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!

Thank the lord you aren't in charge of triage then.

What kind of sicko are you?

I’m just a normal person who is aware that when it’s hot, it’s too hot to walk barefoot on tarmac.

If it “burnt down to the bone” that implies a long, long time stood on the surface. It don’t occur to him at any point to slip a pair of shoes on?

He accidentally stood on the surface and it very quickly burned him. It's not easy to get your feet off a surface when they're burned.

I don't understand why you're asking these questions though. Are you saying he deliberately burned his feet or what?

Drunken falls and burnt feet ARE genuine accidents and emergencies.

you’re trolling us now

I’m saying that I find it hard to believe someone forgot to
put shoes on and burned themselves down to the bone.

Nevertheless, the fact it was appropriately managed at home shows it wasn’t an a&e matter.

No they’re not! A drunken fall doesn’t need a&e unless a head injury is involved. A swollen ankle can 9 times out of 10 be dealt with at home.

It’s not hard to believe though is it? You saw this exact situation on the tv and started a thread on it, so you know it happens

I would’ve thought that “drunken” fall is clearly a fall when drunk- anything from a sprained ankle to a fractured skull. The fact that they were drunk isn’t the decider as to whether they need a&e

It was not managed at home. He is permanently scarred and the fact that it didn't get horribly infected is a miracle. There is no way he should have treated it himself.

You are a total idiot.

Of course it is. People abuse a&e and we should have a zero tolerance policy for it.

That’s not true that every hospital with an A&E department has a minor injuries clinic or equivalent. My local hospital certainly doesn’t.

He wasn’t burned down to the bone. I suspect the PP is exaggerating slightly.

What is actually wrong with you? If I fell when I was drunk and had a massive swollen ankle that doesn’t require treatment but if I fell when sober and had the same swollen ankle it would?

In contrast we only have minor injuries. The nearest hospital with A&E is a 30 minute drive away.

Oh do get over yourself, you have absolutely no idea what someone is going through or why they’re there just from looking at them; it isn’t the A&E olympics where everyone needs to perform.

I have Ulcerative Colitis and was in A&E for 18 hours before I finally got a bed and I also ended up needing surgery; I was in hospital for 10 days altogether. I was also chatting away and laughing with my partner as it was a way to distract myself from the pain and heavy bleeding (it was coming out of my arsehole and being soaked up by pads so no one would know unlike vomiting into a bag and I actually needed a blood transfusion so it wasn’t minor). I also very nearly left too as the wait was getting too much for my mental health but considering my subsequent treatment, if I had left, it would not have been a sign that I “obviously wasn’t unwell”. Sometimes when you’re very unwell, you have a limit on how much you can handle and make bad decisions.

You say you were on your hands and knees in absolute agony vomiting (I don’t doubt it as I’ve had kidney stones) yet you obviously still had the wherewithal to clock and be disgusted at what other people were doing, count at least 5 people who left before being seen and also recall conversations you’d heard - that’s what you did with your spare capacity; I on the other hand couldn’t tell you what other people were doing when I was there because my spare capacity went into chatting to my partner - the difference in behaviour or focus does not mean one person is sicker than another. I’ve had IBD since I was 8 years old so I’ve developed ways to cope and distract from what I’m going through.

As someone who has several hidden disabilities, I’m sick of people who don’t have a clue judging.

In my experience, people who spout off about 'zero-tolerance policies' almost never apply them to themselves or their families.

We all do stupid things sometimes. My last visit to A&E was with my Dad, who has put his wedding ring onto the wrong finger when he was half asleep. He was nursing my dying Mum 24/7 at the time. They were so kind to him it nearly had me in tears.

The ridiculously long waits at A&E are to do with chronic underfunding of the NHS, not because people are any stupider than they were 20 years ago.

You can’t refuse emergency care to someone because of their poor decision making. Where would it end?

And burns aren’t a minor injury. They absolutely need emergency care.

You seem to be confusing is and should. You're allowed to have whatever standard you want for what sort of self-inflicted injury doesn't deserve A and E. Meanwhile, some of them are going to require emergency treatment and others are the sort of thing that could become more urgent later if not dealt with, and that's a clinical matter rather than someone's reckons.

I don’t think you can turn someone away just because they’ve been an idiot.

I think there should be a mechanism for turning someone away with a GP appointment in their hand if their illness/ injury isn’t urgent.

A swollen ankle can 9 times out of 10 be dealt with at home.

Most people do.

I only know of one case where school mum ended up in A&E after twising ankle after doing a hill walk and catching foot in rabbit hole - that was after a few days and because it was then thought broken - it was while there they found an serve undelying condition affecting all her bones - she ended up doing school run on moblity scooter for months then in hospital.

I have attended our nearest MIU twice (40 mins away from home) and both times I have been redirected to A&E ( which is only 5 mins away) because MIU cannot give me antibiotics etc as I am a type 1 diabetic. If similar was to happen again I would now just go to A&E, though others waiting would no doubt be judging me as not ill/injured enough to be there.

If you have broken a bone then you need treatment, it's a 'genuine' accident no matter how you did it. A broken leg is a broken leg even if it was caused by playing football or getting drunk and then falling over.

“Burnt down to the bone” is not a medical term that this HCP has ever encountered OP.

I don’t expect you or any other average Joe to have have enough medical knowledge to triage patients in A&E but at least have the self awareness to realise you’re wrong on this one. There are plenty of reasons emergency departments are struggling across the country. Treating accidents and emergencies isn’t one of them.

Fgs. Lots of swollen ankles don't need hospital treatment, but how do you know which is which? I know two stoic women who tried to treat swollen ankles for days before going to A&E to discover they were broken. Are we really in such a state that it's unreasonable to ask the medical system to check?

I think people have forgotten or lost the ability to think for themselves. No, burned feet isn't A&E I wouldn't have thought, not unless the normal method of cold water didn't help.