Idiots who should NOT be going to A&E

Hi - a couple of years ago I had something in my eye, in a lot of discomfort - went to my optician (where I have spent thousands over the past 30 odd plus years) who are meant to be eye experts with up to the minute equipment - they refused to even look and said I had to go to A & E
I then tried 2 more opticians nearby, who said the same - when the eye consultant at A & E saw me a few hours later - he said that this was happening a lot, because opticians are wary of being sued - so passing on the responsibility - I'm self-employed so if the optician had done a five minute examination and advised me - it would have saved a very busy consultant from having to leave his ward to see me
- I would think that the number of opticians being sued would be very low (in fact I've never heard of one case) but multiply my case just once a day in every hospital in the country and there and you can get an idea why A & E are so overwhelmed

Last Friday DH had an outpatient's appointment with infectious diseases as a follow up to his lengthy hospital stay due to sepsis.

We couldn't understand why the waiting room was empty. The receptionist seemed pleased to see us. Not surprising as we were the only ones who had turned up.

I would imagine all the others had been up all night watching the election results and hadn't even bothered to phone and cancel. What other reason could there be?

We have never sat in an empty outpatients clinic before. It felt like the Marie Celeste.

It beggars belief how some people take the NHS for granted.

I think maybe all the admin involved in making sure the charge was paid would be detrimental?

If people were charged (say £5) for not attending their G P appointment there would be plenty of appointments.

I so agree with your post Tillybelle especially the last part, but as you live alone I do hope you have the numbers of a couple of good and willing friends who will at least pop round if you feel unwell make sure you are not getting worse and bring you moral support.
Don’t be a martyr!

I wouldn't dream of going to A and E unless it was an absolute emergency.
I watched an episode of 999 where the ambulance driver said only 5 percent of their calls now are for emergency situations.

The problem of not getting a doctors appointment is a whole different issue as far as I'm concerned.

I've had a couple of blue light journeys too Maw. All I remember though is the pain and feeling as though I was going to fall off the bed-thing. It was very bright too. Then when we arrived on one, they wheeled me out in front of a Police car and two burley Policemen hovered over me and I, very woozy, thought we were at Court! The Paramed said "Meet your Escorts" but all I wanted was darkness. Funny how you remember it all, really. I don't know how the turn taking is arranged really as I or my family member have always been taken in by ambulance. My ambulance had to wait outside a little while once but again they brought me forward because of the pain.
Since I was about ten years old I have noticed the massive difference between what people regard as requiring to see a Doctor, or going to A and E. I remember having a tummy bug that was going round, my mother saying "You have to wait for it to go." When better I called on my friend who had just started being sick and her mother was phoning the Doctor.... Recently someone told me she drove her friend to A and E because he had a raised temperature and a sore throat. On seeing the waiting time was 4 hours, they left... The next day he was out in the rain and cold taking a walk....
I am ill most of the time now, by which I mean I cannot go out and can hardly do anything, sometimes not get dressed. I am usually too ill to drive to the surgery and there seems little point in going when I feel better. I have several times been in excessive pain so that I couldn't move, nearly always at night. It's fortunate I couldn't move, as it prevented me from phoning anyone and I wouldn't be able to get to the door to let the ambulance people in. They always send for an ambulance when I get this pain. So now I just yell a bit, try and take whatever I've got near me as pain relief, and decide that if I die, I die, but I'd rather risk that than go into hospital.... The last time in A&E was just hell. The poor staff seemed muddled, and then there were the terrible staff - 2 in particular - just terrible, possibly HCAs but couldn't have been trained! So rude! Then being in hospital is just ghastly too. So I try not to draw attention to myself and just be ill on my own.
I always leave lots of water and dry food in different places for the dogs in case I die! I hope someone would realise I wasn't around after a few days...

CoolioC other than the GP visit the other prices you quoted do vary according to what xray , scan etc you have. My CT scans were €31 in the NHS compared to €138 paying privately and my 30 minutes physio and occupational therapy was €7.20 so I preferred to pay €15 for an hours treatment from my local physio. Now I am having cancer treatment my scans are free.

Portugal has never had a good, reliable health service anyway, Daisyboots, whereas it used to be much better over here.

If I walked unto my local health centre here in Portugal tomorrow morning and asked for an appointment to see my doctor it would be sometime in April if I am lucky. If I want an emergency appointment I need to queue from 7.15 until the centre opens at 8am in the hope of getting one of 4 emergency appointments with her that day. So really no better than in the UK pkus you have to pay €4.50 to see the GP then a discounted price for prescriptions. Or you are told to go to A&E at the nearest hospital wgere you woll be charged €12 when you arrrive and later small amounts for any blood tests, x rays etc. Once there you are triaged and given a wristband colour depending on the urgency to see a doctor. I have only used the health service here when I had a fall and broke my shoulder and arm and now having cancer. Since we moved here 12 years ago we have belonged to a private clinic where we can see a doctor from 10am to 10pm 7 days a week for €29 a month for the family. As my 91 year old mother moved over with us we obviously needed something better than the PT NHS so this clinic was a blessing. Plus it freed up the local health centre doctors a bit.

It should be made clearer that it’s ACCIDENT and EMERGENCY only all minor ailments will not be treated

I'm amazed at the misinformation in some replies. Why do some people persist in blaming Labour 'debt' when the Tories have got us in far more debt since?

Why does Merlotgran blame 'Tenerife man' when he couldn't get a GP appointment? With any heart condition, a check before flying is recommended. It involves a hospital visit anyway! It's just too easy to blame other patients - rather than insufficient staff and funding.

Thank you for your interesting posts, Dryad

Talking of minor injury units, we have one six miles away and have used it a couple of times. It also has an out of hours doctor on duty so if you ring 111 that's where they suggest you go.

The only problem with that is they often end up sending you to A&E anyway and you've just driven six miles in the opposite direction.

I don't suppose Tenerife man needed a once-over as a condition before flying did he? Just that my cousin had a stroke while in the air and has had some minor strokes since. He has to be checked out now before they let him fly.

I wonder how many really think about the name
“Accident”
&
“Emergency”
I know I am stating the obvious!
But honestly until the NHS can either address the shortage of GPs or come up with an adequate out-of-hours service, perhaps staffed by nurse practitioners with a couple of doctors on call, people will roll up at A&E .
Better triage might help too but it is clear that the system as it stands just “pushes” all patients up the line until a massive logjam results.
A personal grouse is the patients who appear to bring their entire extended family plus a mate or two (for moral support?) who then further clog up the waiting area and add to the noise and general disturbance. Paw was usually blue lighted in, but once when I took him by car I had to ask someone to find a chair for the poor man!

@welbeck can I just clarify? You think it perfectly acceptable for a girl to go to A&E to ask for the morning after pill IN ADVANCE of a night out rather than taking responsibility for having safe protected sex?? At the very least, I would rather think that that is in breach of its licence. What do others think?

M0nica Just got to thank you. You always are so informative and talk such good sense. I'm speaking with reference to Gordon Brown 2008 etc.

Agggh the furriners.

Train your own. Yes as one poster said it may take 10 years but there you go.

It’s a brilliant idea Chestnut, train the trades required including teachers free of charge then tie them in for ten years if they are fully financed. Hopefully it would help relieve the overworked staff in the long run.

Here for example everyone, rich, poor, children, elderly in receipt of benefit or not pays

4.50 euro to visit the GP
1.20 euro for an X-ray
5.20 physio therapy per session
18.00 euro scan

I can only quote these figures because we have used these in the last week. You also pay for your drugs.

Dentist
50.00 euro for inspection and filling
150 root canal
1000-1250 per implant

A few thoughts on this post:
I have been to my local surgery several times over the last few weeks and haven’t had a problem seeing a nurse practitioner.I am asthmatic and have been having quite severe breathing problems and a cough and, at the same time, an allergic reaction to some new blood thinners, which has given me hives and a very severe itch which is completely debilitating.
I did see my wonderful GP towards the end of November and he wanted me to have an ecg followed by an echocardiogram ( I also have a heart problem).
I had the ecg at the practice very quickly then I waited and waited for the echo. I thought it would be at one of the local hospitals but I eventually heard, 3 weeks after my GP had seen me,from an organisation called In Health who have branches all over the country and who take referrals from GPS.They couldn’t offer me an appointment until January 20th. I have my follow-up with my GP next Monday, nearly a month before I have the scan! I don’t know why In Health took so long to contact me, but they sent me 3 e-mails on Monday evening asking why I hadn’t booked my appointment, when that was the first time I had heard from them! The message said there were several appointments available this week. They were closed when I picked up the e-mails which arrived in the evening, so I called them first thing on Tuesday morning but there were no appointments available until January 20th. This is for an urgent echocardiogram. Is this the start of the privatisation of the Health Service? If so, it doesn’t bode well!
On the other hand, yesterday I was really suffering with a terrible itch and breathing problems, so I rang the practice and they booked me in the same morning to see a GP in the other practice in the village- apparently, if one surgery has no appointments and the other one does you can get an appointment there. As everything is computerised now, the other doctor can easily access your notes. The doctor I saw was great, and gave me some new, very strong cream for the itch, which has certainly helped. He also detected a heart murmur which nobody in my own practice had noticed. I really think I need that echocardiogram sooner than Jan 20th!
My daughter’s friend, who was at university with her, qualified as a GP but has now retrained as a hospital doctor as the workload as a GP was far too much.
Sorry this is so long!

I don't agree with the people slating teneriffe man.
we don't know his underlying condition, it seems he'd had heart disease. and it not easy to get a gp apt for weeks ahead' many place you have to ring each morning to try get appt. I've given up. they will not allow you to book an appt for a week or more ahead. the system is not user-friendly. as for the girl who wanted the morning after pill in anticipation, well yea she could have got it from a pharmacy and paid for it. but not everyone is as organised, and wouldn't it be cheaper to the nhs than the costs of a termination, or maternity and onwards costs.

Like that in our bit of France. Doctor will visit if you request it. Basically his surgery is open until everyone who turns up is seen.
I've accompanied people to A&E twice. First time, Saturday night, we were the only one's there. Second time we were seen within 10 minutes.
None of my French neighbours would dream of going to A&E for a minor ailment. They find it amazing when they see what A&Es in the UK are like. And as for waiting weeks to see your GP, no way.
And before anyone tells me that the French pay for their healthcare, well so does every taxpayer in the UK. The NHS is not free, only free at the "point of sale". No-one in France would ever get turned away if they didn't have insurance.

Gagajo am with you - as a big user of our NHS over the last 2 decades, I have watched it closely .... In 2010, it was just getting there - targets were being met and they were upping their game. Then, as a definitive plan by the Tories as soon as they came into power, it has been deliberately run down in order to sell it off - making it so bad that we 'the great unwashed' will not complain too much when they do! Am not entirely sure how Boris will take it "off the table" when the time comes, but take it off, he will ...... I wonder how many MP's and Tory friends have their fingers in the US Healthcare/Insurance pies, and have had for a long time? Would make a useful FOI question if I felt well enough to go there ....

As for GP's, the Tory party sent around a pre-election leaflet stating that they were going to be offering 500,000 more GP appointments! Really - there is a recruitment crisis, where are these appointments going to come from exactly?? Ahh yes, immigrants - if an affluent area like Marlborough cannot recruit GP's, how does inner city Bristol manage?

I am fortunate to have an "Outstanding" Practice to go to - I can always get an appointment if needed and our area offers IMPROVED ACCESS APPOINTMENTS, where if you are able to travel or get there, you can see a GP in the area 5 days a week up until 8pm, and on a Saturday morning. We do not have this useless "ring at 8am" nonsense, nor a pricey phone number - we speak to our receptionists directly, and are then triaged by a Dispensing Nurse Practitioner and seen by her or a GP as required.

"Refreshed planning guidance published in February 2018, now requires CCGs to provide extended access to GP services, including at evenings and weekends, for 100% of their population by 1 October 2018. This must include ensuring access is available during peak times of demand including bank holidays and across the Easter, Christmas and New Year periods." ASK and if they refuse to give quote the above!

If all else fails join your practice's Patient Representative Group - it is useful to know what is going on and to put yours and your other local patients' views across!

Another example - when I first got hearing aids one of the plugs detached and I thought it was still in my ear (found it on the floor later.)
I asked at Specsavers what I should have done if I hadn't found it and she said "Go to A&E!"

I always think that on arrival at A and E, people should be asked if they are presenting as an accident or as an emergency and why. Anyone turning up with a bit of a cough or whatever can then be signposted and sent off to the correct place to get sorted and leave A and E to do what it is intended for.