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?

Exactly!
I originally thought you had gone to A+E which I said upthread probably wasn't the right place.
But now I know you actually went to Minor Injuries you weren't wrong.

I was only aware of the foreign object for 24 hours or so.

So, GP tomorrow?

I also went into a&e last week OP with red flag symptoms. Bear in mind Ive been a medical professional for 46 years so I only go if its absolutely essential.
I was given an extremely cursory examination and told this is a&e why are you here and dismissed.
I cant go into too much detail as its subject to a complaint.
I was not happy with this and went to the next hospital 30 miles away where I was rushed in for emergency surgery and told if Id gone home I would have died.
A quick look on AI would have given ghe a& e staff all the info they needed to treat me.
Instead they chose to insult me and send me home.
The hospital who did my op told me to put a formal comaint in.
Im not going to that a&e ever again!
Have you called 111 OP they give really good advice in situations like this and Id Dvise you to call them before going into a&e next time.

to be fair it’s not an accident or an emergency that needs attention on a night shift when less staff are on duty. Try for an emergency appt at your gp tomorrow.

Anyone saying it’s been there a few weeks and a friend ( a doctor ) said I need it looking at would try my patience!

you should have been clear that it’s increased pain now and 111 had advised you

what over the counter pain relief have you tried?

Ring your GP. If you can't get an appointment asap then go back to Minor Injuries.

Why though? I told them 111 told me to go asap, that this was reinforced by what my friend also said, and that the pain had increased and that I am getting shooting pains into my jaw, my cheek bone is tender to touch, and it is right next to my eardrum. I have had paracetamol and ibuprofen.

There's a difference between being expected to be treated like royalty and not expecting to being treated rudely and dismissively.

P.s I get you went to minor injuries but you still should have called 111 first because they can direct you to a specialist centre locally which is more appropriate and save you wasting time going to the wrong dept.

How is she self involved by going to A&E in agony with a risk of damage to her hearing? Are you the nurse?…

Also I explained that the pain went away initially so assumed a resolved ear infection, but I suspect foam ear plugs I had been using for 4 days had pushed it further in. I did not know there was a bit of metal in there until yesterday.

111 sent me to minor injuries?

A GP, rightly, won't touch it. Some areas have minor injuries units. Others have minor injuries departments within A&E.

@mitsicar I wouldn't get in to 'how long has it been there' because you admit that you really aren't sure. Just say that you've become aware of pain and your doctor friend had a look and could see an earring back. It's too far in to get it out yourself.

Really confused by this, when our GP spotted something in my son’s ear, they sent us to a&e. He wasn’t in any pain or anything, we had just gone to the gp for a hearing check and they spotted something.

Was difficult to get the right person to remove it, they had to send for a consultant.

This happens all too frequently.

Not all NHS staff are 'angels', it also seems to attract a fair proportion of arseholes with God complexes.

I hadn't had an accident either..I might have been thought to have d and v although I had no v and very little d but I had felt ill at home waiting for it to arrive for 9 days..I went to a&e was triaged within 30 minutes with a possible life threatening condition. Was in hospital for 14 days with further home meds after that. All this bollox on here with armchair bloody people saying 'it's not an accident it's not an emergency '. Give it a rest you're spouting dangerous nonsense.

I don't think you did anything wrong, if 111 told you to go. Perhaps they are over cautious? And the A&E nurse was probably tired and overworked. It's a shame she was rude to you though.

DH went to A&E about 9 years ago with chest pains. He'd had them all day, but the GP said to go to A&E,

When we got there, the nurse what we were doing there and saying it was for accidents and emergencies, not chest pains.

She reluctantly did an ECG and asked if he had anything, I said I had given him an aspirin and she went MAD at me, saying how dangerous it was for me to give unprescribed drugs to other people (WTAF?)

He had an x-ray and a (troponin?) blood test.

Turned out he had bad heartburn, but the doctor assured us that we were right to go in.

She was right, though. It is a bit odd to go to A&E at night with a sore ear.

My very close friend is a senior practitioner at our Minor injuries unit. She works officially 12 hour shifts but regularly 14 hours.She is mentally and physically exhausted,seeing 100+ a day patients. It’s unsustainable and she is a human being!

True indeed. This is ghe 2nd time this has happened to me there.
The other hospital was amazing.

It isn't just about sore ear. It is painful, it is making clicking noises, I can't hear out of it properly since yesterday lunchtime and my cheek is tender to touch. She seemed totally not worried about it so I left and will take her advice and go to my GP tomorrow. I will report back on what the GP says!

You need a doctor specialised in ENT. A GP is very unlikely to have the equipment needed to remove this. They don’t even syringe ears any more in my area! Waiting for a GP appointment is a waste of time as they will just refer you back to minor injuries. It sounds very urgent now. Either go back now (if you’re really worried / it’s really painful) or first thing tomorrow morning. Good luck!

I think many posters are being unfair towards you op, 111 told you to go to A&E, that is literally their role, they are a triage service. If you had ignored their advice and become very unwell or lost your hearing I'm sure the same posters would be jumping on you asking why you ignored 111's advice.

Yup anytime I know someone who has got something in their nose or ear they’ve gone to a&e to have it removed. GP you’d be waiting days!

It's completely insane how many people are brainwashed into thinking this is acceptable even if you DID go to the slightly wrong delivery outlet for the service we all pay for. Oh no did you go to minor injuries instead of a GP what a TOTAL bastard you must be dance the obscure NHS rules dance into the sea.

There are too many dickheads in the world at large and consequently too many dickheads in the world's biggest employer after the red army.

I hope I never have to go to hospital again and will try to be brave enough to take my chances at home instead but it makes me sick that the patient is expected to be responsible for navigating the old fashioned bullshit.

Hello the patient is sick - maybe try at least the minimum level of contempt you'd get for asking a Tesco metro if they stock the barbecues you saw advertised for sale in a Tesco Extra recently.