To think we dont really know

[latte4ever]

Had to go to childrens A&E 2 weeks ago as daughter hurt her wrist.

Arrived at 10pm and waited 5 hours to be seen and it was absolutely rammed full, one parent per child and they were still running out of seats.

Anyways my daughter was sore and getting frustrated and was saying " she doesnt look unwell, He doesnt look unwell" l and I turned to her and said "YOU dont look unwell either" 😂

Anywyas turned out her wrist was infact broken.

But it made me think, there wasnt really any children that looked very unwel but then look at my own child who infact needed to be there.

I see alot of poeple saying we are time wasting in A&E but is that really a main issue.

Also there is no minor injuries unit where we are that sees chidren so A&E was our only option.

So as your child was a confirmed fracture you was right to be there and the other parents shouldn't have been there as their child didn't look unwell?

Nope, read the post again.

im actually saying the opposite

There are 2, both close at 9pm.

• Under 1-year-olds: Go to the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow, Emergency Department
• 1 to 5-year-olds: Go to either the Royal Hospital for Children Emergency Department or Glasgow Royal Infirmary Emergency Department
• 5 to 15-year-olds: Go to your nearest Minor Injury Unit. These are at New Stobhill Hospital, New Victoria Hospital and the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. These units open between 9.00am to 9.00pm every day of the year. For this age group you are likely to get the fastest expert treatment for these injuries here. You will not have to wait for people with serious injuries and conditions to be treated first.

From the op: Also there is no minor injuries unit where we are that sees chidren so A&E was our only option.

A Torus Fracture.

Edit - just looked at the leaflet i was given a Torus (buckle) fracture

Yes I guess the point stands that you can’t always tell by looking what other people are going through.
My 5yr old got something stuck deep in her ear. We had to go through A&E as our GP wouldn’t touch it, local minor injury told us A&E as did 111. She had to have it removed under general days later but and surgery wouldn’t have been booked in without a trip to A&E with an attempted removal first. She was happy as Larry in the waiting room and (rightly) we had to wait hrs to be seen as more urgent cases jumped ahead at times. You wouldn’t think she needed to be there but unfortunately we did.

Yes exactly.

I understood the wait, they were working hard and it was manic, i had no idea who or what emergancies were coming in so im not moaning about the wait.

Just that really people have no idea but are quick to say " they didnt look like they needed to be there"

We don't have a local minor injuries either OP - we are lucky enough to have a pediatric A&E so the children are away from the adults, but it's A&E or nothing after 7pm. And that minor injuries unit is 45 minutes away, whereas A&E is 10 minutes.

I got told to go to A&E for an insect bite last year. The GP had no appointments, the pharmacist wouldn't give me antibiotics because it was hot and spreading and she didn't want to risk it. So A&E it was. I certainly didn't look ill, but I did need urgent treatment.

People shouldn’t judge at all. No one knows what anyone else is going through and you don’t have to look unwell to need to be in A&E. Most people would avoid the place at all costs . However , that said, plenty of time wasters who don’t need to be there do attend for various reasons.

@TheIceBear yes exactly.

If we could have went anywhere else i would have as it wasnt life threatening, also terrible to say but i would have been mortified if it wasnt broken but also didnt want it to be if that makes sense.

Yanbu people who say things like this are idiots. I looked completely fine when I was sat in there with a pulmonary embolism.

There are certainly people who misuse A&E - any A&E doctor will tell you that, and frankly a quick read of some Mumsnet threads where people say 'A&E. Now' in response to queries about minor ailments is enough of an indicator that there are people who go to A&E for fuck-all.

However, you're absolutely right that you can't tell which people they are just by looking at them in the waiting room. To another patient, someone might look outwardly fine with a broken arm. Equally, someone might look rough as a bear's backside and be doubled over clutching their stomach with an ordinary 24-hour tummy bug.

You're absolutely right OP. It's ridiculous that we have got to the point where the general public feel entitled to police other parents accessing medical attention for their child.
The number of people who would sit in A&E with a child for hours for nefarious purposes is very small, so its safe to assume that these are caring parents taking responsibility for getting their sick child seen or checked. Which is far preferable to a sick or injured child going untreated because people are worried about being shamed for it.
It is absolutely not the role of Joe Public to give their lay opion on whether it's 'necessary' or to make parents feel they need to justify themselves. People who use A&E unnecessarily on the regular should have this flagged with their GP by those qualified to state whether it is in fact unnecessary.

I think that @latte4ever was saying the exact opposite - her DD looked 'fine' but had a fracture. Many of the other children 'looked fine' but could have been seriously unwell.

I always think if you're well enough to be able to critique others supposed levels of illness just by observation then you can't be that unwell yourself! When you're in agonising pain you don't care about other people.

When we had to wait ages one time when one son sliced a finger open very deeply (we did try butterfly stitches at home but it didn't work) we had the chat about how triage works and who would be rushed in. Took him for an injury more recently and we were waiting ages again but saw and heard who was being sped in before us - a taxi driver who ran in with someone having a heart attack outside, boom straight through, an elderly woman who collapsed and stopped breathing in the waiting room while her son screamed for help also had immediate attention and was whisked straight through, the police came in with people. It was awful and chaotic and a member of staff came out to say "only one person allowed with each patient" - as if that needs saying but it really did, people were in there with both parents or whole families or a couple of friends.

I always check with 111 first and sometimes we've gone to our more local out of hours or minor injuries unit then been sent up the big hospital A&E. One time one of my children needed emergency surgery and it was great that we'd been seen by the out of ours doc first (after checking with 111 first) as we were referred straight to the ward without an A&E wait.

A lot of conditions or injuries can be not visible to the eye or don't make the patient look unwell but they still really need to be there.

Reminds me of minor injuries with DS. "I've had worse than that" stated much too loudly, much too often.

To be fair, the nurse did make a point of loudly telling the guy (hand wrapped in a tea towel for a very minor cut) that he just needed a plaster.

Another guy claimed his pain level was 9 out of 10. Didn't seem like that as he slouched back in his chair chatting to people on the phone.

Should privatise the NHS to dissaude timewasters.

Great idea. Let's clear the waiting room of all the children who's parents can't afford to get their bones set and their meningitis diagnosed so wealthy anxious parents can be seen quicker.

Reminds me of the Catherine Tate sketch 😂. I looked perfectly fine when I was sat waiting to be checked over with a broken ankle. Had flared trousers on so you couldn't see my ballooned foot/ankle

To be fair, when I was recently in A&E with agonising pain, it was pretty hard not to notice the other patients. I was there for 12 hours and all my treatment had to be done in the waiting room, and when you just want to pass out in a foetal ball on your metal bench while attached to a drip and there's a family of six sitting there right next to you passing a phone round and screeching at the inane TikTok videos they're playing out loud to each other, you can't really help but notice them.

(Admittedly, I'm not disputing that one of them might have needed to be in A&E, it was more the fact that she'd brought five adult relatives with her along for the ride that annoyed me while I was at my lowest ebb.)

Pain isn't the best indicator of how seriously ill someone is. It's the quiet ones you watch. DH looked 'ok' and was asked to wait in the chairs. He actually had quite a severe pneumonia and as soon as they got his blood results and xray, they whisked him into a cubicle.

No, you cannot tell if someone is unwell just by looking at them, I'm sure no one in their right mind would spend hours sitting in A&E with a child if they weren't genuinely worried.

However, I think your real point is that people are there because there is no other real choice. It's so hard to see a GP these days, and even if you do they often send people to A&E anyway.

This happened with both my DF and MIL recently. The tried to see the GP about something and were told to go to A&E. Community health care is completely fucked, where we live anyway.

I'm sorry to hear that. It must've been awful. Yeah the ones playing videos you'd think must be accompanying someone rather than the actual patient. And some people are very inconsiderate. Also I guess if you're in pain it can seem even more annoying. If you're not at the delirious passing out stage of agony yet!

Last time I was there for myself it was such a blur as I'd broken my hip and the EMTs must've told a&e on advance I was in a bad way as they gave a morphine shot straight away. And I was on a trolley thank gawd so no horrible metal chairs.

It's brutal when they won't let you lie on the floor. Though I do understand why. Sometimes it's the chairs that seem the most torturous part of waiting!