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?

The 'hard of understanding' are out in full force today spouting their wisdom.

Surely it is A&e and not a gp who have the equipment for removing something from an ear.

She didn't know something had gone in her ear until she had pain return and someone looked. She assumes it may of happened when she lost her earring but can't be sure. So no way of knowing she needed to go 2 weeks ago

There is no ASAP when it comes to referrals. They’re 6+months

OP, you didn’t do anything wrong.
111 is there for medical advice, if you called them and the advice was to go to A&E, then you go.
You followed instructions. You didn’t just rock up on your own accord, like many people do.
(I always get 111 advice before heading the A&E, because I don’t want to burden them with something that can possibly wait)

The nurses bedside manner was appalling but to give her some grace, A&E shifts are pure hell. The waiting is rarely below 4hrs these days, the standard is usually 6-8hrs tbh. It’s very busy and they’re run off their feet and they work long hours.
Sadly, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that a large chunk of people in A&E don’t really need it.
Last time I went to A&E, I was told that somebody was there with an ingrown toenail, another lady for a migraine and somebody else was there for a viral 24hr bug, so it happens, and it delays and wastes a lot of time for the genuinely sick and in need.
She had probably seen a lot of people like that, before you and by the time it got to you, she had no patience left.

Migraine can totally be a A&E thing. My aunt used to have awful migraines and was often at the hospital.

And you can laugh about an ingrown toenail but I had a black toenail from running and I looked it up on Dr Google and it said I should seek medical attention as it could go gangrenous. I just laughed and put a plaster on it but someone else might be genuinely worried!

111 should have booked you an Urgent Care appointment not directed you to A&E.

Kindly, she was kind of right though. If it had been there a while, it could have waited until you saw a GP.

She was directed to Minor Injuries which is what some hospitals call Urgent Care.
At her hospital you have to go via A+E first.
111 direct you to your nearest hospital. If that hospital doesn't have a department called Urgent Care they can't exactly send someone there can they?

Except it's been established that her GP wouldn't have been able to remove it.
So it would have been pointless her going there.

I'm paying for private therapy , the NHS list was over two years , I'd be dead before I even got to the front of that queue.

More fools who can’t read or understand, have joined the thread. I have given myself a head injury by banging my head against a metaphorical wall. Does anybody know if I should go to A&E?

No. Definitely not. Self medicate or speak to a random member of staff (not the pharmacist) at Boots for advice.
😂😂

Oh dear it doesn't seem like you are very clued up at all on the parlous state of the Nhs...

Nope...minor injuries 😅

@Artemis130 @Needmorelego Do I call 111 first? If there is no minor injury unit then do I need to go to the urgent care unit, even if one doesn’t exist? And what if there is the same queue for both of them? Am I allowed to join it? Or do I need to go to Walthamstow and use the Klinik app? Or maybe I need to go to the GP in three weeks’ time instead. So many questions.

Yes this is painful.

Provision of emergency care varies by region. Minor injuries/urgent care units differ in their staffing and what they can treat. Not many areas have 'walk in' ENT clinics like a poster keeps mentioning.

I remain surprised that the GP was unable to refer directly to the on call ENT team though.

@scapella Yes...the non-existence of the urgent care unit is no excuse not to attend it. You are singlehandedly devouring and destroying the NHS.

With regards to an ingrown toenail

An ingrown toenail is not a medical emergency and can be managed at home. However,

When to See a Doctor or GP

• Home treatments do not help after a few days.
• Your toe shows clear signs of a growing infection, such as pus or heavy swelling.
• You have diabetes, because foot infections can become very serious very quickly.
• Contact your GP surgery or use 111 to find local podiatry or medical help.

When to Seek Urgent Medical Care

• Redness is spreading rapidly up your foot.
• You develop a high fever, or you feel hot, shivery, and severely unwell.
• If you experience these rapid red-flag infection signs, call NHS 111 or seek urgent care promptly

(The person with the toenail wasn’t in the urgent medical care category, because the paramedics and receptionists were discussing it and having a bit of a grumble and moan) and I spoke to them personally because we were sat near one another and discussed what have brought us into A&E that night. They had a pair of sliders on, no infection or pain apart from when they tried to wear any other shoes but open toes. They ended up leaving after about 3hrs and said “I’m just going to get booked in with the GP tomorrow instead of sitting here all night, I could do with my bed”

Also, the migraine lady was told by lots of staff they couldn’t do anything for her. She kept asking them for paracetamol and they told her they couldn’t give her anything to manage her pain, they, exasperated by her 10th request for some paracetamol, addressed the whole room very loudly and reminded everyone there was a 10hr waiting list and it went in order of priority and that some people would probably be better at home managing their symptoms and illness so if people didn’t like the wait, they were free to leave. They then directly told her she wasn’t a priority because they had some very sick people in who would be in front of her, and told her she would realistically be waiting 10yrs and to stop bothering busy working staff with the same requests. She lay across 5 seats with some wet paper towels across her forehead and continued to flag down any and every person in uniform walk past her, asking if she could be seen now.
Not every migraine needs A&E and they obviously felt hers definitely didn’t.
Toe lady and migraine lady did not need A&E, they needed a chemist or a GP.

She did take advice from 111. They sent her to A&E who referred her through to minor injuries. Why is this proving so difficult to understand. She rang her own GP this morning, who referred her to A&E. It’s all there.

Fair enough. I hope some poor overworked nurse or doctor comes to patronise me and send me to the naughty corner.

In that situation.....just go and lay down in a dark room.
😂

And yet in that two years I’ve received a cancer diagnosis via a routine mammogram, had surgery and adjuvant treatment and been declared cancer free. Excellent and timely treatment throughout and supported all the way, including aftercare. Problem is you can’t declare the whole NHS unfit for purpose because it isn’t. I don’t profess to know the answers, I can only speak from experience.

Not all areas have an urgent care centre. We didn’t until a few months ago. And OP’s own GP directed her to A&E this morning.

Yep. We have either a&e or walk in centre. No minor injuries unit, the walk in centre don’t offer scans or xray and seven times out of ten, send people to a&e. 111 always directs people to a&e unless it’s something simple like emergency prescriptions