A & E Delays killing up to 500 per week

I can only talk from my own experience but the agencies used for my daughter's social care are a multi national and they employ nurses directly from commonwealth countries who work in social care whilst gaining UK qualifications in order to work as nurses in the NHS. I'm not sure this is a bad thing, we have had some amazing care staff (some not so good - buy hey - that's care!)

I sat in a&e with my terminally ill husband while a lady ( not a word I want to use) was waiting to be seen while swigging from a vodka bottle. I could not hold my tongue!! People use A&E for the most stupid reason ever. Its a joke. When I broke my arm it took me 4 hours to decide if I was right to go to hospital as I didn't want to waste their time. People need to grow up and learn what A&E is for

Watching BBC News- it is just horrendous.

One question OH just asked and to which I'd really like an answer.

WHO is owning the Companies making millions providing Agency Staff to the NHS at massive costs. Hmmmm I wonder.

Nanatoone

Recently my daughter had an infected finger. A simple course of antibiotics could have resolved it and get on with her day. Call GP, told to see a pharmacist. Ok, sees a pharmacist, you need antibiotics (really?), tried to see GP over next two days, no chance. Then phoned 111 as the infection was by now travelling and incredibly painful. Gets a text from the GP about her “swollen finger” saying ring tomorrow. In the meantime we decided it needed urgent care. They triaged and agreed it now needed lancing and antibiotics. Waited hours, then at half past eleven at night (we were the last there) they closed and sent us to A&E. Waited for more hours then went home (no chance of such a “minor thing” being dealt with, of course no one had actually looked at it for seven hours or they might have felt differently.. Demanded to see GP next morning, saw GP, who said oooo, that looks nasty, antibiotics, painkillers etc. marked it, said if it gets worse straight to urgent care. Within the hour the infection has spread again and back we went to urgent care. Lanced, after being roundly told off for her GP not doing it (!) and for leaving A&E, seriously annoyed by now. The infection was by now black. She is a senior school English teacher. Had to have a week off work. Kids had to have a cover teacher. She had endured severe pain and was so close to having sepsis. All for the want of an early treatment with antibiotics. I despair. Sorry for the long message, but seriously, how to make something simple turn into something serious. Not to mention the knock on effect on the school where she works.

You raise such a good point. All this deterring people from seeking medical advice, self diagnose etc., OK works well for most of the time but sometimes you need expert medical advice.

JaneJudge

Strep A has been rife here, all the staff at works kids had it. Where has the diphtheria come from?

Where my dd works, some of the population travel to and from countries that have poor vaccination records and they themselves may never have been vaccinated either. Hence something like diphtheria gets into the UK.

Growstuff, there does need to be some sort of information programme for parents, I think. These are not very poorly children being brought into hospital, these are children who’ve maybe come home from school with a runny nose or sneezing and their families want them to be seen straight away.

Perhaps because we no longer seem to have the baby clinics and health visitors that our generation remember, today’s parents may not gain the knowledge they need to made such assessments.

I agree that more use could be made of pharmacists. I used to work for one who was excellent at assessing people’s issues and either giving appropriate medication or telling them they needed to see someone. I myself have had Strep throat a few times (thankfully not for quite a number of years now!). I know the symptoms and I know what’s needed, and I’d have been more than happy to get AB’s from a pharmacist, rather than see a doctor.

I know that over-prescription of antibiotics is a huge problem, but I wonder if pharmacists should be allowed to prescribe them in emergencies. People don't usually have a problem seeing a pharmacist and they're trained to know about drugs. In cases such as this, it must have been blatantly obvious that ABs were needed.

It is a horrible story, your poor daughter x

Nanatoone, your report of the escalation of your DD's finger infection is like that moral tale we all used to be told "For want of a horse shoe nail, the battle was lost". Dreadful and so unnecessary, I hope your DD is recovering well.

my county borders Essex and if there were several cases where I work, God knows how many cases there actually were. The school my youngest goes to sent out lots of medical stuff saying it had been in school and stay away if there were any symptoms.

There have been clusters in Colchester and Tendring.

It was in one of the papers (Essex Live, I think).

There was one case at our local school that we are aware of, notified on 15/12.

growstuff

Callistemon21

JaneJudge

Strep A has been rife here, all the staff at works kids had it. Where has the diphtheria come from?

It has arrived with asylum seekers, apparently

An increase in cases of toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae has been identified among asylum seekers arriving into England in 2022 and 2023.
Gov.uk

Will the government introduce a vaccination programme for children?

I thought children in the UK are routinely vaccinated against diptheria.

I'm out of touch with childhood vaccinations - yes, you're right.

Yes U.K. babies are growstuff unfortunately during lockdown the vaccination programme was rather patchy

GrannyGravy13

JaneJudge

Strep A has been rife here, all the staff at works kids had it. Where has the diphtheria come from?

My teenage GS had Strep A (swobbed and confirmed) the week before Christmas, he along with sibling and parents were prescribed antibiotics.
It was also in another GS’s school along with Scarlet Fever.

There were 15 confirmed cases of scarlet fever in Essex by 6th December.

Callistemon21

JaneJudge

Strep A has been rife here, all the staff at works kids had it. Where has the diphtheria come from?

It has arrived with asylum seekers, apparently

An increase in cases of toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae has been identified among asylum seekers arriving into England in 2022 and 2023.
Gov.uk

Will the government introduce a vaccination programme for children?

I thought children in the UK are routinely vaccinated against diptheria.

JaneJudge

Strep A has been rife here, all the staff at works kids had it. Where has the diphtheria come from?

My teenage GS had Strep A (swobbed and confirmed) the week before Christmas, he along with sibling and parents were prescribed antibiotics.
It was also in another GS’s school along with Scarlet Fever.

JaneJudge

Strep A has been rife here, all the staff at works kids had it. Where has the diphtheria come from?

It has arrived with asylum seekers, apparently

An increase in cases of toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae has been identified among asylum seekers arriving into England in 2022 and 2023.
Gov.uk

Will the government introduce a vaccination programme for children?

Recently my daughter had an infected finger. A simple course of antibiotics could have resolved it and get on with her day. Call GP, told to see a pharmacist. Ok, sees a pharmacist, you need antibiotics (really?), tried to see GP over next two days, no chance. Then phoned 111 as the infection was by now travelling and incredibly painful. Gets a text from the GP about her “swollen finger” saying ring tomorrow. In the meantime we decided it needed urgent care. They triaged and agreed it now needed lancing and antibiotics. Waited hours, then at half past eleven at night (we were the last there) they closed and sent us to A&E. Waited for more hours then went home (no chance of such a “minor thing” being dealt with, of course no one had actually looked at it for seven hours or they might have felt differently.. Demanded to see GP next morning, saw GP, who said oooo, that looks nasty, antibiotics, painkillers etc. marked it, said if it gets worse straight to urgent care. Within the hour the infection has spread again and back we went to urgent care. Lanced, after being roundly told off for her GP not doing it (!) and for leaving A&E, seriously annoyed by now. The infection was by now black. She is a senior school English teacher. Had to have a week off work. Kids had to have a cover teacher. She had endured severe pain and was so close to having sepsis. All for the want of an early treatment with antibiotics. I despair. Sorry for the long message, but seriously, how to make something simple turn into something serious. Not to mention the knock on effect on the school where she works.

From a parent/carer's perspective, I'd never forgive myself if my child's "childhood symptoms" turned out to be something serious.

Maybe there needs to be a public information campaign about where to draw the line with asking for medical help, especially with children.

SueDonim Your DD's experience isn't typical of all A&Es and certainly isn't causing the ambulance queues.

eazybee 'So easy to blame the Government.'

well who else? Can you cite any other countries in the developed world who is having such a crisis currently. NONE. Al under pressure, of course, but all coping.

Strep A has been rife here, all the staff at works kids had it. Where has the diphtheria come from?

there not their

well it's just been on the itv news about a poor little girl who has died from sepsis who had been seen in Wigan by various medical professionals and even waited in A&E for hours. I feel for the staff in A&E too, it must be such a tiring, thankless job and their so much death and exterior human emotion from family members too

Dd says when you have to chase round the department to catch up with said child patient who is haring about the place, generally you can be pretty sure they don’t have Strep A! They haven’t seen any Strep or Scarlet Fever in their area, thank goodness. She also said not one patient/parent has mentioned either of those diseases.

They’d had diphtheria in the Adults A&E, though, which is scary.