Guilt Free Railing 14

[WouldBeGood]

😱 I think we will need this thread.. could it be the last?!

The army is only helping out with driving ambulances which are non emergencies ( old people travelling to hospital etc) and some test centres though. That'll be why he's not had or having blue light training.

Poor bloke!
Sat navs will help but not perfect, we have struggled in the past when we had to call an ambulance it takes them to the next road for some reason!

@StarryEyeSurprise

The army is only helping out with driving ambulances which are non emergencies ( old people travelling to hospital etc) and some test centres though. That'll be why he's not had or having blue light training.

No that's not the case. In addition, lots of PTS staff with no blue light training were drafted in to help A&E. PTS already do the non emergency transport and additionally go and pick up people whom A&E have attended but are deemed not to need urgent transfer to hospital.

NHS Lothian has now issued an edict that you’re not to go to the “Emergency Department” unless it’s life threatening.

This is going too far. People are going to die because of it.

Rail about/worry/defend the message NHS Lothian have put out on social media tonight.
(Could post on Mumsnet if you can’t decide if your ailment is life threatening, then wander around to your nearest barracks to find a driver to take you in, if it IS life threatening…)

Services across #Lothian are under extreme and sustained pressure. DO NOT come to the emergency department unless it is life threatening.

I think I’d get lifted if I wandered round a barracks…. Might be worth it though 😃

@WouldBeGood

I think I’d get lifted if I wandered round a barracks…. Might be worth it though 😃

If there’s any hint of another lockdown, I’ll be up for giving this a go in the depths of winter.

I got triaged via 111 a few months ago instead of sitting in A&E they called me was actually pretty straight forward and I got to stay at home.

I don't agree with the only if life threatening but they should make it clearer for the 111 service and have more call handlers put on to assist

The general public, non medical people, are not always good at knowing what "life threatening" looks like.

I thought being a bit breathless at 36 weeks was normal, left to my own devices I probably wouldn't be here, my mum arrived on scene called my GP who sent me to A&E, "we think we've got her in time".

And thats before you ask about the A part of A&E, what are people meant to do with injuries that need stitched, or surgery to fix?

The NHS has been straining at the sides for years this is nothing to do with covid

You've got to wonder about an nhs that is so unable to cope that the govt is paying to advertise to tell people not to use it.

And as usual, the rule followers will see the ads and worry and the usual CFs will carry on regardless.

That’s the problem, isn’t it @Lockdownbear?

I thought it was normal to be tired and breathless after having baby: ended up in hospital getting a transfusion because the visiting midwife spotted it. I smashed up my finger, reluctantly went to A&E and ended up in for three days for an op!

And I’m relatively savvy 🤷🏻‍♀️

I agree too with you @casinoroyale4ever. This government is really a shitshow. Obsessing over the gender rubbish and baby boxes whilst the health service crumbles

I'd love to see evidence that these adverts affect the core groups of people 'needlessly' showing up at a&e.

I've actually become cynical that people show up at A&E without good reason.

Maybe the odd person who's thought something was more serious than it really is, indigestion vs heart attack, but some of the extreme turning up with broken nail stuff I think is likely to be MH or something else going on, or split down into the quick and bleeding not sure what to do with it.

@WouldBeGood they kept you in for a finger..
LO was 3, I took him to A&E with a smashed up finger, the sent us to Glasgow, who eventually said we aren't going to get to him today, bring him back at 7am! Back in the next morning, they operated about lunch time.

I felt like a bad mum, they asked if he had calpol, I hadn't even thought to give any before we left the house. I just knew my first aid box wasn't going to fix the finger - bone was hanging out it.

My friend called 111 a while ago - it took over 12 hours before they got a call back from a nurse - who told them to turn up at OOH. They went to OOH who wouldn't see them without an appointment/ referral, called 111 again, another long wait, by this time GP was open so they turned up there. Refused access by receptionist . Thankfully a GP passing by spotted them and told them to go straight to a&e. So I'd not always rely on 111 as a life saver.

In some cases 111 are good others are hopeless.
But the main thing is that couple didn't recognise the emergency, the GP wouldn't have sent them to A&E if he didn't think necessary. And that's what I mean lay people aren't always good at spotting serious issues or don't want to think they could be THAT ill.

Yep @Lockdownbear the whole finger thing was surreal!

For 111 in my experience you need to recognise there’s a problem and then use the right phrases to be seen

Maybe the answer is to have GPs do non-emergancy appointments and all urgent not sure if its an A&E or GP stuff dealt with via 111.

But they aren't always great at that either, DS1 had a badly brused toe nail, blood under the nail. 111 said GP, all I could get was the nurse, who got the GP, who breathed in though teeth, A&E we don't have the tools and it needs x-ray.
So that was 2 peoples time wasted

[quote Lockdownbear]@WouldBeGood they kept you in for a finger..
LO was 3, I took him to A&E with a smashed up finger, the sent us to Glasgow, who eventually said we aren't going to get to him today, bring him back at 7am! Back in the next morning, they operated about lunch time.

I felt like a bad mum, they asked if he had calpol, I hadn't even thought to give any before we left the house. I just knew my first aid box wasn't going to fix the finger - bone was hanging out it.[/quote]
Urk. This made me blanch lockdownbear! Glad he was OK.

Agree - us members of the public don't know what's life threatening and what's not... That's why we have medics. I'm sure some people do think A&E is a great place to go for a laugh, or to get treatment faster than just waiting for referrals or something, but I'm sure that's not the majority. Most I would think are there because they had been told to go by GPs/ 111 because they've presented with something the trained person thinks needs to be treated/ assessed further urgently. Which could presumably become life threatening if not treated - even seemingly "minor" accidents or so on.

But also, I'm sure a lot of overstretched departments are just a symptom of the rest of the system falling apart. If someone can't get a GP appointment, or doesn't know who to turn to for advice/ assessment at a particular point in time (at night, or at weekends...), they will end up in A&E if something gets worse (so it does become an emergency) or even if pain/ symptons get worse and they can't deal with it at home. So surely, even with Humza telling people off, I can't see how that will change without some people slipping through the net and dying when they didn't need to

He was OK, but I remember it like yesterday. I'll never forget how earrily quiet he was too.

Yes I think it might be a result of other sections straining at the seams. Things that have been ignored for months are now beyond urgent.

I also think lots of staff have left the NHS because of T&Cs which then has a domino affect on others.
So really they knew it was coming, where was the big recruitment drive to get people back and the pay to make it attractive.

People won't work for nothing.

I agree re the difficulty of the messaging re A&E. I worry about this given what happened last year.

As an example, I got a call from nursery one day that they had noticed DS had developed swelling over an eye but hadn't been in a fall. Ended up at A&E simply because GP surgery did not answer the phone, tried numerous times on late Friday afternoon. It was serious - it was early stage cellulitis but need immediate aggressive treatment to preserve sight. We had to go into hospital every day for monitoring.

Worse thing was I nearly didn't go to A&E partly because we had been there the previous week as DS had unexplained small marks under the skin that weren't fading under glass test (turned out not to be serious) and I'd got a bit of a lecture about going in and needing to consider at full clinical symptoms. We saw the same consultant for the cellulitis experience and I did make a comment about almost not going in.

It's not easy to tell how serious something is IMO.

BTW there is always a highish level of sickness absence within the NHS, and often quite a proportion of staff off because of things like mat leave / care of dependents etc

There may be a high level of sickness but they know that so should recuit enough people to cover it.
The other thing is stress, people going of with stress puts further stress on other people. So again people leave.

10 years ago my friend kept going on about people leaving and not being replace "do more with less" was the mantra that cannot go on indefinitely.

There’s much less sickness absence in jobs where you don’t get paid if you’re off.

I’m not a fascist, honest, but it’s true.

But the fault here lies with the SG for making NHS Scotland unfit for purpose, and particularly not preparing over the past year