To think some things should just be turned away from A&E?

[ifallinlove]

I saw a channel 4 video about a day in a&e during the heatwave.

The first guy seen was a bloke who had decided to walk across hot tarmac to get food while at the beach and now had burns on the bottom of his feet.

He said he had “forgotten to get shoes”. I’m sorry but it’s been 35 degrees for at least two weeks now. There is no way on earth that you “forget” to put shoes on. He made the decision to do it and now sought emergency care.

AIBU to say things like this should be redirected to minor injuries and the appropriate referrals made from there? It’s his own stupidity taking up a bed in a&e!

I’d hope that anyone waiting in A&E is there for good reason…anyone that is there for the likes of your example should be referred to the appropriate dept.
my family member was 8th in the ambulance queue last week… until they came to the ambulance did a blood test and realised they’d had a heart attack so obviously they were moved quickly then but it was awful to think had they not triaged in the back of the ambulance the wait they’d have had 😬

I like the idea of staff printing off advice and explanations of a patient's condition as it appears quite a number of patients are ignorant of what their real problem is and how to deal with it. Whenever I've had to be in A&E, usually accompanying someone else, I've been amazed at the amount of people who could have just seen a chemist or GP instead and with problems I would never have bothered A&E for - the service is in the name. Meanwhile those in agony and distress just have to suck it up.

Would someone who had a mental health crisis and attempted to take their own life, be a waste of time too because it was “self-inflicted”?

No, we should not need to pass a purity test to access a service that is paid for through taxation.

Are you medically qualified to judge people as just needing to see a chemist or a GP ? Or do you even know why they haven’t ?

I really like the idea of staff printing off advice and explanations of a patients’ condition too. Would make it much easier to sue when they got it wrong.

During Covid I developed a serious dental infection. Pharmacy directed me to dentist. I couldn't get an appt with the dentist. I went to A&E where they gave pain relief and said I needed to go through 111. I phoned 111 over 10 times trying to get an emergency dental appt - multiple times a dental nurse failed to contact me, and when one did, they laughed at me over the phone and said I clearly didn't have an infection and would not be referred for an appointment.

Eventually had to call an ambulance and was blue lighted in for an extended hospital stay with sepsis.

It's easy to dismiss someone at first glance, but you could cost them their life.

As a counterpoint to this and in no way diminishing the hideous pain.

The first bout of hideous kidney pain which may or may not have been a stone we never found as well as an infection I left without even booking in as I couldn’t be arsed with the 4hr wait in that much pain. Granted I didn’t get far before I stopped off at minor injuries.

with the infected, obstructed one a year later that required the stent and went ‘a bit septic’ I was fine enough to laugh and joke with the staff and to a book prepared for the long wait.

I definitely remember joking around with a colleague when I had the sepsis from the pyelonephritis that I was really really sick from.

I’m not sure that judging other people on what you may think is or isn’t wrong with them is the way forward. As far as I am aware the RCEM caution against this. The fact the system is creaking/broken isn’t the fault of the people using it. As much as it benefits successive governments to convince people it is.

It's possible to keep fit without playing sports, without the dangerous competitive element.

The last couple of times DS 14 was in A&E, he swallowed a 50p piece when he was 11, and this year it ended up being Gilbert syndrome. Neither time was he screaming or crying. First time he needed an operation to remove the coin because it was sitting upright between the 2 tubes, second time they ran 4 blood tests because he had jaundice and they had no clue what was wrong with him. You can't diagnose someone by looking at them.

But people enjoy playing sports. If no one did, then there would be no Olympics, World Cup etc.

I was in A&E a few weeks ago. The sheer number of people who have a whole entourage with them is astounding.
Theres no space for seating as it is let alone once you get called in.
An elderly lady had her son, his wife and two other women. The wife and other women were sitting in a another part.
The nurse called in the patient to the room and they all decided they needed to go in too.

The nurse said only one person and the rest would have to wait in the main waiting room outside not even this waiting room. I including other patients didn’t even have a seat.

The man said his wife was also a patient so should stay here! The nurse went away and catback to ask her to show him her wrist band which she clearly didn’t have and told off!

I hate to say it but most of these people who come with 3+ people are ethnic minorities and before I get flamed for being racist I am from one of these ethnic minorities.

If the triage system worked properly it shouldn't really make any difference.....

Not my point; the pp used sport as a reason for self inflicted injuries. The cost to benefit ratio. I was just stating it's possible to keep fit without being competitive.
No World Cup would be rather lovely, however........

The biggest hospital near me has minor injuries inside a&e. You are triaged in a&e and they decide if you go to minor injuries. There is another minor injuries unit a couple of towns over but they’re only open 9am-3:30pm Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays and is appointment only.

YABU btw. Many injuries and illnesses that arrive in a&e are probably self inflicted in some way. One of daughter’s then teenage friends got so drunk she needed hospital treatment. Entirely self inflicted (apart from the idiot who bought her the vodka and god knows what else). The alternative to the good people of a&e pumping her stomach or whatever they did for her, was to leave her unconscious in the park to possibly die. But she did it to herself so…

@ifallinlove you are aware that some places don't have separate minor injury units? Where I live we have A&E and then you are triaged into minors and majors dependent on issue.

My local hospital has A&E, and an urgent treatment centre (which is only open 7am-10pm).
You have to access either departments through the same door, and it turns out we do have a triage person on the door (Clinical Navigator) who will signpost you to the right place.
I did not know about this as my last visit was via ambulance. I just had a look on their website.

Whereas here it’s A&E for anything that can’t be dealt with by your GP.

They are the only two available options, so A&E is the only option for anyone visiting the beach or the likes and ends up with a minor injury.

I agree. I was at a dinner last week and another guest had hurt her finger earlier in the day. Small wound, wasn’t bleeding nor in need of stitches.

could have done with a bit of antiseptic cream and a bandaid. She was able to use her utensils as normal.

she intended to go to A & E the next day, and of course there was a mown about the anticipated delay..

August 24 and DH had been going into work with back pain for about a week. DH boss said to another colleague drive him to A & E to get it looked at and I’ll pay you both for the day. DH walked in and said it was back pain which he thought was muscular but as he’d had Cauda Equina once before which ended with a disc being removed and a second one shaved his boss wanted him to get it checked out. I finished work at 1pm that day and saw a message from DH saying phone me when you can and at that point he was in the waiting room waiting on a scan. They called in the on call surgeon at operated at 8pm that night. It was Cauda Equina again and the disc they shaved the first time had split into three pieces. Most people would have assumed it was just muscular and put it off but the doctor said if he had waited another day or two he may not have been walking again. Cases like DH are why they always check just in case what at first appears to be a minor injury isn’t something more serious.

The last time I was in A & E was after falling down a flight of stairs at work head first and landing on my back. The stairs were stone, it was a tiled floor at the bottom and I split my leg open down to the muscle but somehow kept my head off the floor. I also damaged an elbow and wrist in the fall but that is probably what saved my head. It took internal and external stitches to put my leg back together again. DH asked the nurse as he was stitching it together if it would have healed on its own. The nurse said that eventually yes it would have but it would have taken months, looked far messier than it does when healed and stitching it means if properly dressed infection is less likely to get in. My leg is mess but I can still walk so should I not have gone to A & E?

This is proof that you never know what has happened behind closed doors, some people become excellent at masking for all different reasons.

one example was an elderly person who had a fractured NOF or neck of femur yet had been walking around for 2weeks since the ‘minor fall’!

I was in a and e in January. I had a nasty rash on my face and felt really unwell so I went to my GP who I managed to see. He told me it was simply a 'viral rash'.
That night my face absolutely ballooned and I struggled to breathe so reluctantly asked dh to call an ambulance- second time in my 60 plus years. Long story short I had a facial cellulitis which was about 10 minutes from being full blown sepsis, was in hospital for 10 days on horrific antibiotics and have had to have some complicated surgery recently caused by it.
I had been to the gp who basically got it wrong and felt silly going to a and e but thank god I did.

There doesn’t seem to be any triage now. I accompanied my 94 year old dad who was sent there by ambulance after falling and gashing his head. We waited 9 hours for the cut to be glued, it took less than 3 minutes.
I have a friend who went to A&E with constipation ( she had already had medication from her doctor) instead of sending her away they let her wait. The place is full of people who shouldn’t be at A& E.

Paramedics triage on scene and sign post appropriately ( self care, GP, DNs , social care or advised own transport to ED) or transport to ED. If you are being transported to ED in an Emergency Ambulance the chances are you are quite unwell and will be given priority, but you are still triaged at hospital arrival and may well end up sat in the waiting room. If a “drunk or druggie” requires one to one nursing care they too are probably quite unwell and in all probability are not being “dropped off “ by the local plod as they are overwhelmingly busy also.

And some people are feeling unwell enough that they just can't cope with hours more at A&E and just want to crawl into bed