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?

I’ve thought this for a while. There have been several similar threads where new onset diabetes has been suspected and it’s baffling to me just how many posters who clearly don’t know what they’re talking about feel entitled to post drivel that could have serious consequences for someone. I dread to think what the outcome would have been if a doctor hadn’t posted and spelled out exactly what could happen if OP didn’t get some immediate help for her son.

I hope your ear is ok and any damage heals quick.

Please do come back and let us know how you have gotten on.

I took my DD last night and ended up with a "I don't know why you're here!" from a doctor.
DD had UTI symptoms and was in a lot of pain around her ribs and back, feeling sick, so she rang 111 to see if she could go to the urgent treatment centre at our small local hospital, for antibiotics. 111 made her the appointment 2340 so we went over.

Dr there was lovely but worried about pain around her pancreas, wanted a function check blood test and didn't have facilities to do it there. Said he wasn't convinced it was UTI and he wanted us to go to the larger city hospital for this blood test.

Drove off to that one with our printed notes/referral from him. They took urine and blood samples, and after 4 hours a Dr saw DD.

"I don't know why you're here! This isn't an emergency" etc. By this point it was 4am, we both have work today, we really would have avoided spending 4 hrs in a grim A&E if we hadn't been told to go by a doctor.

Diagnosed with kidney infection and given script for ABs.

Why shouldn’t people use their own health service as they need to?

I’m not a doctor. I do not have the medical expertise to decide which one of the various frontline health systems is most appropriate for a medical condition-it is up to the frontline healthcare workers to decide that. So if I think something is an emergency then I will present myself at the nearest or most relevant service and if they need to (and it’s feasible) they can redirect me.

What they should not do is berate me and try to make me feel like an idiot for trying to access healthcare.

A&E is for an accident or an emergency. And a foreign object getting lodged in your ear falls under both categories.

Couldn't 111 have got you an appointment with an out of hours gp?

I'd have done a vauge no idea but pain is worse shooting pains in jaw taken as much over counter pain med I can and 111 and GP friend all said to come to A&E.

I'd have also probably have waited out any rudeness from nurse till you had been treated.

I've learnt through my parents and my own being triage wrong to be very careful what I say as many people have tendancy to latch onto one word or phrase and dismiss everything else.

The nurse should not have been so dismissive that you felt you had to leave - but sadly it's not uncommon.

My Dmum was made to feel stupid for heading to A&E under GP and 111 advice by a nurse - not a doctor who rules out a few things - so point when she was still ill a few days later no of us could get her to go anywhere- she fell leading to broken bones - and then they found they'd missed an infection making her dizzy - she cost the NHs way more and had weeks of treatment and support.

Please let us know how you get on.
Wishing you all the best...

YANBU OP.

The triage nurse was quite rude to my mum and I about being there at all. DM was dying of stage four pancreatic cancer, age 85, had broken a bone in her shoulder after chemo (just in bed!), beside herself with pain in spite of Oramorph, and we had rung the hospital specialist cancer helpline who said to go to A&E. I nearly lost the will to live myself.

It's annoying. Our town got rid of its out of hours walk in / minor injuries medical centre that was in a different location from the hospital. They said out of hours/walk in minor injuries is now at the hospital where A&E is. In yet, they now act like it is an inconvenience if you turn up there - as though you are turning up to A&E with something minor. You can get an appointment with an out of hours GP where the old minor injuries unit was. Which just adds to the confusion,

Towns without an A&E hospital still have walk in minor injuries units!

Flipping heck, nasty stuff OP. Am so sorry you're going through this.
I hope A&E finally help you out and wishing you a speedy recovery. Sending hugs!

I’m so sorry this happened to you OP, and hope you’ve been treated with more care & respect this morning.

As I suspect you know, you did exactly the right thing going to A&E last night. No GP surgery is equipped to remove a foreign object that far into your ear. It sounds as though you also have an infection now which is probably very painful.

I appreciate A&E and MIU do get rather swamped with issues that should have been seen by a GP, but this is not one of those occasions. And, having worked in healthcare myself for years, there’s absolutely no excuse for speaking to patients in that way.

Ignore the posters who haven’t got a clue what they’re on about OP. Hope you get your ear sorted out soon!

I have a couple of questions did your friend use an otoscope and speculum to look inside your ear?

Do you have any recollection of sticking something in your ear? Foreign objects don’t just enter unless it’s a bug or similar. Personally it sounds like you have a build up of wax which your GP can easily treat!

I personally wouldn’t have considered that an accident nor an emergency but if that is what your GP have advised I would have sat it out. Our surgery would have made a nurse appointment first and tried before referring on to ENT

Our local minor injuries staff are always rude in a 'why the f are you here?!' way, it's a bit of a local joke. I assume it's some sick NHS tactic to reduce demand

🫣🫩🫩🫩

Emergency departments often triage for minor injuries and out of hours GPs

Did you Chatgpt that as ‘non medical person’?

op i wold be the same as you
rudeness from the nurse

no one knows these days when you can or can’t call GP or go A&E

what is the point of the nhs anymore?

Maybe read the rest of OP’s posts

This is why I’m SO grateful for private medical. Have had babies, so many different procedures, autoimmune disease treatment, paediatric and the list is endless and NEVER would you have been spoken to like this. The treatment from any staff is so vastly different. Imagine being in pain or needing medical treatment and given bad attitude at that point!

What she meant was that you would have an 8 hour wait, i would have waited or gone when it was less busy ie maybe 6am

4 hours? Wow they are quick at your A&E. Last time I was there it was over 12 hours. I no longer have regard or respect for medical staff. That was eroded during my many times in A&E with my mum in her eighties. They (most of them) have no compassion. Nursing ceased to be a vocation decades ago.

I’m gobsmaked reading posters attitudes on this thread on how the nhs should be used!!

the NHS is funded by us taxpayers and we should use it when we need it!

where are we told what service should be used for what??

cant even get a GP appointment for weeks! Then it’s a call back at thier convenience so you should have the whole day free so you can talk to a GP that couldn’t care less.

The NHS is a joke…

The attitude of NHS staff and teachers is appalling.

They are so entitled and how dare they be asked to do anything above bare minimum

anything that is funded by the government through our taxes is always the worst service provided

it’s all a joke

This is true. All of it.