Article DIY A&E: third of Brits treat their own wounds & self-prescribe drugs to avoid waits

[C C]

https://inews.co.uk/news/third-britons-t...TO=newsnow

INTRO: A quarter of Britons who need hospital treatment are not bothering to go to A&E (Accident and Emergency) out of fear of waiting times, according to a poll by the Liberal Democrats.

The survey of more than 2,200 people across the UK reveals the lengths to which people went if they needed to use emergency help in the past two years, but decided not to.

Almost 1 in 5 (18 per cent) people who said they needed to use A&E but were worried about waiting times said that they ignored the advice of their GP or the NHS 111 service to go to their local hospital.

Of those who needed A&E but did not go, one in ten (11 per cent) made homemade slings for their limbs, and almost one in three said that they either treated wounds themselves (31 per cent) or prescribed themselves medication (32 per cent).

Overall, a quarter of all UK adults (25 per cent) have needed to go to A&E in the past two years but did not do so due to long waiting times. Of those, more than half (56 per cent) said they suffered in pain as a result.

The 2010 Handbook to the NHS Constitution outlined a four-hour A&E waiting time target, stating that at least 95 per cent of patients attending emergency department should be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours. But after years of failing to meet the pledge, an intermediary threshold target of 76 per cent to be hit by March 2024 was introduced in December 2022 with further improvement expected in 2024/25. The 2024/25 priorities and operational planning guidance set out a new objective of 78 per cent of patients to be seen within four hours in March 2025.

Latest NHS England figures for July show that 75.2 per cent of patients were admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours in all A&E departments in compared to 74.6 per cent in June and 74.0 per cent in July 2023.

Ambulance response times have improved in recent months but continue to miss targets... (MORE - details)

[stryder]

In about 2018 on a Friday night/Saturday I broke my hand and walked (in total) a six mile journey to the A&E. I sat in the waiting room for 7 hours, attempting to keep my hand elevated (which was impossible as I had to keep dropping it back down to deal with the pain/bloodflow) At which time it was said there was no one available to set the hand, they gave me a Fracture splint to put on my hand and sent me home with the instructions to return on the Monday.

I spent the weekend crushing my hand in the fracture splint (which had the equivalent of coathanger wire prodding into me), so come Monday, my hand was about 2.4x it's size. I went to the fracture clinic (had it xrayed etc) and then had it bound and plastered, however when the swelling went down the cast shifted. Since I kept my hand bolt upright for much of the time, I found the casts weight pushed down on my hand.

When it came time to have the cast removed, I found my hand was now slightly deformed, not so much because of break, but due to how the casts pressure down and caused my hand to be reshaped slightly wrongly.

The only reason I bothered with the hospital was the concern that if I pushed the bone round and attempt to set it myself, I might cause more permanent damage. Considering the outcome I probably should of just treated it at home. (Cuts and scrapes are easier to deal with)