- Joined
- May 7, 2012
- Messages
- 22,332
Such a difficult dilemma. I mean, you know your body better then anybody else. I am sometimes afraid I don't take pains and issues too seriously. So I would probably not have gone to A&E yet. But that's just me.
Also I don't completely understand the concept of A&E and ER in your countries. Because in my country, if you would go, you would get helped basically right away. So we might be talking about something else.
But I'm happy you felt a bit better in your last posts. I hope it's just a false alarm.
oh nooo, we are talking same thing, but your country is smaller and mu ch better government, by what I know..
ER = Emergency Room
A& E = Accident & Emergency
Thing is, you are seen almost straight away by the triage nurse, but these days, even the triage nurse has a waiting time if you don't arrive in an ambulance or profusely bleeding or with chest pains.
When you arrive, you go to the reception counter, give your details and tell them what your issue is.
If you are having palpitations, can't breath properly or are bleeding or are screaming in pain, you may get taken straight away to another room and be seen quiet fast.
In this case, I would give my details, they would log me in and then I will wait an average of 15/20 minutes as they are under staffed, generally there are only 2 triage nurses in hospitals like University College of London Hospitals,which we call UCH. The triage nurse listens to you, takes your blood pressure, and depending of your complain, you may have blood taken with the nurse or whatever they can do to assess what is going on, then you are sent to the waiting room again....and then is when you would have to wait in cases like what is going on with me now.
Even after the doctor sees you, sometimes you are seen by students or a junior doctor, or an intern or a resident or some like that, not someone who can make decisions without someone else of higher rank , so you will have to wait even more. When I was admitted in 2013 (I don;t think you were around then, but some of the girls may remember) it was my gallbladder so I had to admitted to get intravenous antibiotics, long story, but I ended up having the gallbladder removed in an operation...... 8 months later. So yes, we are talking same thing, but priority is given to people who are in risk of dying...and I don't think I am ...well, not right away and not because of this pain... so my average wait would be 4 or 5 hours. It is less when is children, but still, in a few occasions that I had to take Sarita as a child...we did wait, less, but wait never the less ...
so that is one bug thing that puts me off going, because I know I would end up making my every day pain a lot worse... I imagine the difference is because you guys are less people, your NHS staff maybe better paid and the whole health service has to be a lot more organized for what I know about .... Thanks so much for making time to post here Bernie, you know how much I love you!!!!!
As an update to everyone: my GP/family doctors aren't picking up the phone. There is a GP number for weekends one can call, but that would be even more complicated than going to the ER, so we will go a bit later when I know I can park without being fined
I was able to sleep, and I am now having coffee and I am hungry...so, that is one thing that makes me less worried
Thanks YOU so so much girls to keep me occupied and reassured last night!!!!
