How can A&E waiting time be made shorter?

[Daven 10]

Quick question, why would someone travel to A & E to have a verruca or a haemorrhoid looked at? GP or walk in for both, or for the haemmorhoid, just buy ointment from a pharmacy, unless of course it's been left too long. Common sense seems to have gone out of fashion.

 

Solve that one and you'll be a long way towards reducing waiting times in A&E .

Both of the above can be treated with 'over the counter' medications - local pharmacist will give advice free of charge and with no waiting around.

Edited November 24, 2014 by Daven

[ANGELFIRE1 10]

Anyone with a drink related injury should be put to the back of the queue in my opinion .The NHS is stretched to the limit there has to be some way to get through to the morons who feel they have a right to treatment no matter what . Makes my blood boil ,so many people who seriously need treatment are not getting it because money is being spent in appropriately . The bus idea sounds great to me ,1 nurse doing the sorting ,so a long wait then another few hours wait at the other end maybe next time they will think more carefully about going to A &E with earache .

 

Hope your daughter is doing ok !

 

A good few years ago my wife had the misfortune to suffer severe earache in the early evening. By midnight she was almost banging her head on the wall due to the pain.

A quick ride down to A&E followed. To cut along story short, she had a growth on the ear drum, which the doctor removed by suction. The pain went immediately, although she had to have her ear packed for a week.

On returning to outpatients to have the packing removed she was told that the growth had started to eat her eardrum, and if she had left it without attention her drum would have been perforated.

 

Angel1

[Daven 10]

A good few years ago my wife had the misfortune to suffer severe earache in the early evening. By midnight she was almost banging her head on the wall due to the pain.

A quick ride down to A&E followed. To cut along story short, she had a growth on the ear drum, which the doctor removed by suction. The pain went immediately, although she had to have her ear packed for a week.

On returning to outpatients to have the packing removed she was told that the growth had started to eat her eardrum, and if she had left it without attention her drum would have been perforated.

 

Angel1

 

Really pleased she received prompt treatment and relief from her pain.

Thank God for the NHS eh ?

[tinfoilhat 11]

Solve that one and you'll be a long way towards reducing waiting times in A&E .

Both of the above can be treated with 'over the counter' medications - local pharmacist will give advice free of charge and with no waiting around.

 

GPs can solve alot of problems but for a huge number of people it's easier to get an audience with the Pope than it is to see a GP. Mind you, they suffer from similar problems - people rocking up with a cold or the squirts.

[ratter71 10]

Just some back of the envelope ideas, (all no doubt with problems, it's a case of which of them can be solved most easily...)

 

 

Drop in centres to include minor emergency treatments.

 

 

Like the minor injuries unit at the RHH or the Broad Lane WIC.

 

Paddy wagons out in force at the weekends to lock up drunks

 

And when the first drunk dies in custody or the first hypo dies in custody?

 

Ambulances able to deal with minor emergency treatments in situ.

 

They do. Did you think ambulances just turned up and took people to hospital? See, treat and leave or where required onward referal without transport to hospital is all part of the remit

 

A&E to be for ambulance/ambulance-car admissions only except in exceptional cases.

 

Dont you think the 999 service is under enough pressure without drastically increasing demand.

 

 

Longer term, I'd like to see GP units with more diagnostic tools, like ultrasound and x-ray facilities. (Anyone remember the old x-ray vans that used to go round to firms to do chest Xrays? Do they still do that anymore?)

 

Big investment for little return. If somebody could come up with an effective way for GPs to perform a chest pain rule-out that would help massively

[tinfoilhat 11]

Like the minor injuries unit at the RHH or the Broad Lane WIC.

 

 

And when the first drunk dies in custody or the first hypo dies in custody?

 

 

 

They do. Did you think ambulances just turned up and took people to hospital? See, treat and leave or where required onward referal without transport to hospital is all part of the remit

 

 

 

Dont you think the 999 service is under enough pressure without drastically increasing demand.

 

 

 

Big investment for little return. If somebody could come up with an effective way for GPs to perform a chest pain rule-out that would help massively

 

Other countries have drunk tanks - like Finland. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4384992.stm

[ratter71 10]

Other countries have drunk tanks - like Finland. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4384992.stm

 

If other countries jumped under a bus should we? (to paraphrase me mum)

 

We came across one man with a nasty gash to the head. He had not been attacked, he was just so drunk he fell over and knocked himself out.

 

The police here wouldnt touch this guy, quite rightly as he would need to be seen in A&E.

 

All entrants to the "tank" woud need medically screening prior to being left to sleep it off & the outcry when the inevitable happened would probably lead to a massive u turn & the tanks being closed

[Daven 10]

GPs can solve alot of problems but for a huge number of people it's easier to get an audience with the Pope than it is to see a GP. Mind you, they suffer from similar problems - people rocking up with a cold or the squirts.

 

But a GP surgery is a more appropriate place for those with 'colds and the squirts' to rock up to than Accident and Emergency - clue is in the name of the department.

[tinfoilhat 11]

But a GP surgery is a more appropriate place for those with 'colds and the squirts' to rock up to than Accident and Emergency - clue is in the name of the department.

 

Yeah, I get that. The point I was making was that some of the strain on A&Es is due to lack of access to GPs. Do a search on here - there are loads of threads about it.

[Daven 10]

Educate people that A&E is for accidents and emergencies -the clue is in the name of the department.

Any other ailment should been seen by GP's , the walk in centre or the local pharmacist can give medical advice too.

GP's should be made to earn the huge wages they are given and open 7 days a week and for 12 hours at a time to allow A&E departments to do the work they were set up to do. It's time GP's pulled their weight - they are the weakest link in the NHS and need a rather hard kick in the nether regions.

What you don't see when you are sitting in the waiting room is the acute trauma patients being brought in by ambulance around the back in resus and the holding ward.

Hope your daughter received the necessary treatment in the appropriate place in the end.

 

---------- Post added 22-11-2014 at 09:42 ----------

 

 

Pleased to hear your life was saved - thank God for the NHS.

 

---------- Post added 22-11-2014 at 09:49 ----------

 

 

Not sure what the protocol is now but totally agree.

Some time ago it was suggested that a shuttle bus should be provided for people who attend A&E inappropriately to be taken to the walk in centre in town. My source told me that a small bus could be filled within an hour or so on an average day:o

 

I know - I have posted on most of them !

[Daven 10]

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/nd-e-departments-expecting-unprecedented-numbers-people-1481072

 

Think before you visit A&E tomorrow.

If you can't get an appointment with your GP go to the walk in centre on Broad Lane or the minor injuries unit @ RHH.- the wait to be seen there is likely to be shorter than if you go to A&E.

A&E is for accidents and emergencies only.

Thank you.

Edited December 28, 2014 by Daven

[Frederick1 10]

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/nd-e-departments-expecting-unprecedented-numbers-people-1481072

 

Think before you visit A&E tomorrow.

If you can't get an appointment with your GP go to the walk in centre on Broad Lane or the minor injuries unit @ RHH.- the wait to be seen there is likely to be shorter than if you go to A&E.

A&E is for accidents and emergencies only.

Thank you.

 

If people WOULD only think Daven!

As you say, A & E is for exactly what it says!

 

:)