agree with that too, however I will add that the choices we have are all shight, so it’s like picking the best of a bad bunch! The whole system needs overhauled

I work in an acute Trust. This kind of behaviour is what is crippling hospitals - BUT GPs absolutely need to shoulder a lot of the blame. If people could get appointments more easily they wouldn’t be attending A&E for minor injuries and illnesses. To be fair, our GP surgery is pretty good especially where children are concerned. Why isn’t she using a walk in centre instead? A&E is meant to be for life threatening injuries/conditions, bone breaks etc. I’m amazed she isn’t immediately turned away by triage.