A&E Departments stretched to the limit

[Arthurgray50@blu]

I had to take my son to our local A & E today following his return from holiday, as his legs, had swollen up to an enormous size, and were told an receptionist that our waiting time, would be at least two hours, and as he was in pain, we waited, and in that time, what really got up my nose, was that the hard working Dr's and Nurses, were over stretched by, what l could only descibe as ' silly ' ailments and total waste of there time, there were some very genuine cases, ie, a man with a swollen ankle, a guy with blood streaming out of his nose, which wouldn't stop, the rest were all walking into the unit, with nothing more than a cut finger, two people with chest pains,that were seen right away for obvious reasons, but it highlighted to me that some of the patients could have contacted NHS Direct or called the out the GP or even waited until the following morning to be seen by the own GP, the strangest thing was, we had a family of five walk in, and there were laughing and joking, and the gut sitting next to me, said, who is the patient, the problem that my son had, was he picked up a bug on holiday and made the muscles in his leg, go solid, and they were surprised he lasted a ten hour flight, l think what the good people of the UK, should do is think long and hard before going to the A & E, contact NHS Direct or your own GP, as you might be causing a problem and have to wait 4 / 5 hours, just to be told, take a paracetomol

[Mick Fisher]

I have to agree with everything you say Arthur but would like to add that I feel people may have lost all faith in their GP's out of hours service which of course just adds to A & E Depts. problems without mentioning the alchohol related stuff.
I have had experience of my GP's out of hours service recently and it was dire. I phoned my local surgery on a Saturday morning as I was having difficulty breathing. I got a recoded message telling me to call a Kettering number. I got through to some service called Key Docs and was able to call out a Emergency Doctor. Well he arrived some 2 to 3 hours later with apologies that he couldn't find a TAXI. He explained he couldn't drive as he was banned for drinking and driving. He kept the Taxi waiting while he examined me. Said he didn't know what was wrong, phoned for an ambulance and cleared off.
Assuming he came direct from Kettering to Rushden just for me that's a round Taxi trip of about 50 miles plus the waiting time.
Utter madness, so I can see that's one reason why people go directly to A & E that could be eliminated with a bit of pressure put on GP's to organise there own out of hours service instead of sub contracting it out.

[Enuff]

I was suffering from bad chest pain, so called NHS Direct, who told me to see my GP within the hour. I phoned my GP to make an appointment to be seen within the hour, but the receptionist told me to go to A&E. which I did, and was seen to right away.

I'll know next time to just go streight to A&E.

[frogstamper]

Originally Posted by Enuff

I was suffering from bad chest pain, so called NHS Direct, who told me to see my GP within the hour. I phoned my GP to make an appointment to be seen within the hour, but the receptionist told me to go to A&E. which I did, and was seen to right away.

I'll know next time to just go streight to A&E.

I had an almost identical situation Enuff, about a year ago about midnight I began getting bad chest pains, so I rang NHS direct. The guy told me to go straight to casualty, upon arrival I was hooked up to one of those monitors in less than 10mins. To be honest I couldn't fault the treatment I received, I reckon casualty is great on the big stuff but as the original poster says, too many people run there with petty problems that could be sorted by their GPs.

---------- Post added at 01:18 ---------- Previous post was at 01:08 ----------

Originally Posted by Mick Fisher

I have to agree with everything you say Arthur but would like to add that I feel people may have lost all faith in their GP's out of hours service which of course just adds to A & E Depts. problems without mentioning the alchohol related stuff.
I have had experience of my GP's out of hours service recently and it was dire. I phoned my local surgery on a Saturday morning as I was having difficulty breathing. I got a recoded message telling me to call a Kettering number. I got through to some service called Key Docs and was able to call out a Emergency Doctor. Well he arrived some 2 to 3 hours later with apologies that he couldn't find a TAXI. He explained he couldn't drive as he was banned for drinking and driving. He kept the Taxi waiting while he examined me. Said he didn't know what was wrong, phoned for an ambulance and cleared off.
Assuming he came direct from Kettering to Rushden just for me that's a round Taxi trip of about 50 miles plus the waiting time.
Utter madness, so I can see that's one reason why people go directly to A & E that could be eliminated with a bit of pressure put on GP's to organise there own out of hours service instead of sub contracting it out.

In reply to your post of out of hours GPs, one story I read recently in the papers was of this Polish doctor who worked all week in Poland, then for two days he worked in Scotland. The bit I found almost unbelievable was that he regularly went back to Poland between shifts!, making his working day in excess of 18 hours. If you are a lorry driver you have set rest periods, surely the same should apply to doctors?

[J..M]

I did security in a hospital once (4 weeks 12 Hr Shifts Nights) ........ I stood in for someone who was ill (Its not my usual job) I thought it would be easy ....... It was over December & I was in A&E..... I had been hit four times before I just plain & simple got nasty ......... I was supposed to go over to people & calm them down (nay to tricky) & occasionally (17 times in total) Persuade people to leave...... In the end as I was sick of being used as a punch-bag I roughly used to eject em ...... & if they got really stroppy I just used to smack em..... I'll never do a job like that again..... The population of England doesn't deserve the NHS...... I think if they closed the hospitals completely for a couple of years the majority of the "Real" idiots would just plain die, & the decent people would unfortunately die too.... Either way the world would be a better place with less idiots & few sick people in it....... I know its a bit extreme

[RizzyKing]

"the world would be a better place with less idiots & few sick people in it....... I know its a bit extreme" not extreme at all disgusting would be a better word and i gaurantee your attitude will change the day you have a serious illness. Out of hours doctors are a joke and tbh i have only called them once when i was doubling up in pain everytime i coughed (had flu so coughing was regular) after two and a half hours of me on the floor i got my cousin to take me into A&E where i was diagnosed with chronic pnuemonia thankfully the hospital were very good and i made a full recovery but after that i wouldn't even entertain calling an out of hours doctor. Worst thing was the doctor i had called for turned up five hours after i called him and when my wife said i had gone to A&E and what they had diagnosed me with he still made a comment about people wasting the time of doctors out of hours.

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by RizzyKing

"the world would be a better place with less idiots & few sick people in it....... I know its a bit extreme" not extreme at all disgusting would be a better word and i gaurantee your attitude will change the day you have a serious illness. Out of hours doctors are a joke and tbh i have only called them once when i was doubling up in pain everytime i coughed (had flu so coughing was regular) after two and a half hours of me on the floor i got my cousin to take me into A&E where i was diagnosed with chronic pnuemonia thankfully the hospital were very good and i made a full recovery but after that i wouldn't even entertain calling an out of hours doctor. Worst thing was the doctor i had called for turned up five hours after i called him and when my wife said i had gone to A&E and what they had diagnosed me with he still made a comment about people wasting the time of doctors out of hours.

Funny you should say that about call out docs.
When I broke two ribs in a car accident while I was at uni, the hospital kicked me out as soon as my temperature came down below 100 (They said I had a chest infection, not the pnuemonia I actually had!).
The first morning home, I woke to be violently sick, not nice when I'd slipped down the bed and found it difficult/extremely painful to sit up.
I couldn't even keep a sip of water down, so mum called the doctor out.
This giggling woman arrived and said she could give me an injection to stop the vomitting, but it had a side effect in young men that it could cause chest spasms.
Great, 2 broken ribs and the chance of painful chest spasms so I declined her offer.
Spent all day being unable to take any pain killers, and wasn't going to use the huge suppository she'd left, so got mum to phone the doctor again.
This time a bloke came out and gave me an injection.
I asked about the chest spasm side effects and he gave me a look as if to say "what on earth are you talking about?"
He explained it was travel sickness medication which prevents the stomach muscles from contracting.
So I was put through a day of agony and dehydration because of the first doctor who came out!

[Osem]

There are 2 A&E depts a few miles from where we live. Sadly our youngest has had to visit both on numerous occasions and we've yet to have done so and found anything less than long queues and a 2-3 hour wait.

The sad thing is that despite the electorate having decided to 'save the NHS' in 1997 as a result of Bliar's false promises, one of the A&E's is now up for closure! In my view, given the densely populated part of London they serve, this will put an intolerable burden on the facilities provided at the other dept. which is struggling to cope as it is. If closing A&E depts. is saving the NHS in Bliar's book, no wonder he found it easy to con us into a war.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

When l placed this thread, it was to highlight the main problem of the petty problems, which overstretch the A&E depts, IF you are having chest pains, or losing blood from front or back ends, or dizzyness, constantly THEN you must go to hospital, l have a moto, if in doubt, check it out, casualty departments staff are excellant people to know, and l could not do there jobs, they are wonderful people, but all l am saying, please don't misuse this, whereas some people do, for trivial matters, that can be dealt with by a GP or even a chemist. there are some chemists now work 24 hours a day or from 8am till midnight, they are very good at advice.

[Nidge]

The Casualty staff at Kings Mill Hospital near me are spot on, how they work the weekends in there is beyond me, it's full to the brim of people who have been on the beer, they are throwing up all over the place, abusing the Doctors and Nurses fighting in the waiting room I could go on.

[Xaccers]

Many A&E's have nurses to deal with the smaller cases, like a cut finger or a head stuck in a saucepan.

[Stuart C]

Our local hospital trust operated four local hospitals. It has since sold the land one was on and used the proceeds to fund the closure of another (they built a new one on the site).

Anyway, a few years ago, they realised that using casualty to treat minor injuries is actually very expensive, so they offered to refit the smallest hospital in the borough as a minor injuries unit that the local gps could use to treat minor injuries instead of casualty. Local gps where not interested.

[Derek S]

Sadly as a side effect of my job I see a lot of my local A&E.
There the nurses and staff do a great job considering the amount of oxygen thieves who take up their time, especially after a night on the bevvy.

I'd like to see them be able to recoup the costs of treatment for drugs and alcohol from patients the same way costs from car accidents can be claimed back.