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!

Depends on the extent of the burn. Not all burns need emergency care at all!

Drug users and 'drunks' have every right to be seen and assessed.
We need to be aware of our prejudices.
What about people with a high BMI?
Should they be turned away too?
Or smokers?
NO
Everyone has a right to be seen.

No-sometimes the most minor things turn out to be serious, and cost the NHS far more because they're not treated quickly. Returning GPs to how they were a couple of decades ago (obviously allowing for changes that actually benefit people) would mean far fewer people would go to AE in the first place. Older nurses tell me that when GPs did housecalls/welcomed people to appointments more, hardly anyone went to AE unnecessarily.

And how do you tell? When you’re just a bloke, not a doctor? How do you tell if you should go to A&E or not? And how does the nurse know the door tell just by looking at the patient?

My advice would be to go to A&E, if they decide it’s not serious after taking a detailed history and examination then fine but you don’t risk it.

FYI burns are very complex, it’s very normal to underestimate them but even just a brief scald can be scarring and dangerous. With burns it is very much a case of being safer than sorry.

Last time I went into A&E I walked into triage and was immediately told I was going to resus. I needed someone to go and get my coat and bag from the waiting room. I was then admitted to icu for 2 weeks

The NHS guidance specifically says that if you burn feet or hands you should go to A and E.

Could people who know nothing stop saying stupid things??

Just to add too, I’ve been sent to A&E about all sorts of things I considered “minor”. Turns out A&E was exactly the right place to be. Leave it to the professionals to decide.

This is absolutely not true. Triage is triage. People in police custody are NOT given priority, ask any cop who has spent their whole shift waiting for some wee bampot who feigns chest pains bloods to come back.Same as ambulances, you will not be seen quicker than everyone else, just because an ambulance brought you in.

Post like this really annoy me.
People are so precious about the NHS on MN, to the extent that hardly anything warrants GP surgery time or, perish the thought, a visit to A&E.
The system is on its knees, absolutely beyond embarrassing, for a civilised country, to keep thinking and promoting this idea that most things don’t require a visit to the doctor or A&E.
Accepting this utterly rubbish service is part of the problem. Unbelievable how bad pre-maternal and maternal care is at present. Just one example. Because nobody dares ask for the right help, and, if they do, they are fobbed off. Self perpetuating terrible health care.
Disgusting.
Who are we to decide who should or shouldn’t go to A&E? Let the professionals decide.
The entire health system is not welcoming or serving patients in a pro-active timely manner.
Hats off to anyone who works in the NHS providing direct care and supporting services under very difficult circumstances. But this is not sustainable.
The health system needs a major overhaul and people need to stop making excuses and deny themselves and others the right care.
And better preventative campaigns and care are absolutely needed in this country.

It’s not those with self-inflicted injuries which are the problem, it’s people who can’t seem to compute that there are such things as pharmacies or supermarket medicine aisles.

I went to urgent care with a dog bite from a random dog. In came a woman who said she had a runny nose and hadn’t slept all night. The receptionist said have a seat but you’ll be waiting hours. The woman said, Oh, in that case I’ll go home and you can call me when it’s my turn 😲 .

I was seen almost immediately (preen) and the doctor said I was the first genuine patient that day. They’d had people going in with a single bout of diarrhoea (nope, if diarrhoea is that bad you are not leaving the bathroom) or mild constipation.

They sat there laughing and chatting.

You sat there judging and criticising.

Yeah, you are so very much more WORTHY.

Your argument fails because it gives you the universal moral judgement of what injuries/illnesses "deserve" treatment. But a) you only speak for yourself b) NHS healthcare largely doesn't look at cause - only effect. So a critically injured person will be treated following a car crash irrespective if they were driving 100mph on drugs or if they were hit by the aforementioned. Treatment is the same - it's not based on morals or judgement. I believe this is right.

Could people who know nothing stop saying stupid things??

MNs wouldn’t exist then!

People have drunken falls and can require A&E despite not having a head injury…

alot of people just waste the time of A&E, your're being reasonable!

Ambulance absolutely get first priority. With regards to druggies and drunks they are not in police custody. Picked up by police and dropped of in A&E, usually assigned their own nurse to watch them.

🤦🏻‍♀️

Our local A&E has an out of hrs GP and a lot of minor things get diverted there. I’ve been in 3 times, one ruptured appendix (waited 2hrs) and 2 x acute pancreatitis, waited 15-20 mins for triage and never went back to waiting room as life threatening condition. In those short waits many came with very minor stuff. Even with acute pancreatitis, I stayed at home several days first (don’t recommend). I’d never dream of using A&E apart from a real emergency. Even with one acute pancreatitis I called my GP first and she said ‘don’t you think you need to go to A&E’ and I said I couldn’t until today as can’t move in so much pain so she reminded me of the ambulance service for times like that (did make my own way).

Thanks, I am.

How on earth can you decide they don’t need A&E?

I still believe stupid people should be able to go to A&E.

Maybe they would have made better choices in the first place if the NHS was g free. Yes, I know it’s paid by taxes but what is the betting this twit has paid little but wants to get his money’s worth!

When my parent was end of life I went in to hospital and had to go through ED.

There were whole families in, someone playing cards and a chap with a take away looking for someone. For some people it is a day out or culturally they all go when one of the family needs attention. I had to sit on the floor with my son as there was a family of nine many years ago in A and E. I spoke to the Receptionist and she told me she couldn’t say anything as culturally it was to be expected.One children had a cut but is it really necessary to bring Granny and various kids.

I'm so fed up of seeing threads where people blame individual responsibility for huge systemic issues.

Yes it was a silly thing to do. But

1. We can't start judging who is and isn't eligible for help because of where that leads us, interrogating people about if the injury was self inflicted before giving help? Refusing help if it was seen as a silly thing to do? It's a slippery slope
2. Our system should be able to handle it! It's broken after years of chronic underfunding and mismanagement. It should be able to deal with stuff like this without falling to bits and that's the real issue!

No. You are the people who think of the NHS as sacred and godlike so you shpuld see every loser and moron and treat them with equal respect. Or just have a more fair system where people actually contribute to their health and have a level of accountability for their actions.

When my ex was in psychosis he made me take him to hospital and told the receptionist he’d had a headache for a couple of hours. He wasn’t capable of explaining what was wrong -but it was life threatening.

you get all sorts in a&e, a snapshot tells you very little

This isn’t a nhs problem. I recently went to ER in NYc and not only were people Ordering take aways, a couple asked us if we wanted to pop out to get dinner with them. In a paid system.
In fact it was much worse than anything I’ve seen in the uk, I assume because in the uk it’s generally accepted you shouldn’t eat when you know you may need hospital treatment