I get that a&e is busy, but was not expecting to be spoken to so rudely

[mitsicar]

Went to a&e tonight. I have a foreign object stuck in my ear. I did not know it was in there until someone looked last night before I left my house and said i should get it looked at. Wasn't able to go to a&e today as my son had his own medical appointment in another city that I have waited months for and we were in a hotel for last night. There was no way I was cancelling it for my own ailment.

The pain has got significantly worse. Have shooting pains into my jaw and cheek bone and my ear is making clicking noises. This is since about lunch time today. Went to a&e this evening and the triage nurse asked me how long it had been in my ear. I said I suspect a few weeks, but I thought I just had an earache and it went away after a while so thought it was gone. Got some new foam ear plugs last week (which obviously pushed the foreign body in further!) and am now suffering for it. I hadn't finished when she cut me off and said 'well I don't really understand why you have picked this evening to come to a&e' and told me I would be better off going to my GP. I am in some pain but ended up leaving because she just made me feel like I had done an awful thing by heading straight after my son's appointment. I spoke to 111 earlier in the day and they told me to go to a&e asap because I could risk my hearing and that whilst it isn't life threatening, it is both an accident and an emergency. I asked if I could wait until morning and they said no. This was the 111 dr not the triage staff. I have no idea if this is the correct advice.

AIBU to think I didn't do anything wrong? I told her a medical professional has looked at it (a friend of mine who is a dr of 30 years) and said it needs ent because of how far in it is and she actually rolled her eyes at me and said I should see an actual GP (I suspect by that she meant my own GP?) and that a&e were sending everyone to minor injuries and that cases like mine are the reason she now has a 6 hour waiting list.

Is this normal for a&e now? Is it so awful working there that being rude has just become the norm or do most people have a better bedside manner? I haven't been to a&e since I was a child and was really shocked by the way I was spoken to, after being advised to go there by 111 and a trusted friend who is a medical doctor (GP).

To add, she didn't look in my ear.

Would you have done anything different? Am I missing something?

Lucky you. It’s not the same everywhere.We have had to go many times for a condition my daughter has which most definitely were emergencies, we often had to wait several hours. Once her cannula was fitted during the wait prior to being seen because it was obvious she’d need to be admitted.

i live in London and the only rapid clinics access that I’m aware of are minor injuries units in A&E which is exactly where the OP was

No, people are left in corridors because of too few hospital beds, staff shortages, delayed discharge because of shortages in social care and community services, rising demand from an ageing and sicker population, asset stripping, staffing and attrition problems, increasing numbers of patients with multiple long-term conditions, seasonal surges, underinvestment in NHS infrastructure and estate, increasing ambulance arrivals causing emergency department congestion, delays in diagnostic tests and specialist reviews....

Read the whole thread. Like most A&Es,MIU is triaged at the same desk.

As an experienced doctor, I can tell you that she did nothing wrong here. Nothing. And she did not deserve rude treatment. She needed appropriate help and was failed.

Did you read what the something else was? Or is it easier to just be a bitch?

Yeah we have a person who cannulates everyone in a+e who might need one..that is standard and saves time.. even if you have a packed waiting room, if your observations warrant it at triage, your care will be escalated more quickly. Those waiting 6 hrs didn't have deranged observations at triage hence why they are still there. Anyone who does is seen more quickly.

My daughter and I had a recent experience at A&E and I can understand their frustration, tbh.

My daughter had a minor injury at work a few weeks ago. She was treated by first aid and told to call 111 for advice.

111 instructed her to go to the local Urgent Treatment Centre where I was expecting her to need blood tests, a Hep B vaccination and antibiotics due to the nature of the injury and none of which seemed beyond a UTC.

I went with her. We saw the doctor there who was impatient and heavily criticised the incompetence of 111; admitted he could take blood, administer a hep B vaccination and prescribe antibiotics; but then refused to treat her and sent us to A&E instead and said injuries of that nature should always be an A&E visit.

So we went to A&E which was far busier than I'd expected on a weekday afternoon, tbh - it was packed.

She was triaged on arrival by two nurses at the first desk and directed to the Minor Injuries part of A&E. She first saw a nurse there, who was very abrupt and a bit rude about the fact we were at A&E and hadn't gone to UTC because it could have been treated there.

So we explained what had happened and she then heavily criticised the UTC doctor to my daughter and said he'd have been able to treat it perfectly well and moaned that this is why A&E had such long waiting times because they had so many people sent on to them who could have been treated elsewhere.

The doctor who finally saw her was lovely but did say the whole thing was a shambles. People can't get GP appointments, call 111, get automatically referred to UTC, where the doctors don't want to deal with stuff and refer patients on to A&E who have nowhere else to send people on to and so people end up waiting for hours. He said there was no reason the UTC doctor couldn't have treated her and we'd spent 4+ hours in A&E completely unnecessarily.

Basically, my recent experience (and first A&E experience in around 10 years) suggests to me that the whole system is completely overwhelmed and, whilst there isn't any excuse for rudeness (or criticising colleagues to patients, tbh!) I can well understand the frustrations when someone presents who an individual professional thinks could have been treated elsewhere.

Having to explain to each person why we were there and not somewhere else was uncomfortable. Feeling like an inconvenience was uncomfortable but I'm not sure why OP left though because the issue is now unresolved and shes now back at square one.

There is no such thing as appointment in A&E organised by a GP. They just send you back there into a general queue.

Yes it doesn't matter. In an emergency, here you were in agonising pain, you wouldn't be able to do that other appointment. So the fact she was in little enough pain to choose shows it isnt an emergency.

OP, you haven't done anything wrong, except for leaving! She shouldn't have spoken to you with attitude like that, regardless if she was busy, that's not your problem. Please go back to minor injuries, your GP won't be able to do anything for a foreign body. If it so far in, minor injuries/A&E might have to send you straight to ENT.

Ignore everyone on here telling you otherwise.

It's a clinic that is booked at short notice - usually next day or within 2 working days - unlike other types of hospital clinics that are booked for weeks/months ahead.

Bit harsh. I think it’s also because we live in a country of fat people who don’t take care of themselves and have poor mental and physical health.

I don't agree with "you were able to wait until after your child's appointment, so therefore you can wait as long as it takes to see a GP and get a referral." Don't most people wait to see how things will play out, unless it's limb-hanging-off bad? Especially these days when we know how busy A&E/MIU is, and are worried that we might be wasting their time or told off for going.

Also, lots of medical issues fall in between "I can't bear this for another minute" and "I can wait however long it takes to be referred and eventually seen." Overall, I bet "this is painful/unpleasant and distracting but I can manage (with a worse quality of life), and would like it to be dealt with as soon as reasonably possible" is more common than either of those.

Immediately urgent vs no big deal is a false dichotomy.

You're extremely wrong, A&E/minor injuries is where the OP needs to be. GP won't be able to do anything and because the foreign body is touching her ear drum, GP will also send her in to A&E. Contrary to the misheld belief, you don't have to have your head hanging off for A&E to be the appropriate place of treatment.

There absolutely is! GP calls A+E or minor injuries, tells them that you need to come in for stitches or an x-ray or to have an abscess lanced and then they tell you when to come in that day. When you arrive, you let the desk know and a suitable practitioner will come and deal with whatever it is you need.

I've done this when I broke my hand, for my child who needed stitches and my husband for the abscess. It keeps you off of their a+e waiting list and you've already been assessed as needing the thing by a doctor so it gives even more room for a nurse to do the job.

Maybe one particular trust works that way but in all cases recently where I attended myself or with my child the GP could not make any urgent appointments. For any urgent help they sent to the minor injuries unit in A&E through a general queue.

they for example tried to make an urgent appointment for a blood test for lime disease which was available only in 2 weeks time (lol) so they themselves advised the only way to get it is to go to A&E

i think it’s you who doesn’t understand how it works in reality in many parts of the country

Back to minor injuries. GPs do fuck all physical treatment these days, they often don't step out from behind their computer, no way are they going to try retrieving a foreign object right next to your eardrum. Back to minor injuries you go.

Yes I dont think they call them that at our hospital but we have the same.

It doesn't have to be an emergency just something that needs dealing with by someone with the skills and equipment necessary as recommended by 111.

Not in any parts of London where I had similar needs. What you described is how it should be, I agree, but not how it is in reality

You are making yourself look silly now. There is nothing about the OP that suggests she wants attention and drama. You, on the other hand…