To wonder if as many ambulances are called out over the Christmas period

[Thetelly8]

And a&e attendances I would imagine there are less

DD works on paeds A&E and she says Monday mornings on a school day tend to be busier. It’s been very quiet this week. They always get a lot of respiratory issues in, which is something I didn’t really think about before she started working there.

I had to take DD to our urgent treatment centre on Christmas Eve a few years ago after she tipped a kettle fully of freshly boiled water down herself

It was empty, we were the only ones there and we were done and dusted in an hour. We had to go back to change her dressings on Boxing Day and it was pretty empty, but when we went again 2 days later it was heaving

It's very variable and unpredictable.

I've had Christmas days where we literally haven't stopped, and I've had Christmas days when my hungover crew mate slept the entire shift and i watched movies and washed my car.

I don't do nights and haven't for a long time, but my understanding is that Christmas night shifts are incredibly busy.

In my experience Christmas Day is quiet but Boxing Day is busy in A&E - lots of people hanging on and trying to get through Christmas that should probably have attended hospital sooner, some elderly relatives that may not have been seen for a while and then on Christmas Day their loved ones notice that “uncle Bert isn’t right” so bring them in the following day.
(And of course the things that aren’t urgent at all and don’t really need to be in A&E come in now they’ve finished the main festivities)

I think there are genuinely that many time wasters.

Quite.
Most of my children's trips to a&e have been from sporting accidents. Their clubs aren't open over Christmas.

I hate these threads because I spent many years with in-laws who were reluctant to seek medical help for family members to the point it was downright harmful and abusive .

My (now) ex screamed at me and mocked me for wasting resources when I rang 111 and they rang and ambulance for our son. He didn't even apologise when DS was sent straight to HDU

But for every genuine sporting accident there’s an idiot in there who doesn’t need to be.

I had to go to A&E in the early hours of Christmas morning many years ago.

A friend had been allowed to have a party on Christmas Eve while her parents were out. Towards the end of the evening, I was sitting down and a loudspeaker vibrated its way to the edge of the shelf it was on and landed on my head. It was a bloody big speaker and left a gash nearly 2" long on my bonce!

Her parents came home to find about 40 pissed up teens around the house and me sitting in the kitchen bleeding into the sink, while someone was frantically applying pressure in a futile attempt to stop the blood.

Luckily, they'd been driven home by a sober friend, who kindly drove me to A&E where I had 12 stitches, and my BF's dad came and picked me up after collecting my drunken friends. I was the only person in A&E and no-one arrived while I was there, by ambulance or any other means.

There will be drunken mishaps, elderly people taken into hospital etc I'd guess.

My friend works in A&E she says you can set the clock Christmas Day by what type of ‘emergency’ they will get in. It is the same every single year and says.

Ambulance shifts at Christmas generally go like this…..
Christmas Eve - manic, especially in the evening which is usually lots of drinking related and mental health issues.
Christmas Day - early morning flurry of issues as people are waking up (or not). Then Quiet until 2 pm ish when all the older people have been stuffed too full with food and then pass out, a few chokings, then quietens down again until early evening then it’s drink related and domestic violence all night. There’s usually at least one major road accident too.
Boxing day - same as Christmas Day but with the added issues experienced at Boxing Day sales.
New years eve is normal until 11 pm ish then it goes mad and continues all night.
New Year’s Day is quiet in the morning then steadily gets busier.

I used to work in A&E and we used to get less walk ins. If it was icy outside, we'd always get fractured wrists, twisted ankles etc along with alcohol/stress related things.

I had to take my toddler to a&e on the first evening of half term once. We were the only people in the whole paediatric a&e dept. When I expressed surprise the triage nurse laughed and said it’s always like that at the beginning of the school holidays in London a&e departments. Apparently it’s the best time get ill!

The GPs have been awful this year I must admit but these are all people who have been registered with us all year and so can get appointments any time they want (not GP service) but just ignore their symptoms. All men Im afraid. Their wives were bloody fuming because they had to manage christmas without them.

4 of my close family are Ambulance personnel and they say it usually gets busier in the late afternoon evening. They are all working today.

I had to take DS to a paediatric A&E two days ago as he was having a bad wheezing episode. Because it was an emergency we were taken straight through rather than have to wait, but it did seem quite quiet compared to usual. Waiting room had just a couple of families waiting and there were lots of empty treatment rooms. Usually it’s packed.

Years ago the local council decided not to do any gritting to save money. I arrived at work to rows and rows of mostly elderly people with fractured wrists, head injuries, black eyes. Brilliant planning.

I'm sure I've read that the death spike rises after Christmas and New Year - it's usually put down to people hanging on for that little bit but wonder if it's putting off or struggling to access medical care.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25680933

"We know that the peak occupancy weeks are just before and after Christmas - you get a lull during Christmas and hospitals are much emptier because people understandably don't want to go in during that time, but we do find that is also the period where mortality rates reach their peak," says Roger Taylor, director of research at Dr Foster.

"Your risk of death over that period is much higher if you are unfortunate to be admitted to hospital."
The latest figures available show that the highest number of deaths in hospital come in the first two weeks of January, where 4,300 deaths occur weekly - but that's during a time when 80-90,000 people a week are coming to hospital.
In the last week of December, the number of deaths is lower at just over 4,000, but there are only 63,000 people coming in.

Oh I see. Then that is very annoying that they waited until Christmas to get help. And they were presumably feeling very ill as well.
Hope you get a bit of a break now anyway.

My DH had to call 111 last year because he started feeling rough with a sore throat on Christmas Eve and had full blown quinsy by Christmas morning. Within an hour he had been seen by a pharmacist and given antibiotics. There was nobody else in the emergency clinic.

Going back a few years now but I used to work in ambulance control.

Christmas Day - generally very q-word. I'd volunteer for Christmas day overtime every year; double time for easy work. Downside - everyone calling was very ill, and never fun to take a cardiac arrest call on Christmas Day.

Boxing Day - not quite a normal day but busier.

27th December - Vile.

30th and 31st December - the absolute worst.

GP surgeries closed so folk turn to the ambulance service. It’s usually a mad period for us all
working in front line health care.

I’m not so sure. I’ve had one Xmas where an ambulance took minutes, and the following one took over an hour - which was horrendous , both seizures. We were lucky there wasn’t a worse outcome tbh

Our maternity triage (essentially a&e for anything pregnancy-related) is always much quieter at Christmas time

Really?! 2 years ago, I had to take an elderly relative to A&E on Boxing Day, we got there before midday and he was admitted about 9pm. That was a long bloody day in a busy waiting room...