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'd really really like to know where you live and which GP practice you use 🤣 If only it worked like that round here!! It is genuinely quicker to go to A&E to get help.

Can I help put it into perspective a little for you op. I work in A&E. Last night there were so few staff and so many patients that there was a patient who had sadly passed away after an unsuccessful resuscitation and had to be left behind curtains with the family because there was nothing more that could be done and no staff to take care of them. The department is just on its knees. That’s the level of what those staff are witnessing and dealing with. It’s not like it used to be anymore. Minor injuries is the place to go if you can get to one.

And how is pain relief going to resolve a foreign body lodged in an ear !!

She was in a minor injury unit. Why not read the thread.

OP was in minor injuries though. If the system is anything like ours you have to go through A&E to be seen by minor injuries.

That’s where she went. If you bothered to read her posts properly.

I live in Walthamstow, on the border of Hackney but the WF side of the line. The shitty part of Walthamstow basically.

The thing is my neighbours who share my GP practice will swear blind things don't run like that but then have no idea that phoning to make an appointment is not the way things are done any more. When you tell them they insist that is how they want to do it. And these are women at least my age who can use Snapchat so technology isnt the issue.

Where did I say anything about pain relief?

You said she should've been in minor injury unit. Well that s where she was

@Lexibletheflexible different GP surgeries work differently though.
Mine wouldn't send you directly to x-ray.
They'd send you to A+E or Minor Injuries/Urgent Care to organise the x-ray.
So yes.... I wouldn't waste time with my GP because it is literally adding in an extra step.

Don’t overthink this, you know you did the right thing, that is all that matters, don’t sweat the small stuff. She was possibly (probably!) stressed and it’s not personal.
Hope you are feeling better, it sounds painful!

Agree. It’s drivel. Two week wait for a face to face appointment with a GP here and I can pretty much guarantee that for something like this, if I’d rung at 8am for a phone appointment, the receptionist would have redirected me to A&E - I wouldn’t have got near a GP !! The problem seems to be that each area of provision seems to be protecting it’s own services and the patient is caught in the middle every time because it’s not clear how to access appropriate care.

I was adding to your comment to the poster you were replying to. They suggested over the counter pain relief which is very temporary and doesn’t solve the problem. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.x

What might have something to do with it is that I live in a Labour constituency. I know my family members who do not have really shoddy specialist healthcare. Mostly locum GPs who do not understand what they can and cannot do.

Makes no odds. I used to live in one years before things were at current level of bad Even in the early 90s it' was known that by the time you got appointment to see the GP. You would either be better , in hospital or dead

In an emergency? If you want to speak to a particular GP about a chronic issue, then you might wait 2 weeks. Emergencies are seen same day. You wont call up with signs of an acute chest infection and be put off an appointment. And if they really couldn't fit you in, they'd refer you to the OOH GP at the local hospital.

As I said, I've heard various people saying this and then you call their GP for them with an acute medical complaint and they are seen by the next day, so... I'm sceptical.

In our area you go through A&E and they redirect as appropriate. Up to the beginning of this year we had no urgent care, just A&E and minor injuries. The new same day urgent care centre as well as minor injuries can still only be accessed via A&E.

And risk going deaf in one ear?? A&E is for cases like OP's not just major accidents. In developed countries like ours, it should be entirely reasonable to expect being seen and treated for something that poses a risk of major and avoidable complications.

I can guarantee you if I had rung GP reception and told them I had a foreign body stuck in my ear that was now causing pain and bleeding I would have been told to go to A&E. Which is exactly what happened to OP this morning when she contacted her own GP.

The nurse wasn't right though, OP is back in the exact same place today because that's where she was supposed to go, only now her condition has worsened and possibly caused damage to the ear drum.

So mysteriously, despite being in there for ages, the last 24hrs has done all the damage..

As I said above, I had red flag signs for a hip fracture which needed ruling out (or as it turned out, in). I used the appropriate channel for my GP which is online triage. The system uses AI to offer you an appointment with a practitioner it deems the most appropriate. The next step is to call if you believe your problem is more urgent. When I did that it initially offered me a two week wait for appointment with a physio, and when I called to say I felt I needed to be seen more urgently, they simply said there were no other appointments and I would have to wait. So unfortunately it simply does not work like that everywhere. My practice is in special measures and it is the only (giant) practice in the local area.

Ok, the original post says A&E quite a few times, hence my confusion. Thanks for clarifying

Did you not read her update? There is blood pooling in her ear now and reduced hearing - that's not a sign of improvement!

Edit: and judging by the increased pain recently she likely has an infection now which can quickly make a condition much worse

you don’t know that I know nothing about the matter, it could be my specialist area. And looking at the responses, there are a few a+e staff (at least they claim) agreeing with me in saying that OP should’ve waited to see their GP.
It’s not harmful drivel, she’s got something stuck in her ear and is upset the overworked nurse didnt say please and thank you. she will come to no harm.

it is a shame though that people will listen to a strangers uneducated advice on the internet regarding their children’s health. But just because someone is stupid enough to believe what they read online doesn’t mean I shouldn’t ever give my opinion on mumsnet, I just come here for a bit of gossip and drama

Well yes that's exactly what happens. If you get a splinter it may work it's own way out or be removed but if it is left it will be fine for a while but then it will start to fester and infection will develop