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?

Seriously? 😂 Jesus …

My dh went to a&e at a local but notorious hospital.
They sent him away, despite the blood tests they did showing he had sepsis.
I made an emergency GP appointment for him the next day and he was sent to another a&e at a hospital just in the next county - they can't access his other a&e records.

I gave the triage nurse his history, including his CRP level, he literally couldn't string a sentence together. All he actually said to her was "I feel like I'm dying".
She dismissed him as a Cat 3 and sent him back to the waiting room. 3 hours later, he saw a doctor who instantly recognised the urgency. He then spent 8 hours on the corridor with antibiotic drips.
He spent 9 days in hospital on 4 antibiotics a day whilst recovering from sepsis (from infection of unknown origin), pneumonia and pleural effusion.

Quite frankly, I was just happy he was alive but I do wish I had noticed the triage nurse's name and formally complained about her shitty attitude. She couldn't have been more dismissive if she'd tried!

GPs wont remove it. It’s too close to the eardrum and don’t have the instruments (camera) to see inside as they try to dislodge it. If OP happens to get an appointment -she’d be lucky to see an advanced nurse practitioner never mind a GP. Nurse prob was having a bad day and OP should have stayed to have it removed.

If that were my ear I would have had a prompt visit to my GP who would refer me to see an ENT specialist asap if they could not remove the object. If ear injured maybe either one if those two might put me on antibiotics.
I am a non medical person.

I’ve been to the GP maybe 5 times over the past few years and have been sent to A&E every time. I don’t know what the GP actually does anymore tbh. Everything just gets sent straight to A&E and you wait for 4 hours feeling guilty for being there

No it is not normal and you should have been seen and treated appropriately. My late husband had the same and went to A&E, an ENT person was called and the object removed. Yours is worse because you are in pain.

Go back to A&E, she will have gone off duty, and pile it on, you'll be seen. I am disgusted at how you were spoken to but that was just her, it's not the norm.

I have been a doctor for 30y. You did the right thing. I would be astonished if a GP did anything. They usually don’t do this stuff any more and ask ENT to do it in A and E.

You can’t sit there for weeks with that in your ear.

There was no excuse for the nurse to talk to you like this. I am sick and tired of people excusing rude behaviour in hcps. However tired and stressed I am, I have never ever been rude to a patient or relative. We cannot do that and I have zero tolerance of poor behaviour to patients and relatives. Having a ‘bad day’ is no excuse. Nope.

I hope you can get it sorted. A and E are used to foreign bodies in orifices. That nurse should not have taken out her frustration on you. It makes me angry to hear.

A&E (& all other healthcare providers) are stretched to the limit at the moment, that doesn’t excuse her attitude towards you but I understand why she may have questioned why you’d come in for a minor, week+ long problem that potentially could be a GP visit to solve.

However if the advice you received was to go to A&E or Urgent care, then you should have followed that advice. You did nothing wrong.
Id chalk it up to it a bad experience and try to get in with your GP first thing.

I had a similar problem - a bit of a silicone earplug fell apart and got stuck in my ear. I went to the GP explained the problem and the practice nurse immediately tried to get it out. She couldn't. I was then referred to ENT at the local hospital. Think the appointment was a couple of days later (can't exactly remember).

The 111 service gave you the wrong advice and I would have told the nurse in A&E that this had happened. She needs to know that you had only been following their advice. Sorry she was rude, that is uncalled for, but it must be one hell of a stressful job.

Try your GP first, to save you another long wait at A&E. Good luck.

A GP doesn’t have the equipment to remove the foreign object, they will refer you to minor injuries or A&E. You’d have been better ignoring the rude nurse, telling her you were told to go there by 111, and staying put. Now you’re going to use a GP appointment and then end up going back to hospital.

You need to advocate for yourself and not just leave because of one nurse. You should have told her about your pain that got significantly worse and that you consulted 111 who told you to go there.

having said that you might get faster help from the GP. If a GP can’t remove an object they have become completely useless

What a horrible woman.

I remember going for chemo right at the start of COVID. I had advanced blood cancer. I was about six weeks into my regime so had gotten familiar with the staff. The usual woman came over and was setting me up then noticed on my file I'd been sent to a&e earlier that week with a fever so asked me about it. I told her what happened then commented it was crazy seeing a&e so quiet (due to lockdown), empty seats and beds.

It was just an observation of another big change during lockdown.

She immediately stopped what she was doing and conspiratorially leaned in.
"I agree with you, it's ridiculous how busy it is otherwise and just goes to show how many people are abusive the system normally. There is nothing, wrong with them - nothing! I worked there for years. Yet they are piling into a&e simply because they want some attention."

I heavily disliked her after that. Some months later I was sent to a&e again. A different nurse was checking me in, she was chatting as she did so and said something along the same lines; "look at all the people here, and its the same people showing up. They just have nothing to do so they are in here annoying the staff "

I don't feel sorry for a&e staff anymore. Nobody is forcing them to be there and the times I was there I had no choice and was repeatedly subjected to hours and hours of waiting followed by rude staff

I think the GP will send you back to minor injuries. The hotness and pain is worrying. Please keep a careful eye and go back if you're worried. You can't mess about with potential infections in ears/eyes etc.

Straight back to miu. Don’t waste a GP appointment as you’ve already been referred by 111. You caught a nurse on a busy day but that doesn’t mean you start the process again. Follow the advice 111 gave, your hearing might thank you for it.

I was going to suggest putting a complaint in as well. What is the point in working there if the nurse acts like that with patients who need treatment? Especially if op sees the gp today and gets sent back to the same place. Everyone’s time has been wasted.

Op speak to the gp this morning and then just do what they ask. If any more staff are rude to you, get their name and advise you’ll be complaining to PALS.

And yes do bring snacks and water if you get sent back to hospital as you’ll be waiting hours.

I’d head back to the minor injuries unit first thing this morning. Shift change at 7, so the nurse will have gone home, and it’ll be a lot quieter now, than it was last night. GP won’t be able to remove it, and frankly, shouldn’t try. The most they will do, is give a “referral” to avoid you being sent home again. Good luck

Our GP has said she cant do anything on an urgent basis and sends most people to A&E.

Are posters really suggesting that you shpuld wait a two to three months for an GP triggered ENT referral?

You were right to be in A&E, ideally minor injuries if there is one, which is where you were.

The nurse/receptionist was wrong.

That’s awful! Good on you for making the trip to the other hospital as I doubt most other people would have done that. Hope they take your complaint seriously.

I made a recent complaint to my GP surgery after a GP completely dismissed something my 1 year old ended up needing surgery for and I had to go private to be taken seriously. They didn’t deal with my complaint properly but i will just refuse to see that GP again.

IME nurses are usually like this. I used to work in a call centre and would get a lot of nurses. They were the most entitled, abusive people who phoned. I now don’t have a lot of time for them.

The nurse is right. It clearly wasn’t an emergency. You should’ve gone to your local urgent treatment centre. What a waste of time, leaving!

I repeat, the GP won’t touch this, it’s an urgent treatment centre job.

That’s really stereotypical and rude.

My DD was sent to paeds A&E by the GP last week with suspected appendicitis. The triage nurses were very dismissive and told me ‘she looked fine’.

Sbe had surgery to remove her appendix the next day.

"I dont know what the GP does anymore"

They are glorified pharmacists.

Agree, I don't really see the purpose of a service which just says "go to A&E, we can't risk telling you anything different". Also have had several pointless visits until I wised up!